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Predictive significance of lymphoid infiltration (LI) at the boundary of tumor and intact tissue was evaluated as well as the effect of Fas-receptor (Fas) and Fas-ligand (FasL) melanoma cell expression and lymphoid infiltrate generation, on the one hand, and end results on the other. Samples of melanoma tissues from 283 patients given combined and complex treatment were examined by a single morphologist. Immunohistochemical analysis was done on paraffin-embedded bioptates from 61 patients with marked LI or without it, to assess Fas and FasL expression. Actuarial specific 5-year survival for LI(+++) was 86.7 +/- 5.6%, LI(++)--69.1 +/- 5.8%, LI(+)--45.4 +/- 5.3% +/- and LI(-)--45.9 +/- 5.9%. Most tumors were grade III-IV: more than half of them--up to 4 mm thick. Five-year survival among patients with tumors of the former group was 78.9 +/- 8.4%, 73.3 +/- 6.19%, 46.4 +/- 6.3% and 55.9 +/- 7.7%, respectively, while the latter group--90.4 +/- 5.3%, 70.9 +/- 7.1%, 65.0 +/- 6.9% and 69.7 +/- 8.0%, respectively. All samples from primary skin melanoma expressed Fas and FasL in 60.7%. No significant effect of FasL expression by tumor cells on LI generation and 5-year survival was observed.

The efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy as a component of complex treatment for skin melanoma and that of combined treatment alone was compared. 502 patients were given combined treatment including intensive preoperative irradiation of primary foci (STD-19Gy, TTD-50 Gy, 5 days), their extended excision with or without lymphadenectomy and postoperative irradiation of regional lymph nodes. Combined treatment was administered to 124 patients; additional adjuvant chemotherapy--5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, vincristine and cyclophosphamide (4 components)--200; neo- and adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and doxorubicin (2 components)--106; cisplatin, doxorubicin and dacarbazine (3 components)--29. Forty-three patients receiving individualized chemotherapy were not included in the study. None of the 502 patients showed local recurrence. Five-year actuarial survival in combined treatment group was 69.2 +/- 4.4% (M +/- m), 4-component therapy--58.2 +/- 3.6%, 2 components--68.7 +/- 4.9% and 3 components--80.0 +/- 8.3% (p0.2); 5-year recurrence-free survival- 68.1 +/- 4.4%, 57.5 +/- 3.6%; 63.1 +/- 5.0% and 60.9 +/- 10.0% respectively. No significant differences were found as far as a correlation was concerned between actuarial survival and recurrence-free one, on the one hand, and tumor stage, depth and extent of invasion, on the other. Hence, no beneficial effect of said adjuvant chemotherapeutic measures on combined treatment for locally-advanced skin melanoma was found.

Data on 373 patients treated for cutaneous melanoma were evaluated to test a hypothesis whether there is a correlation between mechanism of protection from ultraviolet radiation and gender. Cutaneous melanoma of the extremities was identified in 63.2% of females and 26.6% of males (p0.001) versus 26.1% and 54.0%, respectively, with tumors of the trunk (p0.001). Five-year survival in women was 80.8% versus 76.9% in men in the first group (p0.2) and 59.5% and 50.0% , respectively, in the second one (p0.2). Hence, the correlation was concerned with tumor site rather than gender.

To study bioenergetic processes in the synovial fluid (SF) in osteoarthrosis and to study relevant effects of chondroitinsulphate (structum).Changes in bioenergy parameters of SF were analysed in the course of 3-month structum treatment of 15 osteoarthrosis (OA) patients. Classic enzymatic tests and polarographic test of SF cells oxygen absorption rate were used. Physiological-biochemical indices were compared at the height of the disease and after therapy.A significant shift of SF pH to the acid direction was found in OA patients. There was also transformation of bioenergetic processes with resultant loss of synovial cells energetics (low ATP and switch on of a reserve energetic mechanism of creatinephosphate consumption). Pharmacological correction of energy metabolism of SF cells was obtained due to action of chondroprotector structum.OA provokes bioenergetic changes in SF with activation of glycolysis, employment of reserve bioenergetic mechanisms, enhancement of creatinephosphate degradation, discoordination of respiration with oxidant phosphorilation. The pH shift to acid direction (from 7.4 to 6.85 in OA) is a trigger mechanism of OA. Replacement therapy with polyanion drug structum corrects pH in 3 months and bioenergetic parameters.

