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Biomedical subjects

S S Kantha

Publications and source records attributed to S S Kantha.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

The JaICA-genox oxidative stress profile--an overview on the profiling technique in the oxidative stress assessment and management.

It is widely accepted that oxidative stress (OS) is a major causative factor for many of the age-related dysfunctions and specific diseases. Since the oxidative stress state (OSS) of an individual depends on hereditary, dietary, and environmental factors, there is a large heterogeneity in the population that may be related to disease incidence and longevity. Hence there is a need to assess how well an individual is coping against OS. The Japan Institute for the Control of Aging (JaICA) and Genox have jointly developed a profiling technique to measure the "Oxidative Stress Profiles (JaICA-Genox OSP)" of individuals and laboratory test animals. The JaICA-Genox OSP consists of about 45 different assays measuring the levels of oxidative damage in lipids and nucleic acids, and the antioxidant defenses in the serum. In addition, several bio-markers for cardiovascular disease risk are also measured, and assays to measure specific age- and sex-related hormones in the serum and urine, and race elements in serum, urine, and drinking water are also undertaken. This overview discusses the designing of the JaICA-Genox OSP and its application in the testing of human subjects.

Aging↗
PubMed2000

Suicide: a Socratic revenge.

2400 years have passed since the occurrence in Athens, Greece of one of the famous suicides recorded in human history. This autobiographical essay provides a montage on the history of suicide, with snippets from the final hours of Socrates, as described by Plato. Suicide in contemporary Japanese culture is also explored briefly, with reference to the deaths of internationally acclaimed movie directors Akira Kurosawa and Juzo Itami. The author also questions why no researcher has yet been honoured for the past 99 years with a Medicine Nobel prize for his or her work on suicidology or thanatology.

Anecdotes as Topic↗
PubMed1999

Alfred Nobel's unusual creativity: an analysis.

Howard Gardner identified five different kinds of creative activity among eminent creators, namely, solving a well-defined problem, putting forth a general conceptual scheme, creating a product that embodies ideas, stylized innovation of an art form, and a 'high-stakes' performance in the socio-political arena. In this paper, I report that Alfred Nobel's creativity can be assigned to two mutually exclusive domains. In the scientific domain, he solved a well-defined problem of his time in the study of explosives, by patenting dynamite, creating blasting gelatin as an ideal explosive and developing a nearly smokeless blasting powder. In the socio-political domain, Nobel designed a 'unique instrument' (in the form of annual prizes, which later came to be known as Nobel prizes) to recognize merit among those who contributed to social welfare at the global scale. The influence of Nobel's mentors, Nikolai Zinin, Yuli Trapp, Theophile-Jules Pelouze, Ascanio Sobrero, John Ericcson and Immanuel Nobel in igniting Nobel's scientific creativity also deserves recognition. Personal traits that helped Nobel to sharpen his creativity include his business acumen and talent for information access using his multi-lingual skills.

Chemistry↗
PubMed1997

Could nitroglycerine poisoning be the cause of Alfred Nobel's anginal pains and premature death?

The life of 19th century Swedish chemist cum inventor Alfred Nobel can be conveniently divided into two equal phases: pre-nitroglycerine phase (1833-1863) and nitroglycerine phase (1864-1896). According to the records of Ragnar Sohlman, his assistant during his last year of life, Nobel's physical condition began to decline towards the end of the 1870s, and for the last 16 years he suffered from deep depression and anginal pains. Based on Nobel's descriptions of his condition, on his prolonged experimentation with explosives, his strenuous work habit and some recent knowledge about nitroglycerine poisoning, I hypothesize that nitroglycerine poisoning was an aggravating factor which contributed to Nobel's deteriorating health and premature death at the age of 63.

Angina Pectoris↗
PubMed1996

Carnosine sustains the retention of cell morphology in continuous fibroblast culture subjected to nutritional insult.

L- Carnosine (beta-alanyl L-histidine), occurring abundantly in skeletal muscles, has been suggested to possess antioxidant and anti-aging properties. Using three different experimental approaches (microscopic, flow cytometric and ELISA for one of the markers of DNA oxidative damage) this study on rat embryonic fibroblasts demonstrates that L-carnosine at 30 mM concentration sustains the retention of cell morphology even during a nutritional insult for five weeks. Also, L-carnosine significantly reduces the formation of 8-hydroxy deoxyguanosine (8-OH dG) in the cells after four weeks of continuous culture. Thus it could be inferred that the anti-senescent effect of L-carnosine is probably linked to its inhibition of formation of intracellular 8-OH dG during oxidative stress.

8-Hydroxy-2'-Deoxyguanosine↗
PubMed1996

Scientific productivity of Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner.

