Acquired external auditory canal occlusion.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R E Morales.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
We tested the hypothesis that recognized gastroprotective agents exert direct protection against ethanol-induced injury in isolated rat gastric mucosal cells in vitro. If protection exists, we also wanted to identify subcellular targets in the reversible and/or irreversible stages of cell injury. Ethanol-induced cell injury was quantified by measuring plasma membrane leakage (trypan blue exclusion and lactate dehydrogenase release), mitochondrial integrity (succinic dehydrogenase), and nuclear damage (ethidium bromide-DNA fluorescence). Initial cell viability and responsiveness were estimated by the effects of carbachol, carbachol + atropine, or 16,16-dimethyl-PGE(2) on chief cell pepsinogen secretion. Enriched parietal cells were stimulated by histamine, carbachol, or histamine + IBMX. Preincubation of cells with PG, sucrose octasulfate, or the sulfhydryl compounds N-acetylcysteine, taurine, or cysteamine increased cell resistance </=21% against ethanol. Similar protection was found with low histamine concentrations, but a higher concentration aggravated ethanol toxicity. Other naturally occurring or synthetic gastroprotective agents offered partial protection or aggravated ethanol-induced cell injury. Only a few in vivo gastroprotective agents demonstrated in vitro direct cytoprotection, which involved mainly the reversible stage of cell injury (e.g., plasma membrane changes) and, less often, irreversible (e.g., mitochondrial and nuclear) damage. Our findings also indicate that a major part of the beneficial effect of gastroprotective agents is expressed at the tissue level.
Controversial data have been obtained with direct cellular protection by prostaglandins and sulfhydryls. In the present studies, we compared the merits and liabilities of currently available cell viability assays, some of which have not been previously employed in studies of the gastric mucosa. We also tested the hypothesis that length of incubation of isolated cells with protective agents might influence the degree of cellular damage. Gastric mucosal cells were isolated from nonfasted rats and digested with various concentrations of pronase and/or EGTA. Cell viability was assessed by trypan blue and fast green exclusion, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, chromium release, LDH release, mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity and nuclear fluorescence induced by ethidium bromide. The experiments revealed that both pronase and EGTA are needed to obtain mucosal cells with optimal yield and initial viability and that sequential additions of pronase (30 min) and EGTA (30 min), rather than their combination (60 min), increased viability without decreasing yield. Cell viability and yield were better when pronase was used in the first incubation. For LD50 determinations, a cell suspension was incubated with ethanol (0%-15%) for 5 min. For studying the effects of protective agents, the cells were pretreated with 16,16-dmPGE2 or cysteamine HCl at 37 degrees C for 30 min before a 5-min exposure to 7.5% or 15% ethanol. The LD50 value for ethanol injury was approximately 15% for all assays except LDH, where the LD50 value was 8.5%. Preincubating gastric mucosal cells for 30 min with 16,16-dmPGE2 or cysteamine resulted in no preservation of cell viability. However, when cells were preincubated with one of the protective agents for 60 min and then exposed to 8% or 10% ethanol for 5 min, partial protection was observed when assessed by succinate dehydrogenase activity and, in certain cases, by LDH release. We conclude that all seven cell viability assays yield a measurable LD50 value for ethanol-induced cell injury, but the results may vary by as much as 82%. Low concentrations of both pronase and EGTA are needed to obtain isolated mucosal cells with both high yield and initial viability. Biochemical measures of mitochondrial activity and nuclear damage provide reliable evidence of cell viability and should be used to complement membrane permeability assays. Long preincubation of cells (60 min) with protective agents resulted in only slight protection of mitochondrial function, in contrast to the rapid induction of gastroprotection seen with these compounds in vivo. We therefore surmise that processes that contribute to organ protection occur faster and more efficiently than those that control direct cell injury and protection.
OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that an early increase in vascular permeability is correlated with later gastric mucosal protection in the rat. METHODS: Histamine, its agonists (H1, H2, H3) and bradykinin, were either given subcutaneously or intragastrically before the intragastric administration of ethanol. The extravasation of intravenously injected 99mTc-glucoheptonate into the gastric wall and into the gastric contents was used as an indicator of increased permeability. Gastric haemorrhagic lesions where measured by computerized planimetry and ethanol absorption was determined by an ACA Clinical Analyzer. RESULTS: Histamine and bradykinin increased vascular permeability in the glandular stomach and provided significant gastroprotection, similar to H1-, H2- and H3-agonists, against ethanol-induced gastric haemorrhagic lesions. This gastroprotection was accompanied by low blood levels of ethanol, probably indicating decreased ethanol absorption and the creation of a histodilutional barrier in the stomach by histamine. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that an increase in vascular permeability dissipates the concentration, and may delay the absorption, of ethanol in gastric mucosa by creating a perivascular histodilutional barrier. Vascular injury, which is an early pathogenetic factor in the development of ethanol-induced gastric haemorrhagic erosions, may thus be prevented.