The present study describes the estimation of acetaminophen (AAP) toxicity in cultured rat hepatocytes. We used different concentrations of AAP - 1, 2. 5, 5, 10 and 20 mM, to test influence of AAP on cellular viability, functional capacity and oxidative status at given time intervals. WST-1 test showed decrease of dehydrogenase activity in 5, 10 and 20 mM AAP to 75 % of control values after 1 hour of incubation. At 12 h of treatment, all AAP concentrations decreased WST-1 signal; no enzyme activity was found since 18 h in cells treated with 20 mM AAP according to LDH leakage test performed at 24 h of incubation. Functional capacity was tested by albumin assay where the decrease was strictly related to AAP dose. Intracellular oxidative status was assessed by analysis of GSH/GSSG levels and time course of ROS production and glutathione reductase (GR) activity. Increased ROS prod uction was found already after 3 h of incubation in 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mM AAP, respectively. The highest ROS production was measured after 12 h treatment. GR activity was decreased already after 3 h of incubation and remained also decreased in cells treated with 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mM AAP during further incubation., Tomáš Roušar ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The changes in growth and photosynthetic performance of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars (Bolal-2973 and Atay-85) differing in their sensitivity to boron (B) toxicity were investigated under toxic B conditions. Eight-day old seedlings were exposed to highly toxic B concentrations (5, 7.5, and 10 mM H3BO3) for 5 and 9 days. Fast chlorophyll a fluorescence kinetics was determined and analysed using JIP test. Growth parameters, tissue B contents, and membrane damage were measured at two stress durations. The photochemical performance of PSII was hindered more in the sensitive cultivar (Atay-85) than that of the tolerant one (Bolal-2973) under B toxicity. The increase in the B concentration and stress duration caused membrane leakage in both cultivars. However, higher membrane damage was observed in Atay-85 compared to Bolal-2973. Additionally, significant reduction of growth parameters was observed in both cultivars at toxic B concentrations. The accumulation of B was higher in shoots than in roots of both cultivars. Nevertheless, Atay-85 translocated more B from roots to leaves compared to Bolal-2973. The advantages of certain JIP test parameters were demonstrated for evaluation of PSII activity in plants exposed to B stress. Evaluation of photosynthetic performance by JIP test as well as assessment of growth and tissue B content might be used to determine the effects of B toxicity in wheat. The results indicated lesser sensitivity to B toxicity in Bolal-2973 compared to Atay-85., M. T. Öz, Ö. Turan, C. Kayihan, F. Eyidoğan, Y. Ekmekçi, M. Yücel, H. A. Öktem., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Water availability is one of the most important limiting factors in agriculture worldwide, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. Six spring wheat genotypes, i.e. three UK cultivars Cadenza, Paragon, and Xi-19 and three synthetic-derived lines L-22, L-24, and L-38, were grown in a phytotron under well-watered (until 40 days after sowing) and drought conditions. The aim of the study was to evaluate the traits related to photosynthetic capacity (net photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, internal CO2 concentration, transpiration rate, carboxylation capacity, instantaneous and intrinsic water-use efficiency) and plant biomass production in the cultivars and synthetic derivatives of wheat genotypes under well-watered and water-limited conditions. Genotypic variations in gas-exchange traits including net photosynthetic rate, carboxylation capacity, instantaneous water-use efficiency, and biomass yield were found amongst genotypes. Drought significantly reduced the total dry matter per plant. The synthetic derivatives L-22 and L-24 showed higher performance of stomata for most of the stomatal aperture characteristics. Total dry matter was positively related to net photosynthetic rate and to instantaneous and intrinsic water-use efficiencies. Finally, net photosynthetic rate was also positively related to stomatal conductance and transpiration rate under both the well-watered and water-limited drought conditions., S. Sikder, J. Foulkes, H. West, J. De Silva, O. Gaju, A. Greenland, P. Howell., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The dedicated satellite gravity missions have provided homogeneous and uniformly accurate information on the long and medium wavelengths of the Earth’s gravity field. Since the launch of GOCE satellite gravimetry mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009, several global geopotential models (GGMs) have been published. This study evaluates the recent GOCE-based GGMs over the area of Poland. The evaluation has been performed with the use of the EGM08 as well as high-precision GPS/levelling control traverse consisting of 184 stations. One GOCE-only GGM, four GOCE/GRACE satellite-only GGMs, and one GOCE/GRACE GGM combined with terrestrial gravity data have been selected for the evaluation. The results of inter-comparison of the models as well as their accuracy assessment have been discussed., Walyeldeen Godah and Jan Krynski., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The temperature dependence of the induction kinetics parameters of chiorophyll (Chl) fluorescence in leaves and isolated chloroplasts of young plants of PhaseoliLt vulgaris L. was studied. Theoretical prerequisites for the influence of fluorescence measuring temperature as well as 3 min pretreatment of leaf discs cn both the photophysical and dark processes in the photosynthetic appaiatus were evaluated. The registration manner of fluorescence kinetics detennined the pattem of temperature dependence curve. The characteristic temperature of sharp changes of induction kinetics parameters, maximal and initial fluorescence and Fq, were in ranges of 45-47 and 55-60 °C, respectively. The fitting of experimental data from thermograms registered at weak exciting iiradiance in thermoinactivated leaf discs allowed to estimate the activation energy (FJ of the intemal energy conversion process in excited Chl molecule as 51.2±0.15 kJ moTT The theoretical analysis of /'q measured by a PAM fluorometer showed that Fq registered even at low inadiances markedly exceeded its ideál dark value. The Fq measured at 25 °C was increased by 125±5.3 % by the herbicide DCMU and diminished by -23.8±1.6 % by the elechon acceptor DCBQ. At the experimental conditions ušed there were about 25 % of 1\ from dosed Qg non-reducing reaction centres in the measured Fq value. Thus the thermoinduced increase in Fq observed within the temperature inteiwal of 45-50 °C might be doně by a transition of PS2 reaction centres from a statě capable of reducing Q3 to a Qg-non-reducing statě.
According to previous observations, it was hypothesized that the feeding behavior of some ant species would be deterred by a scavenger deterrent factor (SDF), whereas for other species it would not. The effects of the SDF were studied on 11 ant species in three different subfamilies: Dolichoderinae Forel, 1878, Formicinae Latreille, 1809, and Myrmicinae Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1835. The experiments were conducted from 2014-2015 in Davis, California, United States, Aydin, Turkey, and Duzce, Turkey. Five-day-old Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Poinar, 1976), (Hb)-killed and freeze-killed Galleria mellonella (Linnaeus, 1758) were exposed to ant colonies in the field for 3 to 4 h. Seven ant species fed significantly less on Hb-killed insects than freeze-killed insect. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in cadaver consumption with five species, but Liometopum occidentale Emery, 1895 did consume a higher rate of Hb-killed insects than freeze-killed insects and was not deterred by SDF. It was also observed that four ant species took Hb-killed insects into the nests, but two Myrmicinae species, Pogonomyrmex subdentatus Mayr, 1870 and Messor meridionalis (André, 1883) removed the cadavers after 30 min, whereas two Formicinae species, Cataglyphis nodus (Brullé, 1833) and Formica fusca Linnaeus, 1758, retained the cadavers in the nest. It was assumed that the latter two species consumed both Hb-killed and freeze-killed insects. Further studies are needed to explain why L. occidentale C. nodus and F. fusca are not deterred by SDF., Baris Gulcu, Selcuk Hazir, Edwin E. Lewis, Harry K. Kaya., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The benefit of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of transplant renal artery stenosis for ischemic nephropathy may be adversely affected by rejection or other complications. As a result, assessment of the effect of PTA on renal function or blood pressure is often difficult. In this paper, we evaluated the effect of PTA using the method of integrated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) based upon the area under the curve over a follow-up period (AUC0-t), to express the level of GFR in a simple manner despite its significant fluctuations. A similar procedure was used to evaluate mean arterial pressure (MAP). The method was employed to assess the outcome in 20 individuals before PTA, and 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after PTA. In eight cases, rejection was detected while there was one case of glomerulonephritis in the graft during the follow-up period. Evaluation (AUCCcr)0-12 related to the integrated pre-PTA value of Ccr [(Ccr)0 x 12] revealed a rise in GFR