Biochemistry and Physiology of Magnesium

Effect of a Natural and Artificial Menopause on Serum, Urinary and Erythrocyte Magnesium

“…calcium : Nordin el al., 1967;Wilkinson, 1976). It has been suggested that bone is the major reservoir of magnesium (Alfrey, Miller 8c Butkins, 1974;Aikawa, 1978). We would postulate therefore that the higher serum and urinary magnesium concentrations in the postmenopausal women are related to the increased bone remodelling which occurs at this time (Heaney, Recker & Saville, 1978), with subsequent increased loss of bone mass (Horsman, Simpson, Kirby & Nordin, 1977;Lindsay, Hart, 'Manolagas, Anderson, Coutts & MacLean, 1979).…”

“…Dietary magnesium is rapidly absorbed. Magnesium absorption is completed within 12 h (Aikawa, 1978), and it is likely that the major contribution to urinary magnesium in the fasting state is endogenous (cf. calcium : Nordin el al., 1967;Wilkinson, 1976).…”

“…In contrast remarkably little information is available on the control of serum magnesium at the menopause (Aikawa, 1978;Mordes & Wacker, 1978). It has been reported that oral contraceptives reduce serum magnesium (Goldsmith, Baumberger & Ury, 1970;Olatunbosun, Adeniyi & Adadevoh, 1974), but no reports on urinary magnesium are available.…”

Treatment of Magnesium Deficiency After Intestinal Bypass for Obesity

“…If magnesium is given parenterally to healthy volunteers, an amount sim ilar to the parenteral load will be excreted whereas magnesium-depleted patients will retain magnesium [1,5]. Based on serum determinations and clinical criteria, Thoren [5] found that a retention higher than 20-25% indicated magnesium depletion.…”

Electron microscopy of unstained, fresh air-dried spreads of the mouse brain and application to energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

“…Magnesium performs important functions in the regulation of a number of enzymes in the nucleus as well as in the cytoplasm (DIXON and WEBB, 1964) and is also concerned with the physical integrity of DNA, RNA and ribosomes (AIKAWA, 1976). Detection of higher X-ray counts for magnesium on the neuron nuclear regions presumably indicates a higher amount of magnesium in the nucleus, although a quantitative approach is necessary to clarify this point.…”