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[On molecular biology of aging. 11th communication. Enzyme adaptation, age (author's transl)].

Age-dependent modifications of enzyme adaptations in response to a variety of environmental alterations are a biochemical expression of biological ageing. In this paper age-dependent changes of the adaptation of a number of enzymes are described. Experiments from our laboratory indicate that pyruvate kinase is more responsive to starvation and refeeding in young animals. The diminished response of pyruvate kinase in old age is caused by a decreased adaptability of the regulatory isoenzyme PK-L.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Biological impact of social disruption resulting from epidemic disease.

Whereas previous research on the disruptive effects of epidemic disease have focused on the ways in which epidemics affect social structure and function, this study focuses on the biological impact of social disruption. The hypothesis is that social disruption resulting from the occurrence of epidemic disease increases the biological impact of the epidemic, as assessed by disease incidence. This hypothesis is explored in terms of a "level of response" model, borrowed from Slobodkin and Rapoport (Q. Rev. Biol. 49:181-200, 1974). The Human Area Relations File (HRAF) provides ethnographic reports of social responses to epidemics. The most frequently reported response in the HRAF is flight or migration away from the locus of the epidemic, followed in frequency by extraordinary preventive and/or therapeutic measures and scapegoating. The model proposes a continuum of responses beginning with responses that are already part of the indigenous response to disease and proceeding through disruptive processes, including flight and rejection of authority systems. Social disruption increases the biological impact of epidemics by robbing the social group of important participants, dismantling public health programs, or producing general economic hardship. The model proposes a scheme for identification of situations under which particular social group responses are "biologically appropriate."

Adaptation, Biological↗

The interiorized environment.

Biological reactions occur regularly at the right time, on the right place and in the right quantity. How does this biological order work? Mechanicistics and vitalists fail to explain it and holism is an alternative that misses the very point. Our investigation is restricted to the relation between the organism and its specific environment, stressing their mutual penetration, common to twins. The twin organisms/environment in organisms as a whole, in the cellular environment of DNA and around the biological clock.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Role of mechanical and hormonal factors in cardiac remodeling and the biologic limits of myocardial adaptation.

Patients with chronic congestive heart failure manifest > or = 1 of the following abnormalities: diastolic dysfunction, systolic dysfunction, and arrhythmias. Diastolic dysfunction, one of the first symptoms to occur during hypertensive cardiopathy, depends on both active relaxation of the cardiac muscle and passive ventricular compliance. The ability of the ventricles to relax depends on normal calcium metabolism and adenosine triphosphate concentration. Ability to extrude intracellular calcium is depressed in the hypertrophied, overloaded heart as compared with the normal myocardium. Myocardial fibrosis is the major cause of increased diastolic ventricular stiffness. Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and myocardial fibrosis also greatly increase the likelihood of ventricular arrhythmias, in particular by prolonging the QRS interval and facilitating the occurrence of reentry arrhythmias. Findings in animal studies have indicated that such fibrosis, which involves excessive collagen deposition, is independent of LV hypertrophy and that LV hypertrophy does not necessarily result in myocardial fibrosis. Instead, the development of myocardial fibrosis is sensitive to circulating levels of both angiotensin II and aldosterone, and the fibrotic response to each of these substances is independent. The aldosterone antagonist spironolactone prevents myocardial fibrosis in several animal models, thus confirming the importance of aldosterone in the genesis of excessive collagen deposition.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Separation and enrichment of palladium and gold in biological and environmental samples, adapted to the determination by total reflection X-ray fluorescence.

The reductive co-precipitation of trace and ultra-trace elements together with mercury followed by complete evaporation of the mercury makes it possible to determine palladium and gold by total reflection X-ray fluorescence. Both elements can be detected without interferences at optimal sensitivity in the pg range. Thus, detection limits of, e.g., 2.5 ng L-1 for palladium and 2.0 ng L-1 for gold, in urine, were obtained. The precision was determined to 0.04 at a palladium concentration of about 200 ng L-1 urine and to 0.19 at a gold concentration of only 18 ng L-1. The recovery for a urine sample spiked with known amounts of palladium and gold amounted to > 95%. Results of the combined procedure are given for the determination of palladium and gold in the urine of non-exposed and occupationally exposed persons and in some other environmentally relevant samples.

