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C D Fitch

Publications and source records attributed to C D Fitch.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Status of vitamin E as an erythropoietic factor.

There is now convincing evidence that vitamin E is a specific erythropoietic factor for nonhuman primates and swine. There is no evidence, however, that vitamin E is normally required as an erythropoietic factor for humans and many species of animals. We propose that the lack of a requirement for vitamin E in erythropoiesis in humans is due to a metabolic adaptation that circumvents the need for the role that the vitamin otherwise would serve. There is reason to believe that this metabolic adaptation is deranged in patients with protein-calorie malnutrition. These patients respond with reticulocytosis and a limited increase in hemoglobin concentration when vitamin E is given before their metabolic derangement is reversed by correcting their other nutritional deficiencies. Given this information, we may predict that other acquired or congenital abnormalities of metabolism could impair the adaptation that circumvents the role of vitamin E in erythropoiesis. Therefore, vitamin E should be viewed as a potential erythropoietic factor for humans, and it should receive further carefully controlled therapeutic trials in patients with anemia of obscure etiology, particularly in those with erythroid hyperplasia and unexplained ineffective erythropoiesis.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1980

Hemolysis of mouse erythrocytes by ferriprotoporphyrin IX and chloroquine. Chemotherapeutic implications.

Incubation of a 0.5% suspension of washed normal mouse erythrocytes with ferriprotoporphyrin IX (FP) for 2.5 h at 37 degrees C and pH 7.4 results in sufficient membrane damage to produce hemolysis. A sigmoidal dose-response curve is followed with 50% hemolysis being produced by 4 microM FP. Complete hemolysis is produced by 6 microM FP. The hemolytic process has at least two phases: a lag phase of approximately 45 min, during which little hemolysis occurs, and a phase characterized by rapid hemolysis. Chloroquine, which binds tightly to FP, enhances the effect of FP by eliminating the lag phase. Under the conditions of these experiments, maximum enhancement is observed with chloroquine concentrations in the range of 5-25 microM. Since FP is produced when malaria parasites digest hemoglobin, it may mediate a chemotherapeutic effect of chloroquine by forming a complex with the drug that could enhance the toxicity of FP for biological membranes, including those of the parasite.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Phosphocreatine does not inhibit rabbit muscle phosphofructokinase or pyruvate kinase.

Certain phosphocreatine preparations contain a contaminant that inhibits phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase assays. The contaminant can be separated from phosphocreatine by anion exchange chromatography. After appropriate purification, phosphocreatine has no effect on phosphofructokinase or pyruvate kinase; thus, there is no evidence that it serves muscle as a regulator of these enzymes. Although the inhibitory preparations of phosphocreatine contain inorganic phosphate and trace amounts of more negatively charged phosphorylated contaminants, the inhibitor is not inorganic phosphate or pyrophosphate. The nature of the inhibitor remains to be determined.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Chloroquine resistance in malaria: accessibility of drug receptors to mefloquine.

The process of mefloquine accumulation was studied in mouse erythrocytes infected with either Plasmodium berghei CS (chloroquine susceptible) or P. berghei CR (chloroquine resistant). In both cases, mefloquine was accumulated by a saturable process with an apparent dissociation constant of 2.5 x 10(-6) M and an apparent maximal capacity of 700 mumol per kg of erythrocyte pellet; uninfected mouse erythrocytes accumulated more than half as much mefloquine as infected erythrocytes. The process of accumulation was not stimulated by providing glucose as a substrate, and it was not inhibited in infected erythrocytes by azide, iodoacetate, or incubation at 2 degrees C. Although mefloquine was accumulated more effectively than chloroquine by uninfected erythrocytes and by erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CR, competition between chloroquine and mefloquine was observed, raising the possibility that the same process of accumulation serves both drugs. Chloroquine competitively inhibits mefloquine accumulation, with an apparent inhibitor constant of 1.7 x 10(-3) M, and mefloquine competitively inhibits chloroquine accumulation, with an apparent inhibitor constant of 2 x 10(-6) M. The same process of accumulation and the same group of receptors could serve both drugs if mefloquine has greater access than chloroquine to the receptors. Regardless of whether the same process serves both drugs, undiminished accumulation by erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CR provides an explanation for the superiority of mefloquine in treating chloroquine-resistant malaria.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Erythrocyte surface: novel determinant of drug susceptibility in rodent malaria.

