Search

A cross-sectional study of intima-medial thickness (IMT) of the carotid arteries in men and women in different age groups was performed as well as a prospective study of the dynamics of carotid IMT changes. It was shown that at the ages 40-70 years IMT is higher in men then in women, but at age after 70 such difference disappears due to acceleration of atherosclerosis progression in women, which starts after 58. Atherosclerosis progresses at uneven rate, both in men and women, and there are age periods characterized with different rate of IMT progression. In women, the most active progression of atherosclerosis starts 8 years later than in men, and is associated with the onset of late menopausal period.

Cultured cell models have been developed to study the cholesterol efflux from the arterial wall as an integral indicator of reverse cholesterol transport. The models and the results of in vivo and ex vivo experiments can be used to propose new antiatherosclerotic drugs and elucidate their mood of action.

A study has been performed to investigate the change in antigen-binding capacity of antibodies as a result of their interaction with chelating agents, and polymers under various conditions. It has been demonstrated that antibody immobilization on the sorbent preceded by the antibody conjugation with chelating polymer allows better maintenance of specific activity of 5B4D6 monoclonal antibodies. Such modification yields a 10-fold increase in the antibody-antigen binding as compared with a standard conjugation technique in a mixture.

The study has demonstrated the possibility to use cyclophosphamide as a model of "impairment" agent for lung tissue cells to provide access of monoclonal antibodies to nuclear antigen structures. Biodistribution of monoclonal antibodies to various intracellular antigens was studied on Wistar rats pretreated with various doses of cyclophosphamide. Accumulation of 2C5 antibodies to cell nuclei was found to be dependent on the dose of cyclophosphamide administered.

A comparison of effects of two hypocholesterolemic drugs--mevinolin and glycyrrhizinic acid, on cholesterol and bile acid metabolism in cultured rabbit hepatocytes has been carried out. The following parameters have been determined: i) cholesterol synthesis from [2-14C]acetate; ii) bile acid production from newly synthesized and [4-14C]-labeled HDL2 cholesterol, and, iii) total cholesterol efflux into the incubation medium Mevinolin (0.5 microgram/ml) inhibited [2-14C] acetate incorporation into cholesterol by more than 90%. Conversely, glycyrrhizinic acid did not influence cholesterol synthesis even when used at high (100 micrograms/ml) concentrations but stimulated the conversion of endogenous (by 37%) and exogenous (by 18%) cholesterol into bile acids and increased, in addition, the proportion of bile acids in the total sterol pool released from hepatocytes into the incubation medium. At the same time, mevinolin used at 0.5 microgram/ml decreased the bile acid production by endogenous (by 27%) and exogenous (by 40%) cholesterol. The data obtained suggest that glycyrrhizinic acid exerts hypocholesterolemic action by stimulation of cholesterol conversion into bile acids without any effect on cholesterol synthesis. As for mevinolin, it has a cholesterol-suppressing effect via a mechanism of cholesterol synthesis inhibition only.

Immunoglobulins were modified by diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid anhydride and sulfosuccinimidy 16-(biotinamido) hexanoate and were conjugated with modified polylysine. Biodistribution of the samples was observed before and after avidin injection. Samples containing no polylysine accumulate in reticuloendothelial system, protein conjugate with polylysine concentrate in kidneys. The results demonstrate that drug distribution depends on the type of modification.