by more than 20 % in 65 % of cases. No improvement was observed in seven individuals with post-PTA complications. When assessing the integrated value of MAP, success of PTA (a reduction by at least 10 %) was found in 85 % of cases. No significant correlation was found between the relative changes of integrated GFR and MAP. Our data suggest that evaluation of the integrated value of GFR or MAP on the basis of AUC0-t allows to characterize, in a simple manner, the level of graft function and MAP throughout the follow-up period in individual cases. Furthermore, it may provide additional information on the average values obtained at different time intervals after the therapeutic procedure., J. Stříbrná, O. Schück, J.H. Peregrin, D. Krajíčková, J. Skibová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
We investigated the utility of strain, strain rate, and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) for the evaluation of the right ventricle (RV) impairment in patients with a hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) who underwent a successful alcohol septal ablation (ASA) and were without RV hypertrophy. A group of 19 patients suffering from HOCM with 22 controls was compared. The parameters of TDI were evaluated in mitral and tricuspid annulus. Strain and strain rate derived from TDI were assessed in an apical free wall of RV, as well as in basal segments of the left ventricle. Between both groups, there were significant differences only in isovolumic pre-ejection time (79.2±17.3 ms vs. 58.5±8.1 ms, p<0.01), isovolumic relaxation time (104.7±26.2 ms vs. 77.3±24.5 ms, p<0.01), myocardial performance (Tei) index measured from TDI (0.61±0.14 vs. 0.49±0.09, p<0.01), and early peak diastolic velocity of TDI (10.6±1.67 cm/s vs. 12.6±2.21 cm/s; p<0.05). Our results suggest the impairment of both systolic and diastolic RV function in patients suffering from HOCM. TDI-related parameters appear to be more sensitive than strain and strain rate for evaluation., D. Zemánek ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Silicomolybdate (SiMo) is an electron acceptor that has many characteristics, the ignorance of which makes an interpretation of the results quite troublesome. In photoinhibitíon experiments the photosystem 2 (PS 2) actívity can be best monitored if 1 pM dibromotíiymoquinone (DBMIB) is added after photoinhibitory treatment and SiMo is added in the light. Diuron (DCMU) may complicate interpretation of the results as it is also a competítíve inhibitor of SiMo binding at pH 7.6. The binding niche of SiMo is probably located at the stroma side between the fourth and fifth helix of the Dl and D2 proteins close to Q^- The whole chain actívity was much more affected by the photoinhibitory treatment than the PS 2 actívity itself Uncoupling of electron flow by addition of ammonium chloride accelerated the rate of photoinhibitíon. Photoinhibitory treatment decreased not only the Hill actívity at photon saturation, but also decreased the quantum yield and increased the photon flux density yielding half maximum rate of electron flow (K^). Decrease of quantum yield indicated that the photochemistry of PS 2 was afiected; increase of indicated a coiďormational change of the SiMo binding site. In experiments on PS 2 actívity monitored witíi SiMo, DCMU had no protectíve effect on the damage of the electron transport chain between water and QA.
Although many studies have investigated the relationships of several adipokines to metabolic syndrome (MetS), the interrelationships of adiponectin (ADP), adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (A-FABP) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF 21) have not been described in detail. We examined 209 asymptomatic dyslipidemic patients divided into MetS+ (n=73) and MetS- (n=136) groups. The aim of study was to evaluate the relationships between observed adipokines, to compare the levels of total ADP, A-FABP and FGF 21 in individuals with and without MetS, and to elucidate the relationships of individual adipokines to lipid parameters, markers of insulin resistance and endothelial hemostatic markers in these groups. In MetS+ group, we found the independent positive association ADP with A-FABP (beta=0.4888, p=0.0382), A-FABP with FGF 21 (beta=0.3811, p=0.0002) and von Willebrand factor (beta=0.4502, p=0.0013), and FGF 21 with A-FABP (bet a=0.4422, p=0.0002). Our study has confirmed the well-established risk profile of subjects with MetS, although clinically asymptomatic. MetS+ patients had also lower levels of ADP and higher levels of A-FABP and FGF 21. Our study evaluated the interrelationships of ADP, A-FABP and FGF 21 in asymptomatic dyslipidemic subjects with diagnosis of MetS. Especially strong association between A-FABP and FGF 21 needs to be clarified in further studies., D. Novotny ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy