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Biomedical subjects

C Ferrari

Publications and source records attributed to C Ferrari.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Serum free thyroid hormones in T3-toxicosis: a study of 35 patients.

Few data are available on serum free thyroid hormone concentration in patients with T3-toxicosis. In this study total and free T4 and T3 and TBG were evaluated in 35 subjects with T3-toxicosis, including 12 with untreated Graves' disease, 5 Graves' patients on methimazole treatment, 13 with autonomous adenoma, 3 with multinodular goiter, and 2 with subacute thyroiditis. T4, T3, free T4 (FT4), free T3 (FT3) as well as calculated T4/TBG and T3/TBG ratios were significantly higher in patients than in 37 healthy controls. Serum FT4 levels above the normal range were found in 19 subjects with T3-toxicosis (9 with untreated and one with methimazole-treated Graves' disease, 6 with autonomous adenoma, 1 with multinodular goiter and 2 with subacute thyroiditis). These data, together with the few previous reports, indicate that high FT4 levels are present in about half of the patients with so called T3-toxicosis, and that this occurs more frequently in diffuse than nodular goiter. It is suggested that the term T3-toxicosis be used only for those subjects with normal total and free T4.

Graves Disease↗
PubMed1983

Non-Michaelian kinetics of rabbit muscle uridine diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase.

The kinetic properties of rabbit muscle uridine diphosphoglucose (UDP-Glc) pyrophosphorylase have been studied, in both directions, with respect to substrate saturation, product inhibition, and cation requirement for activity. The results demonstrate that UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase is a non-Michaelian enzyme: the synthetic reaction is characterized by a marked inhibition by glucose-1-phosphate (at concentrations higher than 0.3 mM) and by an hyperbolic saturation for UTP. In the reverse reaction, instead, the saturation function for UDP-Glc is hyperbolic and that for inorganic pyrophosphate is sigmoid, with a high Hill coefficient of (nH) 2.5. The study of the metal requirement indicates a distinctive ability of cations to stimulate the reactions of synthesis and degradation of the sugar nucleotide and a different stoichiometry of the metal chelates involved. The reaction mechanism is of the ordered-sequential type and the data of product inhibition allowed the identification of glucose-1-phosphate as the first substrate bound and UDP-Glc as the last product released. The inhibition pattern by UDP-Glc gives evidence for cooperativity also in the binding of this molecule.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Effects of ibopamine on serum prolactin and growth hormone levels in hyperprolactinemic and acromegalic subjects.

The effects of oral doses (100, 200, and 400 mg) of a dopamine derivative, ibopamine, on serum prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) levels were evaluated in hyperprolactinemic patients, some of whom also were acromegalic. There was dose-related lowering of PRL levels. The highest dose was as effective as 500 mg L-dopa, although the duration of action was shorter, with a decrease to below 50% of basal PRL values in all patients. Serum GH did not rise in nonacromegalic subjects, but it fell after 400 mg ibopamine in the L-dopa-sensitive acromegalic patients. These data suggest, but do not prove, that ibopamine is able to directly stimulate pituitary dopamine receptors.

Acromegaly↗
PubMed1983

Dopaminergic control of gastric acid and gastrin secretion in man: lack of effects after acute oral administration of ibopamine, an analogue of dopamine.

The effect of oral administration of the dopaminergic drug, ibopamine, at the dose of 200 mg and 400 mg, on basal and submaximal pentagastrin (0.25 microgram kg-1 h-1) stimulated gastric acid secretion as well as basal serum gastrin concentration has been evaluated in 24 healthy individuals. In comparison with placebo no significant changes were observed in all the variables studied. The lack of effects on gastric acid secretion might be due to a selective stimulation of dopaminergic receptors not active in the regulation of gastric acidity or not present in gastric mucosa, while unchanged serum gastrin secretion is possibly due to a poor crossing of blood-brain barrier by ibopamine.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Macrophage-T lymphocyte relationships in man's contact allergic reactions.

Seventeen biopsies from contact allergic reaction sites in sensitized patients were studied by electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry. Very intimate appositions of macrophages to T lymphocytes were frequently observed in the dermis at 6, 8 and 12 hours after application of the allergen. Such juxtapositions were seen less frequently after 24, 48 and 72 hours. These appositions seem to indicate that macrophages play an antigen-presenting role in human contact allergic reactions, as Langerhans cells seem to do.

Allergens↗
PubMed1983

Effect of fenfluramine on prolactin secretion in obese patients: evidence for serotoninergic regulation of prolactin in man.

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of serotoninergic stimulation on prolactin (PRL) secretion in man. Fenfluramine (60 mg, orally), an anorexiant drug which under acute circumstances stimulates the serotoninergic system, was administered to eight obese patients. Compared with placebo, drug administration increased PRL significantly (P less than 0.05 at 180 and 300 min, P less than 0.01 at 240 min). No significant changes were observed after fenfluramine in blood pressure, plasma aldosterone (PA), plasma cortisol, plasma renin activity, serum electrolytes or growth hormone. Since it has been reported that dopaminergic blockade raises PA concentration, the lack of change in PA in obese patients treated with fenfluramine suggests that the observed increase in PRL induced by fenfluramine is likely to be mediated by serotoninergic stimulation.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Thyroid function tests in chronic liver disease: evidence for multiple abnormalities despite clinical euthyroidism.

