Biomedical subjects

J Julve

Publications and source records attributed to J Julve.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Hepatic regeneration induces changes in lipoprotein lipase activity in several tissues and its re-expression in the liver.

We examined the expression of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene and LPL activity following a two-thirds hepatectomy and during liver regeneration. In most of the tissues studied, LPL activity increased a few hours after partial hepatectomy, but soon returned to normal levels. The greatest increase was found in the adrenal glands, plasma and liver. This increase in LPL activity in the liver could be partially due to an increase in the influx of the enzyme from extrahepatic tissues. There is, however, also a re-expression of LPL mRNA in the liver after partial hepatectomy (during the first hours). It is well known that LPL is expressed in the liver of neonatal animals, but progressively decreases during post-natal development, to reach adult levels around the time of weaning. Our results show by the first time that the remaining liver re-expresses LPL gene during the regeneration process and that the hepatocytes de-differentiate and acquire some of the neonatal characteristics. The increase in LPL mRNA will contribute to the rise in LPL activity after hepatectomy. This presence of LPL could enable the liver to take up fatty acids from the circulating triacylglycerols, which are needed as energetic and plastic substrates during the process of hepatic regeneration.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed1996

Decrease in the expression of hepatic lipase activity following partial hepatectomy.

Variations in hepatic lipase (HL) activity were studied for the first time in liver, plasma and adrenal glands of partially hepatectomized (70%), sham-operated and intact rats. Activity profiles performed during 7 days in liver, plasma and adrenal glands of sham-operated rats were similar to those obtained in intact animals. However, HL activity in intact animals appeared to be slightly higher during the first 24 hours. Following surgery, hepatectomized animals showed a reduction of about 300 U in liver HL activity which persisted for 7 days. Plasma HL activity of hepatectomized rats was undetectable at 6 hours post-surgery but in increased afterwards. A high correlation between liver and adrenal gland HL activity was found in hepatectomized but not in sham-operated animals. HL mRNA levels in hepatectomized rats showed a 40% decrease during the first 24 hours after surgery, but they returned to the normal range later. On the other hand, HL mRNA values increased in sham-operated rats but no increase in HL activity was detected in these animals. To conclude, our results show that HL activity decreases dramatically during hepatic regeneration due to a concomitant decrement in the expression of the gene that encodes the enzyme and to other undetermined factors.

Adrenal Glands↗

PubMed1996

Hormonal regulation of lipoprotein lipase activity from 5-day-old rat hepatocytes.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity is known to be synthesized, active and functional in the 1-day-old rat liver: it peaks just at birth triggered by parturition. During suckling LPL mRNA, LPL synthesis and LPL activity are still high at 5 days and then fade reaching adult values at weaning. How LPL expression is gradually extinguished is not known. Therefore we studied the effect of different doses of several hormones on LPL activity released by incubated hepatocytes from 5-day-old rats. In the presence of heparin the release of LPL activity in the medium was linear until 3 h and was always significantly increased vs. without heparin. At 3 h in the presence of heparin the main hormonal effects were: dose-dependent increase (30-60%) with dexamethasone; dose-dependent increase (20-60%) with glucagon; dose-independent decrease (50-60%) with ethinylestradiol, testosterone, progesterone and prolactin; no effect with insulin; 20-40% increase with adrenaline < 1 mM but 40-50% decrease with noradrenaline < 10 microM. Increase of LPL release by glucagon and adrenaline agrees with the increased LPL expression we previously found in an undifferentiated hepatoma cell line when the adenylate cyclase/protein kinase A pathway was activated. The effect of glucagon is concordant with our previous observations that fasting increases liver LPL activity in neonatal rats. The high estradiol levels known to be present in male and female 9-19-day-old rats might contribute to liver LPL extinction during suckling.

Animals↗

PubMed1991

Surface area/volume ratio and growth equation of the human early embryo.

A study of the S/V ratio and growth equation of 49 oocytes and 120 human embryos was carried out. The S/V ratio of the internal and external limits of the zona remains unchanged during successive cleavages. The mean blastomere increases 22% its S/V ratio after each division. The mean blastomere growth equation for the 2-cell to 8-cell stages follows the expression y = 1.271 x1.021 (y = longest and x = smallest diameter), but the results obtained for the whole embryo do not coincide with those resulting from the application of the growth equation.

Blastomeres↗

PubMed1988

The effect of fosfosal and acetylsalicylic acid on leukocyte migration and PGE2 concentration in experimentally induced acute inflammation.

The effect of fosfosal, a non-acetylated salicylic acid derivative, on the content of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and the migration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in inflammatory exudates induced by s.c. implantation of 0.5% carrageenan soaked sponges in rats has been determined. Fosfosal, which does not inhibit PG synthesis in vitro, is capable of reducing, in a dose-dependent manner, the PGE2 content of the exudates, with a maximum reduction of 50-60% at a total dose of 100 mg/kg i.p. Acetylsalicylic acid was slightly more potent (68% reduction, 2 x 50 mg/kg i.p.). Six hours after fosfosal administration, salicylic acid, the principal metabolite of fosfosal, accumulated in the exudates at concentrations of about 100 micrograms/ml. These concentrations were sufficient to inhibit PG synthetase activity in vitro. Neither fosfosal nor acetylsalicyclic acid affected polymorphonuclear leukocyte migration at doses which significantly reduced the concentrations of PGE2. Indomethacin, used as reference, reduced leukocyte migration by 28 and 45% at a dose of 1 and 10 mg/kg i.p. respectively. The results indicate that fosfosal, in spite of its lack of effect on PG biosynthesis in vitro, exerts an effect on the inflammatory locus in vivo which may account, at least in part, for its anti-inflammatory activity. Moreover, our results confirm that the inhibition of PG synthesis and leukocyte migration are mediated by different mechanisms.

Animals↗