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: The mechanisms of chemically induced injury are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to develop a rapid method for isolation of gastric mucosal cells (GMCs) and sensitive tests for investigating cell damage and protection. METHODS: GMCs were prepared from rat glandular stomach with pronase and ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) and kept in albumin-containing, albumin-free, or Hank's solutions. Initial cell viability and responsiveness were tested with trypan blue exclusion, and stimulation or inhibition of pepsinogen secretion were tested with carbachol, 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2, or carbachol plus atropine. Plasma membrane damage was assessed by trypan blue exclusion, lactate dehydrogenase or cell protein leakage, mitochondrial integrity by succinic dehydrogenase activity, and nuclear lesions by ethidium bromide DNA fluorescence. RESULTS: Incubation of GMC with ethanol resulted in 50% lethal dose for ethanol values of 12.3%, 7.4%, and 10.9% by trypan blue exclusion; 10.1%, 9.4%, and 9.1% by lactate dehydrogenase leakage; 12.8%, 10.0%, and 10.4% by succinic dehydrogenase; and 14.1%, 13.0%, and 11.5% by ethidium bromide DNA by binding using albumin-containing, albumin-free, and Hank's solutions, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Rat GMC with high and long viability can be isolated by low concentrations of pronase and EGTA. The adapted biochemical and microscopic methods are suitable for parallel examination of chemical injury of plasma membrane, mitochondria, and nuclei. Albumin increased ethanol 50% effective concentration to GMC. A combination of biochemical and morphological methods with ethanol-induced injury to GMC is proposed for direct cytoprotection investigations.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is an endothelial mitogen that stimulates angiogenesis and proliferation of other cells such as fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. After this peptide was stabilized to acid and pepsin by site-specific mutagenesis, it was tested whether bFGF might accelerate the healing of experimental duodenal ulcers. METHODS: This mutein peptide (bFGF-CS23) was administered orally in comparison with cimetidine to rats with chronic duodenal ulcers previously induced by cysteamine. RESULTS: Oral bFGF-CS23 therapy maintained for 21 days at 100 ng/100 g twice daily resulted in (1) significant acceleration of healing of duodenal ulcers, i.e., reduction of mean ulcer area by 83% in the bFGF-CS23-treated rats compared with only 61% for cimetidine therapy and 40% for untreated controls; (2) complete healing with no residual ulcer in 62% of the bFGF-CS23-treated rats compared with only 7% of untreated rats; and (3) a ninefold increase in angiogenesis in the ulcer bed compared with untreated controls. A single dose of the bFGF-CS23 mutein had no effect on gastric output of hydrochloric acid or pepsin, but daily treatment for 2 or 3 weeks resulted in enhanced acid and pepsin outputs. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic duodenal ulcers can be healed rapidly by stimulating angiogenesis and other wound-healing processes in the ulcer bed without reduction of gastric acid.
Vascular factors play an important role in the pathogenesis and prevention of acute gastric mucosal lesions. Endothelin-3 (ET-3), a potent vasoactive peptide, was infused intra-arterially to induce gastric microvascular and hemorrhagic mucosal lesions, and to enhance the damaging effects of dilute HCl and ethanol. ET-3 antibody was injected intravenously to decrease hemorrhagic mucosal lesions induced by ethanol. Locally infused ET (0.01, 0.1, and 1.0 nmol.100 g-1.min-1 for up to 15 min) was followed in some cases by intragastric dilute ethanol or HCl, which alone caused no or only mild vascular and mucosal lesions. Monastral blue was used to visualize and quantify vascular injury. ET-3 produced dose-dependent vascular lesions that affected the walls of mucosal capillaries and venules and induced mucosal congestion and focal endothelial labeling in vessels of the gastric muscular layers. The highest dose of ET induced hemorrhagic gastric mucosal lesions, mortality, and periods of hyper- and hypotension in the rat. Medium and low doses of ET-3 caused vascular injury, and dose-dependently potentiated the vascular and hemorrhagic mucosal lesions caused by dilute HCl and ethanol. Indomethacin slightly enhanced damage induced by ET and 50% ethanol, suggesting a limited mediatory role of prostaglandins in the ET-induced mucosal lesions. Anti-ET-3 serum dose-dependently decreased but did not abolish the hemorrhagic gastric mucosal lesions induced by 75% ethanol. Thus, ET-3 causes endothelial damage in capillaries and venules of rat stomach and predisposes to mucosal damage even after exposure to dilute ethanol or HCl. ET is more potent than leukotrienes and histamine and thus may play an important role in the mechanisms of acute gastric mucosal injury and protection where the vascular network appears to be a major target.
The efficacy of intravenous thrombolytic agents in preserving left ventricular function and in decreasing mortality from an acute myocardial infarction was demonstrated in the 1980s. The 1990s will concentrate on adjunctive therapy to thrombolysis in the treatment of an acute myocardial infarction.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the early posttreatment MR findings, and their clinical utility, in patients with trigeminal neuralgia undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery using the gamma knife. METHOD: Twenty-six patients with medically refractory trigeminal neuralgia underwent stereotactic radiosurgery. A single dose of 70-90 Gy was administered to the proximal root entry zone (n = 21) or the retrogasserian portion (n = 5) of the trigeminal nerve. Posttreatment enhanced MRI and clinical assessment were performed at 3-6 months. RESULTS: Five patients did not have radiologic follow-up. There were no changes identified in the treated trigeminal nerve or adjacent brainstem in 19 of 21 patients. Two patients with multiple sclerosis developed abnormal signal and enhancement in the brainstem and/or trigeminal nerve; neither had clinical complications. Onset of therapeutic effect ranged from 3 weeks to 3 months; 19 patients had a beneficial response. CONCLUSION: Results of enhanced MRI 3-6 months after stereotactic radiosurgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia do not correlate with the clinical response. Because beneficial clinical responses or treatment failures are apparent by 3 months, routine posttreatment MRI in these patients is not warranted.