To further evaluate thyroid function in patients with liver disease, we have measured total and free T3 and T4, thyroxine binding globulin, basal and thyrotropin releasing hormone-stimulated thyrotropin and thyroglobulin antibodies in 33 patients with liver cirrhosis, in 22 with chronic hepatitis and in 30 healthy controls. All the patients but one were clinically euthyroid. T3, FT3, T3/thyroxine binding globulin and T4/thyroxine binding globulin ratios and thyrotropin after thyrotropin releasing hormone were significantly reduced, while FT4, thyroxine binding globulin and thyrotropin were significantly increased in liver cirrhosis. In chronic hepatitis group, FT3 and T3/thyroxine binding globulin ratio were significantly lower and thyroxine binding globulin and FT4 were higher than in healthy controls. The between patients comparison revealed a significantly lower T3, FT3, T3/thyroxine binding globulin and T4/thyroxine binding globulin ratios and delta thyrotropin in cirrhotics. Thyroglobulin antibodies were present at high titre only in two patients one of whom having evidence of Hashimoto's thyroiditis with subclinical hypothyroidism. The correlation coefficient between T4/thyroxine binding globulin ratio and FT4 were lower in patients than in controls. Furthermore an abnormal thyrotropin response to thyrotropin releasing hormone was shown in 10 cirrhotics and in four patients with chronic hepatitis. Serum T3 significantly correlated with serum bilirubin, albumin, and prothrombin time in both groups of patients. The present data confirm the existence of several abnormalities of thyroid function tests in patients with chronic liver disease, although showing that euthyroidism is almost always maintained, probably as a result of low-normal FT3 and high-normal FT4. Furthermore, T3 serum levels appear to parallel the severity of liver dysfunction.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Prolactin response to the dopamine antagonists sulpiride and domperidone. Further evidence for pituitary dopamine deficiency in hyperprolactinemic disorders of different etiology.

The PRL response to the dopamine antagonists sulpiride (100 mg i.m.) or domperidone (2 or 8 mg i.v.) was evaluated in healthy controls and in 148 patients with different hyperprolactinemic disorders (50 with idiopathic hyperprolactinemia, 58 with microprolactinoma, 19 with macroprolactinoma, 2 with empty sella, 8 with acromegaly, 7 with organic lesions of the hypothalamus, and 4 with idiopathic hypopituitarism of presumed hypothalamic origin). Mean PRL response to both drugs was significantly lower in all groups of patients than in controls, and significantly higher in subjects with idiopathic hyperprolactinemia than in those with pituitary adenomas or hypothalamic disease. Absent or impaired PRL responses were found in 38% of idiopathic patients, in 91.5% of microprolactinomas and in all of the patients with either macroprolactinoma, acromegaly, or hypothalamic disorders. Since the PRL response to dopamine antagonists depends on the presence of an endogenous dopaminergic tone, it is suggested that these figures reflect the incidence of major dopamine deficiency at pituitary lactotrophs in different hyperprolactinemic states. These data suggest that the pathophysiology of hyperprolactinemia in many patients with idiopathic disease is different from that of microprolactinoma. However, the finding of a normal PRL response to sulpiride in some subjects with radiologically or surgically proven microprolactinoma indicates that this test has no diagnostic value in the individual case.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Periodate inactivates muscle glycogen phosphorylase by modifying the enzyme active site.

Incubation of skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylase with sodium periodate's results into irreversible loss of enzyme activity. The rate of inactivation is influenced by the ionic strength of the medium and by the presence of caffeine, but not by nucleotides. During the reaction, cysteine residues slowly reactive towards DTNB are modified and the coenzyme is released. These results suggest the presence of cysteine residues at the protein site involved in the binding of the phosphate group of pyridoxal phosphate.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Imbalance in phenotypic expression of T cell subpopulations during different evolutional stages of lichen planus lesions.

Immunoenzymatic (in light and in electron microscopy) and immunofluorescence techniques were performed, using monoclonal antibodies, on tissue sections of early lichen planus (LP) lesions versus late LP lesions from 20 patients. Control procedures were carried out in peripheral blood T cells from the same patients and from healthy donors. The OKT4-Leu3A/OKT8-Leu2A ratio in peripheral blood from LP patients and from donors was lower than in dermal infiltrate of early LP lesions, but higher than in dermal infiltrate of late LP lesions. It is conceivable that in early LP lesions OKT4-Leu3A-positive cells may be antigen-specifically 'educated' by immunostimulatory cells. In late LP lesions, OKT8-Leu2A-positive cells could be cytotoxic to keratinocytes; it is likely, however, that this latter population may moreover have immunoregulatory, resolutional functions.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1983

Cell subpopulations in the paracortical area of the normal human lymphnode defined by monoclonal antibodies.

The cell subpopulations of normal human lymphnode were studied by immunohistochemical and immunoelectronmicroscopy techniques carried out by using monoclonal antibodies. OKT3 positive cells were demonstrated overwhelming in comparison to both OKT4 positive cells and OKT8 positive cells; furthermore la positive cells, dendritic in shape, were observed. Our results, compared to literature data, confirm that paracortex of limphnode is a T-dependent area. Moreover a possible role of the la positive dendritic cells in the immunological education of T helper-inducer lymphocytes was hypotised. Finally, our immunoelectronmicroscopic findings prove that OKT4 positive cells and OKT8 positive cells show different ultrastructural patterns.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