1. The expansion of international economic contacts and the constant, rapid progress of science and technology lead to the necessity for an ever-increasing exchange of cultural and scientific values. Under these conditions, translation of writings from one language to another assumes the utmost importance. The role of translation is particularly important to the Soviet state since it is a multinational state.

Studies have been made on the activity of the enzymes of pentose phosphate shunt in the heart, liver and somatic muscles of two lamprey species, Lampetra fluviatilis and L. planeri, at various stages of ontogenesis. It was shown that the activity of these enzymes in larval tissues is significantly higher than in adult lampreys. In adult animals, the enzymes investigated exhibit low tissue specificity.

After incubation of intact thrombocytes with prostaglandins E2 and F2 alpha stimulation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione reductase activities as well as an increase in the rate of sedoheptulose-7-phosphate accumulation were found. Thrombin inhibited the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity by 30% in these thrombocytes. Addition of thrombin, following the incubation of thrombocytes with prostaglandins, removed the activating effect of the prostaglandins on the pentosephosphate pathway reactions, inhibited glutathione reductase and lactate dehydrogenase.

Ischemia of the rat brain led to permanent increase in oxygen consumption, sharp phasic changes of oxydative phosphorylation, and fall of the P/O coefficient in the brain mitochodria which indicates a dissociation between respiration and phosphorylation. During the postischemic period all the parameters become normal. Oxygen consumption in the cardiac mitochondria is only enhanced in the early (15 min of circulatory hypoxia--CH) and late (72 hrs of CH) periods of CH. The oxydative phosphorylation is particularly low at 15 min and at 24-hr duration of CH. During the posthypoxic period the oxygen consumption is significantly enhanced but it drops lower than control level after 24-hr CH. The changes of oxydative phosphorylation occur in phases. The P/O coefficient is minimal in the posthypoxic period after the 15-min CH. Disturbances of oxydative metabolism seem lesser in the cardiac mitochondria. The changes occurring in the cardiac muscle during cerebral CH seem to underlie different signs of the cerebro-cardiac syndrome in brain pathology.

The effect of a long-term (14 days) combined introduction of mestranol and noiethinodrel in contraceptive doses on the activity of pentosophosphate routes enzymes of the carbohydrates metabolism, that of acid and basic ribonucleases and on the level of summary nucleinic acids in the uterus and liver in sexually mature female-rats was studied. It was found that the concentration of summary nucleinic acids in the tissues increases under the effect of the drug, the oxidative reactions enzymes become more active, while the activity of non-oxidative reactions enzymes of the pentosophosphate route and of acid and basic endoribonucleases in inhibited.

The selective paradoxical sleep (PS) deprivation in rats entailed during first 2 days a drop in activity of glucose-6-phosphatehydrogenase by 80 and 60%, and of 6-phosphogluconatdehydrogenase -- by 20--35 and 40--50% in the brain-stem and the cortex, respectively. Activity of the transketolase decreased by 27--29% on the 2nd day of PS deprivation only. On the 4th day, normalizing of activity of all the enzymes under study except transketolase, was observed in both regions of the brain. The consumption of riboso-5-phosphate by the homogenate and level of phosphoketopentoses formation in it reflected, mainly, the dynamics of transketolase activity changes.

Two zones, exhibiting glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity, were identified in lysates of thrombocytes from healthy persons by means of polyacrylamide gel disc electrophoresis; amount of the zones was increased up to 7 during the preinfarction period and up to II within the acute period myocardial infarction, three zones were found at the postinfarction period. Temperature optimum of the enzyme activity from thrombocytes was near 50 degrees in both the healthy persons and in the patients with acute myocardial infarction. After preincubation of G6PD within 10 min at 40 degrees and 60 degrees the enzymatic activity was similarly decreased by (50-55% and 85-90%, respectively, in thrombocyte preparations from healthy persons and from the patients with myocardial infarction.