The scientific productivity of Albert Einstein was compared to that of designated controls Karl Landsteiner (an experimental scientist) and Sigmund Freud (an eminent theorist). Three assumptions made for this comparison were (1) that Einstein and his designated controls had equal scientific stature; (2) that their publications were produced in a similar, if not identical, sociocultural milieu; and (3) the number of publications is directly proportional to scientific productivity. At the end of their illustrious careers, Einstein, Freud and Landsteiner accumulated 315, 320 and 345 scientific publications respectively. Einstein was the sole author in 88% of his publications, which validates the third assumption. Thus, one can conclude that quantitative comparison of Einstein's total scientific publications with that of appropriate controls such as Landsteiner and Freud shows that Einstein's chronic ill health did not influence his scientific productivity.

Creativity↗
PubMed1996

Pros and cons in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

I propose a new term, 'galactic organism with distinct intelligence', for the extraterrestrial forms, with which humans can make contact. This is because, among the three existing terms: (a) 'the search for extraterrestrial intelligence' 'excludes biology and is inelegant'; (b) 'extraterrestrial' does not distinguish between the micro-organisms and highly-evolved intelligent life-forms; and (c) 'unidentified flying object' projects a sense of mysticism. On the presence of galactic organisms with distinct intelligence, scientists belong to three camps. Astronomers, physicists and some biochemists belong to the believers group. Evolutionists are in the doubters category. The third camp is represented by the 'uncommitted'. Approaches for contacting galactic organisms with distinct intelligence would take three steps. These are: (a) radioastronomical observations in the galaxy and interstellar space for the presence of organic matter; (b) initiating radio contact and listening to any transmitted message, as set out by the search for extraterrestrial intelligence program, and (c) landing instruments and humans in the galaxy.

Astronomical Phenomena↗
PubMed1996

Einstein's medical friends and their influence on his life.

Albert Einstein had at least six medical friends who influenced his thoughts. In each period (Munich, Switzerland, Berlin and Princeton) of his life, one could identify the medically qualified individuals with whom Einstein was in close contact. These include Max Talmey, Heinrich Zangger, George Nicolai, Hans Mühsam, Janos Plesch and Gustav Bucky. They probably enriched Einstein's life and thoughts significantly by being mentors, confidants, intellectual sparring partners and research collaborators to him. With Mühsam, Einstein published a paper in a German medical journal. In collaboration with Bucky, he also received a US patent for a light-intensity self-adjusting camera in 1936.

Europe↗
PubMed1996

Seasonal variation in levels of prostaglandins D2, E2 and F2(alpha) in the brain of a mammalian hibernator, the Asian chipmunk.

Seasonal changes in the in vivo levels of the prostaglandins (PGs) PGD2, PGE2, and PGF2(alpha) were measured in the brain of the male Asian chipmunk, Tamias asiaticus (n = 111), which underwent hibernation during the period between November and March. The mean level of PGD2 ranged from 36.0 to 85.2 pg/g tissue from June to October and remained essentially unchanged (80.5 pg/g tissue) in December. However, the mean PGD2 level rose significantly to 128.6 pg/g tissue in February, and returned to 75.2 pg/g tissue in the following April, suggesting a correlation between PGD2 and hibernation phenomenon. While PGE2 level did not vary significantly throughout the year, PGF2(alpha), which appeared to be the most abundant among the three prostanoids, showed a marked circannual rhythm with a trough of 51.6 pg/g tissue in July, rising to 391.6 pg/g tissue in February and reaching the peak value of 492.7 pg/g tissue in April, the reproduction period.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Is Karl Landsteiner the Einstein of the biomedical sciences?

If Albert Einstein is the acclaimed peerless genius among the physical scientists of this century, who can claim the equivalent title among the biomedical scientists? The research contributions of 24 Nobelists in medicine (contemporaries of Einstein) who received the Nobel prize between 1912 and 1966 were analyzed. When assessed on three criteria, (a) influence in multiple disciplines, (b) revolutionary in opening new vistas of knowledge, and (c) significant impact to human life, Karl Landsteiner's discoveries of the human blood groups stand out prominently. Thus, Landsteiner seems an appropriate choice to use as a 'control' to analyze Einstein's productivity.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

The blood revolution initiated by the famous footnote of Karl Landsteiner's 1900 paper.

A 1900 publication authored by Karl Landsteiner, at the age of 32 years, contained a footnote which stated that, "the serum of healthy human beings not only agglutinates animal red cells, but also often those of human origin, from other individuals". He followed up this statement in his 1901 paper, and concluded that, "My observations reveal characteristic differences between blood serum and red blood cells of various apparently healthy persons" and that "the reported observations may assist in the explanation of various consequences of therapeutical blood transfusions". These significant observations resulted in the discovery of A, B, O and AB blood groups and later led to successful blood transfusions in humans. The impact of the revolutionary finding by Landsteiner also changed a number of biomedical disciplines such as immunochemistry, medical anthropology, forensic medicine, genetics and pathology.

Allergy and Immunology↗
PubMed1994

Prostaglandin D2-sensitive, sleep-promoting zone defined in the ventral surface of the rostral basal forebrain.

