Loperamide (Imodium, Janssen-Ortho Inc, North York, Ontario/McNeil Consumer Products, Guelph, Ontario) is a synthetic piperidine derivative used for the treatment of both acute and chronic diarrhea. It exerts its action via cholinergic, noncholinergic, opiate and nonopiate recep­tor-mediated mechanisms. After oral administration, little systemic absorption takes place. About 40% ofa2 mg dose is excreted in the [...]

D-GalN administration is a model of hepatotoxicity used ex­tensively in experimental studies. D-GalN depletes the intra- cellular uracil nucleotides in hepatocytes that lead to inhibition of RNA and protein synthesis. D-GalN increases serum transaminase levels, hepatic necrosis and coma. In the present study and in another, D-GalN induced liver injury and increased TNF-a concentration in [...]

Effect of PGE1 and D-GalN on serum ALT activity: Thenormal range of ALT activity in rat serum is 18 to 20 U/L (20). In the present study, D-GalN infusion induced a signifi­cant increase 5 and 10 mins after treatment in ALT (29+1.5 and 43±1.2 U/L, respectively) activity compared with the control group (23+0.3 and 27±2.7 [...]

Reagents: All chemicals were obtained from Sigma Chemi­cal Co (St Louis, Missouri). D-GalN was obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. PGE1 (alprostadil) was purchased from The Upjohn Co (Kalamazoo, Michigan). Antigen and polyclonal antibody obtained from Genzyme Diagnostics (Cambridge, Massachusetts) were used for quantification of TNF-a and IL-1a by ELISA. Nitrate reductase and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) [...]

TNF-a but not IL-1a is correlated with PGE1-dependent protection against acute D-galactosamine-induced liver injury Experimental studies have shown that prostaglandins have protective properties against different models of liver injury. Prostaglandin E (PGE) reduces liver toxicity in­duced by D-galactosamine (D-GalN), thioacetamide, aflatoxin B1, carbon tetrachloride, bile duct ligature, fat-enriched and choline-deficient diet, viral hepati­tis and complement-mediated [...]

Novelties in measurement programs Speed of measurement by densitometric techniques in children is of great importance, because it is hard to keep children mo­tionless during the performance. However, utilization of speed­ing up measurement as fan beam technique has still some dis­advantages enforcing the needs of its further evaluation and cross-calibration. For accurate determination of bone [...]

The first generation of QUS systems characterized the bone tis­sue with the use of two relevant parameters: the speed of sound (SOS) and the attenuation of the signal [broadband ultra­sound attenuation (BUA)]. The amount of attenuation de­pends on the structure, the specific acoustic properties of the medium, and the wavelength the ultrasound signal used. In [...]