The long-term cardiovascular effects of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) were studied in conscious Lewis rats with a radioactive microsphere technique. Three months after OLT with an all-suture technique for graft revascularization (s-OLT), all hemodynamic parameters were similar to control. OLT with "cuffs" fitted to the portal vein and infrahepatic inferior vena cava (c-OLT) led to prominent hemodynamic disturbances including 1) hyperkinetic circulation with increased cardiac index (CI; 22%; P < 0.05) and decreased mean arterial pressure (15%; P < 0.05) and total peripheral resistance (TPR; 28%; P < 0.05); 2) a slight increase in portal pressure (11.8 +/- 0.9 vs. 9.3 +/- 1.7 mmHg in control) and marked portal-systemic shunting (51 +/- 11 vs. 0.05 +/- 0.04% in control; P < 0.05); 3) increased hepatic arterial blood flow (0.49 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.27 +/- 0.04 ml.min-1.g liver wt-1; P < 0.05); 4) splanchnic vasodilation with vascular resistance significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the liver, stomach, and large intestine; and 5) increased blood flow and decreased vascular resistance in the kidneys and heart. Ganglionic blockade with chlorisondamine (5 mg/kg body wt iv) indicated that the increase in CI seen in the c-OLT rats was probably sympathetically mediated, whereas the increase in renal blood flow was a reflection of the increase in CI. After ganglionic blocker administration, TPR and regional vascular resistances decreased to approximately the same extent in the control and c-OLT groups, indicating that vascular sympathetic tone was unchanged in the c-OLT rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

We studied the effect of single intraperitoneal treatment with antibodies to glutamate on pentylenetetrazole-induced acute generalized epileptiform activity in C57Bl/6 mice. The antiepileptic effect was observed 1.5 and 24 h after administration of antibodies to glutamate in doses of 10, 25, and 50 mg/kg. This treatment increased the thresholds of clonic seizures and tonic phase of seizures with lethal outcome.

Experiments on Wistar rats showed that muscimol-stimulated Cl(-) conduction of synaptoneurosomes, isolated from the cerebral cortex increased after 5-day systemic treatment with subconvulsive doses of pentylene tetrasole during the initial stage of pharmacological pentylene tetrasole kindling, characterized by gradually augmenting convulsive readiness of the brain. This indicates an increase in functional activity of the GABA(A) receptor/Cl(-) ionophore complex.

We studied anticonvulsant effects of combined treatment with citicoline, a nootropic substance with neuroregenerative and neuroprotective activities, and valproate, an antiepileptic agent widely used in the treatment of epilepsy, on the model of pentylenetetrazole-induced (75 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) acute generalized convulsions in male Wistar rats. Combined treatment with citicoline and valproate in minimum effective doses (70 and 300 mg/kg, respectively) potentiated the anticonvulsant properties of both agents.