(1) Department of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences 16150, Kubang Kerian Kelantan, Malaysia (2) K.M.C Mangalore, India
There are very few reports on the role of alcohol on stress induced physiological and biochemical altera-tions and hence this study was aimed to investigate the effect of ethanol on isolation stress induced alte-rations in albino rats of Wistar strain.
Rats were isolated separately in individual cages (one rat in each cage) covered on all sides by black thick papers so that the animal was totally cut off from the contact of other rats for a duration of 8, 15 and 32 days separately. Control groups (saline) were simultaneously maintained and animals were handled as per ethical guidelines with food and water adlibitum. In separate groups lg and 2 g/kg body weight ethanol was also injected (i.p) to the isolated groups- single dose per day (daily at 9 a.m.) till the stipulated dura-tion of isoladura-tion. At the end of scheduled duradura-tion rats were sacrificed (anaesthesia-Nembutal, 40mg/kg) and blood and serum samples were collected for estimation of total leucocytes, differential leucocytes, blood sugar, cholesterol, serum transaminases (SGOT and SGPT) by standard procedures. Different organs, like heart ,liver, brain and adrenals were carefully removed and the wet weight of each was recor-ded. Wet weights of organs were computed for 100 g of body weight of respective animal. For each group mean and standard error of mean were calculated.
Data were analysed by ANOVA (oneway, LSD test), p<0.05 was considered as the level of significance.
Results show that there was a significant increase in organ weight, decrease in leucocytes count, blood sugar, cholesterol level but an increase in serum transaminases levels following stress but at the end of 32 days, there was an adaptation of stress parameters. Both the doses of ethanol resulted in a significant increase in these stress parameter responses, specially alcohol further deteriorated the stress adaptation by enhancing the stress response in a dose dependent manner.
This study concludes that ethanol enhances the stress induced physiological and biochemical alterations basically exhibiting a stress response accentuating property (stressogenic), and hence the common belief of antistress effect of alcohol is not true with regard to the parameters of our study.
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Relationships between cadmium, copper, mercury, zinc levels and metallothionein in the liver and kidney cortex of Korean
Yoo Y.C.(1>. Lee S.K."\ Yang J.Y.(1>, Kim K.W.( , ), Lee S.Y.<'>, Oh S.M.<", Chung K.H.(2>
(1) National Institute of Scientific Investigation, Seoul, Korea (2) College of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea
In order to elucidate the relationships between cadmium, copper, mercury, zinc levels and metallothionein in the liver and kidney cortex of Korean, the levels of Cd, Cu, Hg, Zn and metallothionein (MT) were determined in the kidney cortex and liver of 50 subjects deceased in the period 2000-2001 in the area of Seoul and Kyonggi Province of Korea.
The mean age of the population studied was 36.3 ± 12.3 years. The tissues were digested with microwa-ve digestion system and the elements were determined by inductimicrowa-vely coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. MT was determined by the Cd-hemoglobin affinity assay. The determined levels (mean ± SD) were: 37.3 ± 27.1 micrograms Cd/g wet weight; 49.2 ± 17.3 micrograms Zn/g wet weight; 2.5 ± 0.57 microgram Cu/g wet weight; 0.26 ± 0.31 micrograms Hg/g wet weight, 4.9 ± 5.1 mg MT/g wet weight in renal cortex and 2.6 ± 1.9 micrograms Cd/g wet weight; 49.3 ± 18.9 micrograms Zn/g wet weight; 6.2 ± 2.8 micrograms Cu/g wet weight; 0.10 ± 0.15 micrograms Hg/g wet weight, 1.4 ± 1.9 mg MT/g wet weight in the liver.
An age-dependent increase of Cd was observed in the kidney cortex and liver. A positive linear relation-ship between Cd and Zn, Cd and Cu was observed in the kidney cortex and liver. Positive relationrelation-ships between Cd and MT in the kidney cortex, Hg and MT in the liver were observed. No other correlation was found between Cu and MT, Zn and MT in either organs.
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149
Comparison of ethanol pharmacokinetic in females and males
Zuba P.. Gubala W., Piekoszewski W.Institute of Forensic Research, Westerplatte 9, 30-031 Krakow, Poland
A group of 24 volunteers, 12 women and 12 men, participated in experiments and they consumed ethanol in the form of vodka (0.7 g of per kg of body weight for men, and 0.6 g/kg b.w. for women). Samples of venous blood were obtained through an indwelling catheter before ingestion of alcohol and then in 15 minutes intervals timed from the end of drinking. Blood alcohol concentrations were determined by means of headspace gas chromatography.
The pharmacokinetic calculations were done using first-order absorption and zero-order elimination models. The following equations were applied :
dC
(k-Ddt dt
V
\ J
60
V c
y Max lOH
where : ka is absorption rate constant, ?6 0 - zero order rate of elimination, D - dose of alcohol, V - appa-rent volume of distribution after oral dose, VM a x - maximum velocity of ethanol elimination, KM -Michaelis' constant and CE t 0 H - ethanol concentration.
The study showed that ethanol was absorbed slower in females compared with males. The absorption rate constants amounted to 0.039 ± 0.024 for females and 0.067 ± 0.026 Ir1 for males, when absorption half-time to 0.40 ± 0.21 and 0.21 ± 0.10 h, respectively. It caused differences in shape of blood alcohol curves.
Time to peak concentration for females was 1.06 ± 0.25 h and it was slightly longer in relation to males (0.87 ± 0.28 h). Both experimental and extrapolated to zero time the maximum ethanol concentrations were significantly lower in females, and amounted to 0.606 ±0.118 and 0.785 ± 0.165 g/L (experimental) as well as 0.777 ± 0.139 and 0.951 ± 0.202 g/L (extrapolated) for females and males, respectively. The sta-tistically significant differences were also observed for other pharmacokinetic parameters, i.e. area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), area under the first moment curve (AUMC) and mean residence time (MRT).
The distinctions in many pharmacokinetic parameters can be caused by the fact that according to Widmarks' formula the different amounts of alcohol were consumed by women and men, whereas the cal-culated apparent volumes of distribution after oral dose were very similar for both groups (0.795 ± 0.145 and 0.777 ± 0.215 L/kg for females and males, respectively). This finding might be explained by change in life style and diet of the women from the time when Widmark created his formula. In our opinion the same factor, equivalent to volume of distribution, should be used in back calculation of alcohol concen-tration.