To study the role of the erythrocyte membrane in the process of chloroquine accumulation, surface polypeptides were digested with a nonspecific protease from Streptomyces griseus. This treatment activated a saturable process of chloroquine accumulation with an affinity and a specificity similar to those of mouse erythrocytes infected with Plasmodium berghei CS (chloroquine susceptible). Studies of competitive inhibitors of chloroquine accumulation yielded the following approximate values for K(i): amodiaquine, 2 x 10(-7) M; quinacrine, 5 x 10(-7) M; quinine, 2 x 10(-6) M; and mefloquine, 2 x 10(-5) M. Lack of a substrate requirement distinguished this process from the one used by P. berghei and permitted the protease to be used in studies of infected erythrocytes. Protease treatment of erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CR (chloroquine resistant) produced a dramatic transformation. Instead of describing a sigmoid curve, the process of chloroquine accumulation became saturable and substrate dependent, with a K(diss) of approximately 10(-8) M; i.e., protease-treated erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CR now behaved similarly to those infected with P. berghei CS. Coating the erythrocyte surface with albumin completely inhibited the protease-activated process of chloroquine accumulation. These findings are presented as evidence that erythrocyte surface components determine the affinity with which chloroquine is accumulated and thereby determine whether or not the malaria parasite will be susceptible to the drug.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Abnormalities of iron metabolism and erythropoiesis in vitamin E-deficient rabbits.

Rabbits fed a vitamin E-deficient diet developed severe muscular dystrophy in 3-4 wk, but they did not become anemic. Nevertheless, reticulocyte counts increased in deficient rabbits (3.2%) compared to control rabbits (0.9%), and erythroid hyperplasia was evident in the bone marrow. Comparing deficient rabbits to controls, the plasma iron concentration was lower (134.4 versus 206.6 microgram/dl); the TIBC was higher (335.9 versus 228.3 microgram/dl); the whole blood protoporphyrin concentration was higher (131.6 versus 81.7 microgram/dl); and the total iron content was lower in spleen (71 versus 153 microgram), higher in skeletal muscle (4956 versus 3054 microgram), and unchanged in bone marrow, liver, and heart. Studies of iron absorption and excretion using 59Fe showed no abnormalities in deficient rabbits. There were abnormalities of ferrokinetics, however. The half-time of disappearance of 59Fe was shorter (100.6 versus 169.4 min), the plasma iron turnover was greater (1.25 versus 0.95 mg/dl blood/day), and the reappearance of 59Fe in circulating erythrocytes at day 9 was greater (77.2% versus 57.2%) in deficient rabbits. Anemia induced by phlebotomy accentuated the abnormal iron metabolism of deficient rabbits, and the animals were unable to correct the anemia. These findings show that vitamin E deficiency in rabbits causes abnormal erythropoiesis associated with abnormal iron metabolism and sequestration of iron in skeletal muscle.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Phosphorylated beta-guanidinopropionate as a substitute for phosphocreatine in rat muscle.

To evaluate phosphorylated beta-guanidinopropionate (beta-GPAP) as a substitute for phosphocreatine (PC), hypoxic tibialis anterior muscles were stimulated to contract isometrically in situ until twitch tension fell to 25 percent of the peak value. Muscles from rats fed beta-guanidinopropionic acid (beta-GPA) failed to exhibit the staircase phenomenon, and they developed 28 percent less tension than control muscles. In control muscles lactate increased from 0.75 to 20.99, ADP increased from 0.89 to 1.20, ATP decreased from 5.09 to 2.73, and PC decreased from 15.78 to 1.52 mumol/g. In muscles from rats fed beta-GPA, lactate increased from 0.85 to 14.31, ADP increased from 0.86 to 1.05, ATP decreased from 2.69 to 1.71, PC decreased from 0.73 to 0.30, and beta-GPAP decreased from 30.34 to 19.45 mumol/g. From these measurements, the use of high-energy phosphate was calculated to be reduced 32 percent in muscles from rats fed beta-GPA. The relationships between the use of high-energy phosphate was calculated to be reduced 32 percent in muscles from rats fed beta-GPA. The relationships between the use of high-energy phosphate and tension development confirm experimentally the ability of beta-GPAP to substitute for PC as a source of energy to sustain muscle contraction.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗
PubMed1975

Chloroquine resistance in malaria: variations of substrate-stimulated chloroquine accumulation.

The response of [14C]chloroquine accumulation to the provision of substrate was evaluated using washed erythrocytes infected with Plasmodium berghei CS (chloroquine-susceptible), with P. berghei CR (chloroquine-resistant), with Plasmodium vinckei CS, with P. vinckei CR, or with a strain of P. berghei spontaneously resistant to chloroquine, Plasmodium berghei yoelii 17X. Erythrocytes infected with chloroquine-resistant parasites had a blunted response, particularly to low glucose concentrations. In the presence of 0.5 mM glucose in one set of experiments, for example, chloroquine accumulation increased by a factor of 8 in erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CS whereas there was no increase in erythrocytes infected with P. berghei CR or with P. berghei yoelii 17X; the difference between P. vinckei CS and P. vinckei CR was less dramatic. In every case except for P. berghei CR, the process of chloroquine accumulation in the presence of 5 mM glucose exhibited a component which became saturated at low concentrations of chloroquine in the medium. For P. berghei CR, plotting steady-state accumulation of chloroquine as a function of the concentration of chloroquine in the medium yielded a sigmoid curve, revealing that higher concentrations of chloroquine (above 100 mM) somehow relieve the blunted response to glucose and suggesting that the variation is in the process of accumulation rather than in substrate utilization.

Animals↗