Environmental Pollutants↗

Evolution as a self-organized critical phenomenon.

We present a simple mathematical model of biological macroevolution. The model describes an ecology of adapting, interacting species. The environment of any given species is affected by other evolving species; hence, it is not constant in time. The ecology as a whole evolves to a "self-organized critical" state where periods of stasis alternate with avalanches of causally connected evolutionary changes. This characteristic behavior of natural history, known as "punctuated equilibrium," thus finds a theoretical explanation as a self-organized critical phenomenon. The evolutionary behavior of single species is intermittent. Also, large bursts of apparently simultaneous evolutionary activity require no external cause. Extinctions of all sizes, including mass extinctions, may be a simple consequence of ecosystem dynamics. Our results are compared with data from the fossil record.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Genetic and biological aspects of Zebu adaptability.

The utility and documentation of traits and characteristics of Zebu, Bos indicus, cattle in beef production in the United States are discussed with reference to adaptation. Zebu cattle are uniquely suited to hot climates due to coat, hide, skin and hematological attributes. Form, growth and physiological aspects are unique genetic attributes which are different from those of Bos taurus cattle. Compared with Bos taurus cattle, Zebu cattle are lower in reproduction, later maturing, slower growing and lower in beef quality. Zebu cattle are valuable in crossbreeding, with adaptive aspects transmitted and large amounts of heterosis in growth, maternal effects and reproductive traits.

Acclimatization↗

[Certain biological traits and morphobiochemical adaptations to nutrition in Strombus decorus raybaudii Nicolay and Manoja, 1983].

Habitat locations, behavioral properties, as well as external and internal structure of poorly explored Mediterranean gastropod Strombus decorus raybaudii were analyzed. The data on the dimensions and weight of the crystalline style are presented. Morphobiochemical adaptations to nutrition are discussed in terms of weights of the main parts of the radular apparatus and hemoglobin content in the radular tissues of the mollusk.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

[An ion exchange method to determine free metal concentrations, adapted for use in biological fluids: methods and determination of (Mg2+)].

An ion exchange method for measuring concentrations of free (ionized) metal ions and its application to the determination of [Mg2+] is described. A surface sulfonated polystyrene material is used as the "twodimensional" cation exchanger. The sample-volume is 1 ml. About 50 determinations can be performed within 1 hr having a standard error of +/- (2-4)% in the optimal range of measurement. Advantages and disadvantages of the method compared with other ones are demonstrated and discussed. Free Mg2+ ion concentrations were measured in solutions containing pyrophosphate as well as haemoglobin and compared with those which were determined by equilibrium calculation or ultrafiltration.

Cation Exchange Resins↗

The response of the heart to stress: a biological view of myocardial adaptation and failure.

The response of the myocardium to persistent stress involves an increase in mass and a restructuring of the cellular and subcellular elements. The experiments described in this article are designed to test the hypothesis that the restructuring of the various systems (contractile, excitation-contraction coupling, recovery, etc.) that occurs in adaptive hypertrophy is a coordinated (matched) process. When the restructuring of the systems in response to stress occurs in an uncoordinated fashion, congestive heart failure results. In addition to controls, three heart models with normal pump performance are used (control, C; pressure overload, P; thyrotoxic, T; and pressure overload plus thyrotoxic, PT4) and one with inadequate pump performance (pressure overload plus thyrotoxic, PT2). In this analysis the contractile and excitation-contraction coupling systems are evaluated. The former is assessed by sensitive myothermal measurement of tension dependent heat (TDH) normalized for the isometric tension time integral (integral of Pdt). The latter is assessed from measurement of the time to peak isometric tension (TPT). The TDH/integral of Pdt (mu cal/g.cm.s) and TPT (ms) for the C, P, T, PT4, and PT2 hearts are 2.4, 1.8, 5.2, 5.1, and 0.1, mu cal/g.cm.s and 627, 816, 352, 484, and 465 ms, respectively. According to the coordination or matching hypothesis, if TDH/integral of Pdt is low, then TPT should be increased, or if TDH/integral of Pdt is high, then TPT should be decreased. Relative to control hearts, matched restructuring of the contractile and excitation-contraction coupling systems occurred for the P, T, and PT4 preparations. In these animals the hypertrophy has been adaptive and the pump performance is adequate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Physiological↗