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Biomedical subjects

J Kapur

Publications and source records attributed to J Kapur.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Amino acid biosynthesis in Haemonchus contortus from C14-labelled precursors, in vitro.

Adult Haemonchus contortus (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae) was investigated for its ability to utilize various C14-labelled precursors, i.e., glucose, acetate, CO2 and palmitic acid, for amino acid biosynthesis. H. contortus has been demonstrated to be capable of synthesizing essential as well as non-essential amino acids. Label from all the precursors was detected in aspartic acid, lysine, histidine, cystine, cysteine, glutamic acid, proline, arginine, tyrosine, alanine, glycine, serine, valine, methionine, leucine and isoleucine. Glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine, glycine and serine were synthesized to a greater extent relative to the other amino acids, regardless of the precursor employed. However, in case of glucose, there was comparatively less incorporation into glycine and serine. Incorporation of C14 into various amino acids is evidence for the operation of tricarboxylic acid cycle. Further, the fact that carbon from palmitic acid appears in amino acids, indicates that adult H. contortus is capable of catabolizing long-chain fatty acids. Possible mechanisms for the involvement of various precursors in amino acids biosynthesis are examined here.

Acetates↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for a chronic loss of inhibition in the hippocampus after kindling: electrophysiological studies.

Rats were kindled with either of 2 protocols: (1) a rapidly recurring hippocampal seizure (RRHS) paradigm in which 10 sec stimulus trains were delivered every 5 min through hippocampal electrodes; and (2) a traditional approach in which 1 sec stimulus trains were given to the amygdala once daily. Three groups of kindled rats were prepared: (1) one of amygdala-kindled rats that had experienced 9-15 seizures; (2) one of RRHS-kindled rats that had experienced 96 seizures; and (3) one of RRHS-overkindled rats that had experienced 144-336 seizures. After a 1 month seizure-free period, the animals were anesthetized with urethane and measurements were made on the potency of paired pulse inhibition in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. All groups of kindled animals were found to have significantly less paired pulse inhibition than control rats. This decrement was confined to interpulse intervals less than or equal to 70 msec. The amount of inhibition lost correlated with the number of seizure that had occurred. The GABAergic agonist muscimol restored paired pulse inhibition in kindled animals for interpulse intervals less than or equal to 70 msec towards normal values. These results indicate that not only RRHS, but also other modes of kindling, reduced GABAergic inhibition in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and that this diminution was long-lasting, if not permanent.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for a chronic loss of inhibition in the hippocampus after kindling: biochemical studies.

Brain tissue from kindled animals prepared 1 month after their last seizure was compared to tissue from matched surgical control animals. Quantitative film autoradiography was used to study muscimol binding in the CA1 region and 3 other brain areas (dentate gyrus, cerebral cortex, and thalamus). The Kd values so obtained were constant from region to region and comparable to those published by others. Bmax values varied; of the 4 regions studied CA1 had the lowest value of Bmax. There were no differences in either Kd or Bmax values in any region studied between kindled and surgical control rats. The release of GABA from nerve terminals was assessed with hippocampal tissue maintained in vitro and perfused with different solutions in which the concentrations of K+ and Ca2+ were varied. This allowed the examination of K+-induced depolarization release and the Ca2+ dependence of this process. K+-induced, Ca2+-dependent release of GABA from hippocampus derived from kindled animals was significantly less than that from hippocampus derived from controls. The biochemical studies reported here provide additional support for the hypothesis that there is a chronic decrease in GABA-mediated inhibition in the hippocampus associated with kindling. The data point to a dysfunction at the presynaptic level, within the GABAergic interneuron, but do not exclude changes at a level postsynaptic to the GABAergic interneuron not detected with the methods employed.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of enzyme immunoassays using purified protein derivative (PPD) and its pooled fractions 3 and 4 for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.

A critical evaluation of two enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis is reported. Purified protein derivative (PPD) or its pooled fractions 3 and 4 were used as antigens for detection of antibodies in sera from 53 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and 10 normal healthy individuals. The cut-off point for each EIA was based on the absorbance (mean + 3 SD) of normal sera with the respective antigens. All the normal sera were negative in both the assays. The positivity of tuberculosis patients in either assay was 86.8 per cent. Thus, for serodiagnosis of tuberculosis fractions 3 and 4 of PPD could serve as a good substitute for whole PPD. Sera from 45 leprosy patients were also analysed to assess the specificity of the EIAs. The mean reactivity of tuberculoid leprosy sera was comparable to that of normal sera. The ratio of the mean absorbance of lepromatous leprosy (LL) sera and normal sera was 16.73 with PPD, in comparison to 21.95 for pooled fractions 3 and 4. Out of 10 LL patients 9 (90%) were positive with fractions 3 and 4, in comparison to 10 (100%) with PPD. 71.1 per cent of leprosy patients belonging to different categories were positive in assay based on PPD in comparison to 64.4% in EIA using fractions 3 and 4. The high false positivity of leprosy sera in an assay designed for detection of pulmonary tuberculosis has immense implications in interpretation of results of the assay for diagnostic and epidemiological purposes.

Clinical Enzyme Tests↗