Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Kranz.
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The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of bile duct reconstruction by a splint technique, a method which has not been sufficiently researched in animals after liver transplantation. Three experimental groups were set up: I = control, sham operation; II = bile duct reconstruction; III = orthotopic rat liver transplantation (ORLT). After bile duct reconstruction, serum levels of ASAT and ALAT in group II revealed a peak on the first postoperative day. The transplanted animals (group III) showed a second peak in liver enzyme levels on the fifth postoperative day; it was significantly higher than in group II. Serum bilirubin was more elevated in the transplant group, with a peak on day 7. Morphological investigations at the end of surgery revealed only intralobular necrosis and reactive changes in the liver capsule (group II); after transplantation (group III), there was also interstitial and intracellular edema, fatty degeneration and disintegration of the sinusoidal lining. One month later, necrosis, bile duct proliferation, cholestasis, cholangitis and vascular alterations were found in groups II and III. Furthermore, an increased rate of hepatocellular and bile duct proliferation was observed. These findings are partly due to the bile duct reconstruction. We recommend that a bile duct reconstruction control group should be included in ORLT experiments.
A partial orthotopic liver transplantation technique (70% POLT) for use in rats and comparable with the corresponding recipient operation in the 'splitting transplantation' in man was developed. Body weight, liver function, histological and electron-microscopic findings were studied in comparison with whole rat liver transplantation with rearterialization, 30% POLT and corresponding liver resections. After 70 and 30% POLT typical signs of hepatic regeneration were found, but no pathological alterations in the electron-microscopic picture. This POLT model might be helpful for the investigation of unresolved questions in 'splitting transplantation'.
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Relationships between cold tolerance, serum levels of thyroxine (T4), thyronine (T3), and thyrotropine (TSH), and thyroid morphometry have been investigated in male CBA/Ca inbred mice at various ages through their life span. From the data obtained it appeared that there was an age-related decrease in cold tolerance up to 18 months of age which was followed by an increase, the age effect being most apparent in relation to cold resistance and cold tolerance during the recovery period following cold exposure. The age-related changes in cold tolerance appeared to be associated with changes in the serum concentrations of T3, T4, and TSH. In contrast to the T3 serum levels which showed a decrease at 36 months, the thyroxine contents showed a perceptible decrease from the age of 12-18 months onwards. A similar pattern was observed for the TSH levels, with a peak at 21 months, followed by a decline at 30 months. A relationship with age between serum T4 level and thyroid weight was indicated together with structural changes in the thyroid gland, particularly during senescence, for example the size and number of thyroid epithelial cells had become enlarged by 30 months of age.
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Male Wistar-H-rats were exposed monthly to a 60cobalt-source low dose whole body irradiation (0.25 Gy, total dose: 4.5 Gy). The glutathione disulphide:total glutathione ratio, the concentration of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and the activities of glutathione peroxidase and glutathione transferase in eight different organs and blood were analysed. The low dose irradiation is accompanied by distinct peroxidative changes in organs. These oxidative loadings occur in the small intestine, the spleen and the kidneys. The measurements of glutathione status and of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances are proposed as sensitive parameters for low dose radiation induced changes.
In 37 women with long-term use of oral contraceptives (average use 13.4 years) and 12 women who had not taken oral contraceptives for at least 5 years we determined the serum enzymes ALAT, ASAT, Gamma-GT and conducted the 15N-ammonium test as a marker of partial metabolic performance of the liver. In addition we studied total protein, protein fractions in the serum and haematologic parameter. 18 out of 37 women showed a morbid result in the 15N-ammonium test. In 4 of these 18 women morphological changes representing hepatic damage caused by contraceptives could be detected. On the average ALAT, Gamma-GT and 15N-ammonium test in both groups are clearly different. Because the enzymic levels are being in the normal range, only the 15N ammonium test enables to give a hepatotoxic evidence. It is possible to conclude that long-term use of oral contraceptives influences the liver metabolism.
An account is given in this paper of results obtained from determination of oestrogen receptors in cases of mammary tumours, using the FITC conjugate of Lee's cytochemical procedure. Minimum hardware input is required for the approach which is applicable also to smaller tumours and to cases of poor specificity. Carcinomas were positively recorded from 92 in 173 women, with 82.5 per cent of them exhibiting positive responses to oestrogen.
Reported in this paper are studies conducted into oestrogen receptor levels of 103 patients with mammary carcinoma, with the dextran-carbon method being used. The findings thus recorded are discussed for their clinical relevance. Recorded were correlations between quantitative oestrogen receptor levels, on the one hand, and menopausal status, grading, histological typing, and tumour size, on the other.
At the problem of the auxiliary liver transplantation has been worked for about 30 years. Extensive series of tests with animals with a novel transplantation model justify these promises well of a successful clinical use. Laboratory chemical, histologic, angiographic and nuclearmedical examinations prove the fitness of this method. Basic supposition for a success is the preservation of physiological conditions at the donor liver with sufficient perfusion of the recipient liver.