The site of action for the sleep-promoting effect of prostaglandin (PG) D2 was extensively examined in the brain of adult male rats (n = 231). PGD2 was administered at 100 pmol/0.2 microliter per min for 6 hr (2300-0500 hr) through chronically implanted microdialysis probes or infusion cannulae. Among the administrations of PDG2 by dialysis probes (n = 176), only those (n = 8) to a ventro-rostral part of the basal forebrain by the probes implanted on the midline consistently increased slow-wave sleep (SWS), by 51 +/- 6 min (mean +/- SEM) above the baseline value (111 +/- 11 min). Since this area is separated by a cleft into right and left regions, the results were interpreted to mean that, through this cleft, PGD2 diffused in the subarachnoid space over the adjacent ventral surface, where it had the effect of promoting sleep. When PGD2 was directly infused into the subarachnoid space (n = 55), extraordinary increases exceeding 90 min were consistently attained for the SWS at sites located between 0.5 and 2 mm rostral to the bregma and between 0 and 1.2 mm lateral to the midline defined according to the stereotaxic coordinates adopted from the brain atlas of Paxinos and Watson [Paxinos, G. & Watson, C. (1986) The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates (Academic, San Diego)]. Thus, we demarcated a "PGD2-sensitive, sleep-promoting zone" within this region in the ventral surface of the rostral basal forebrain. During the bilateral infusion of PGD2 into the subarachnoid space of this zone, the hourly mean SWS level of the nocturnal animals (n = 6) in the night reached the maximum at the second hour of the infusion period; this maximum hourly SWS level, corresponding to the daytime level of the same animals, lasted until the end of PGD2 infusion.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Histamine-interleukin-prostaglandin pathway: a hypothesis for a biochemical cycle regulating sleep and wakefulness.

The probable existence of a biochemical cycle, involving histamine, interleukins and prostaglandins for regulating sleep and wakefulness in higher vertebrates is proposed in this paper. For convenience, it is given an acronym, H-I-P cycle. The proposed biochemical cycle consists of 13 essential steps, with four regulatory points. How this cycle differs from the previously described biochemical models for sleep and wakefulness, such as Jouvet's monaminergic cycle (5) and the multiple sleep factor model of Krueger (9,10) is also mentioned. The regional distribution of mast cells in the mammalian brain, the fluctuation of their numbers under different light regimen and a progressive decrease of their numbers with aging suggest that they may be the candidate 'black box' for the anatomical seat of sleep.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

An appraisal of Albert Einstein's chronic illness.

For the last 39 of his 76 years of life, physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) suffered from chronic illness. His health problems were primarily related to multiple complications of digestive system disorders; liver ailment, stomach ulcer, inflammation of gall bladder, jaundice and intestinal pains. Based on the published autobiographical records and biographies written by his secretary Helen Dukas and collaborators such as Philipp Frank and Banesh Hoffmann, this paper appraises the chronic illness of Einstein. Reasons for the insufficient attention to Einstein's medical history are also postulated. These possibly include, 1) his dislike of divulging personal details to analysts, interviewers and reporters; and 2) scattering of his medical records due to a peripatetic life lived in 4 countries, Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and USA.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1993

Intravenous administration of inorganic selenium compounds, inhibitors of prostaglandin D synthase, inhibits sleep in freely moving rats.

Prostaglandin (PG) D2 has been postulated to be an endogenous sleep-promoting factor. Biosynthesis of PGD2 is catalyzed by PGD synthase (prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase, EC 5.3.99.2), the activity of which is inhibited by inorganic selenium compounds such as SeCl4 and Na2SeO3. We recently examined the effect of intracerebroventricular administration of these selenium compounds on sleep in rats, and demonstrated time- and dose-dependent sleep inhibition. To establish whether this effect of selenium is also produced when the compound is administered systemically, we devised a procedure for intravenous catheterization and examined the effect of these selenocompounds on sleep-wake activity in freely moving rats (n = 35). Each test compound was administered into the inferior vena cava continuously between 11.00 and 17.00 h on the experimental day. SeCl4 time- and dose-dependently inhibited sleep at infusion rates of 5, 7.5, 10 and 20 nmol/microliters per min. During the SeCl4 infusion at 20 nmol/microliters per min, slow-wave sleep and paradoxical sleep were reduced to 63% and 50% of their respective baseline values. Na2SeO3 exhibited a similar sleep inhibition, though Na2SO3 was ineffective. Infusion of SeCl4 at 10 nmol/microliters per min or below produced no consistent changes in the mean brain temperature, or food and water intake during the infusion period. During the nocturnal period subsequent to SeCl4 infusion, sleep was increased by a rebound phenomenon, while a decrease in brain temperature and inhibition of food and water intake dose-dependently occurred. We conclude that systemic administration of these PGD synthase inhibitors has a sleep-reducing potency.

Animals↗