In the GDR 28 liver transplantations have been performed up to now. The 1 year survival rate amounts to 30%. At present 8 patients are alive between 3 months and 5 years. There were no biliary complications since the biliary reconstruction was performed by using a special 'mucosa suture'-technique. Ischaemic graft failure was a main cause for early postoperative mortality. A better immunosuppressive treatment may help to improve the results of liver transplantation in future.
Partial hepatectomy (30 percent of the liver weight) was performed in 225 female Wistar rats, ages 6 weeks, 6 and 9 months. The animals were sacrificed in intervals between 4 hours and 21 d after the operation. The automated microscopic image analysis after Simon et al. (1984) and histoautoradiography were utilized for evaluation of liver cell regeneration. Despite measurement of more than 1,000 cells per animal we were not able to confirm enlargement of hepatocytes as the first reaction to partial hepatectomy The number of liver cells per unit area increased whereas sinusoidal size remained rather constant, corresponding to a decrease in average cell size and in the standard deviation of cell area. The importance of binucleated hepatocytes in the process is emphasized. Measurement of the nucleoli and of the mean extinction values of liver cell nuclei as a measure of the DNA content did not provide any essentially new perspectives. The investigation did however emphasize the importance of the extent of the hepatic resection and the age of the experimental animals on the intensity and subsequent course of liver cell regeneration. Proliferation of the sinusoidal cells themselves after partial hepatectomy could not definitively be demonstrated to be age-dependent.
A total of forty-four biopsies from nine liver transplantation patients, who had developed complications postoperatively, were studied histologically and, in part, electron-microscopically. Morphologic signs of acute rejection were seen in three patients, while there were indications of chronic rejection in one patient. In combined lesions, such as drug-induced hepatosis, cholangitis, hepatitis, and rejections, the interpretation of biopsy findings may be difficult, and special entities cannot in every case be separated unequivocally. Changes of serum bilirubin and of serum enzyme activity do not run entirely parallel to the microscopically detectable structural lesions. For diagnosis of complications after liver transplantation both the morphologic and the clinical findings must be considered.
A bovine brain fraction with FGF activity (fibroblast growth factor) increased the formation of granulation tissue of rats in an experimental wound healing model. It was characterised by intensified formation of new capillaries, stimulation of the synthesis function of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, and proliferation of freshly developed granulation tissue. The results obtained from light microscopy and autoradiographic electron microscopy with 3H-thymidine suggested significant increase in the labelling of activated, undifferentiated endothelial cells in vascular sprouts and of differentiated endothelial cells in developed capillaries. FGF S3 appeared to speed up the differentiation of freshly formed endothelial cells. Also labelled were pericytes and other fibroblastoid cells, undifferentiated mesenchymal cells, juvenile undifferentiated fibroblasts, mature fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, and macrophages. Pericytes are presumed to be preferential precursors of myofibroblasts, on account of their occurrence in time and similar ultrastructural parameters. Close neighbourhood of lymphocytes and labelled fibroblasts gave rise to the assumption of specific effects, such as stimulation by lymphokines.
Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) inhibited SV40 DNA synthesis in doubly infected synchronized Vero cells. Gel-electrophoretic profiles demonstrated that SV40 DNA monomers accumulated in all stages of supercoiling, regardless of whether cells were superinfected with VSV early or late in the S phase. These gel profiles were indistinguishable from ones obtained from SV40-infected, cycloheximide-treated cells in the absence of VSV infection. Radiolabel in the partial supercoils could be chased into supercoils, but only by restoring protein synthesis. The relative rates of SV40 DNA chain elongation were determined in VSV-superinfected and nonsuperinfected cells. The gradients of 3H incorporation as a function of distance from the origin of replication in pulse-labeled form I DNA were unaffected by VSV. It is concluded that VSV inhibition of SV40 DNA synthesis is an indirect result of inhibition of host cell protein synthesis and it is suggested that incompletely supercoiled SV40 chromatin is not a good template for DNA synthesis.
Histo-morphometrical and karyometric examinations were carried out on biopsy and surgical samples from patients with cancer of the rectum. The aim of the examination was, to work out the structural morphometric characteristics of the differentiated cancer of the rectum high- and middle level and to list the quantitative morphological changes of the cancer caused irradiation with different total doses. The results of the histo-morphometric and karyometric examinations demonstrate, that both of the examined differential grades of the cancer differ less in their nucleus morphology but more in their composition of the parenchyma and stroma. Of the three total doses of irradiation the two doses using 2,500 and 4,000 rad proved to be effective as regards the structural changes of the tumor.
The influence of physical training (180 hours, 3 hours per day) on the 3H-thymidine incorporation into the connective tissue cell nuclei and into the myocardial cell nuclei of the non-ischemic heart after myocardial infarction was studied in 38 untrained and trained male Wistar rats. In the connective tissue cells physical training caused a clearly reduced proliferative activity which could be demonstrated until the seventh day after infarction. Besides, in trained animals there was a decreased DNA turnover of the heart muscle cells during the first few days following myocardial infarction. Probably, the observed changes are an expression of the different adaptability of the untrained and trained non-ischemic myocardium.