Ratios of activities of oxidative and nonoxidative enzymes involved in the pentose phosphate pathway of carbohydrate metabolism were altered in blood plasma and cells of the patients with systemic impairments of connective tissue. In rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus the enzymatic activity was increased in blood plasma and cells, while the most distinct activation of the enzymes was found in granulocytes. In systemic sclerodermia total activity of the enzymes involved in metabolism of pentose phosphates in granulocytes exceeded 2.6-fold their values under conditions of normal state, whereas activities of the other enzymes studied remained near normal values. Calculation of ratios (mu value) between activities of the pathway oxidative and nonoxidative enzymes showed that the mu value was increased 2.7-fold in rheumatoid arthritis, while this value was decreased in lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerodermia 4.2- and 2-fold, respectively. The mu values, calculated on the basis of estimation of total activity of dehydrogenases from pentose phosphate pathway and total pentose phosphate metabolizing activity, might serve as a convenient diagnostic criterion for estimation of the ratio between activities of oxidative and nonoxidative enzymes involved in pentose phosphate pathway in granulocytes used for differential diagnosis of systemic impairments of connective tissue (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerodermia).

Comparative cytological, histological, histochemical and partially karyological studies were carried out on 8 batches of BHK-21 cell kept at different conditons. It was found that cells adapted to suspension culture differed from monolayer culture cells both morphologically and cytochemically. Suspension cells transmitted into monolayer culture displayed smaller size, changeable form, increased glycogen accumulation, decreased enzymatic activity (acid phosphatase, succinate dehydrogenase), their karyotypes tending to hypodiploidy.

Using hormonal induction by thyroxin, the half-life time and the rate constants for the synthesis and degradation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and transketolase were determined. It was shown that the mechanisms of activation of these enzymes by thyroxin are different. Under hyperthyrosis an increase in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is induced by a decrease (2-fold) of the degradation rate constant; the rate constant of synthesis is not changed thereby, while the half-life time for the enzyme increases 2-fold. The activation of transketolase in this case can be accounted for by an almost 1,5-fold increase in the rate of the enzyme synthesis, whereas the degradation rate constant and the half-life time of the enzyme remain practically unchanged.

Thrombin inhibits the rate of glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate oxidation. ADP decreases the incorporation of ribose-5-phosphate into metabolism. The effect of adrenaline on the pentose phosphate pathway reactions was not demonstrated. Cell destruction by means of freezing, thawing and treatment with Triton X-100 decreases the rate of the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase reaction to a greater degree as compared with osmotic shock.

Treatment with roxicam, rengasil and flugalin tended significantly to normalize the activity of enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism pentosophosphate pathway in the blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The dynamics of the change in the activity of enzymes of pentose phosphate pathway in the blood of patients with systemic connective tissue diseases against the background of treatment with roxicam, rengasil and flugalin is the enzymological criterion in assessing efficacy of pharmacological correction of the inflammatory process in the diseases.

The effects of prostaglandins E2 and F2 alpha on oxidative and non-oxidative reactions of the pentose phosphate pathway of carbohydrate metabolism in isolated perfused liver and uterus of the rat were studied. The prostaglandins (0.5 X 10(-8) M) activate dehydrogenase but do not practically affect the activity of non-oxidative enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway. Upon perfusion of isolated rat liver and uterus by the prostaglandins, the degree of dehydrogenase activation depends on the perfusion time and the nature of the prostaglandins. Under effects of prostaglandin E2, the maximal activity of liver glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (280% above the normal level) was observed already after 15 min, that of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (104% above the normal level) after 30 min. In the uterus, the maximal activity of these enzymes was induced by prostaglandin F2 alpha, showing an increase in the whole course of perfusion and after 1 hour exceeded the normal value by 120 and 80% for glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenases, respectively.

Prerequisites for the use of electron acceptor compounds as radiosensitizers in tumor radiation therapy have been analysed. The short-term results of the treatment of 148 patients with metronidazole have been also analysed. A study of the distribution of metronidazole in the blood and tissues after its administration shows that the best route of its administration is a combined one (1/3 of the dose per os and 2/3 with the enema). In this case the highest level of the drug in a tumor was observed after 4-6 hrs. when radiation therapy was provided. A special scheme of radiation therapy with the use of metronidazole was worked out. The short-term therapeutic results with the use of metronidazole were somewhat better than those in the control group or did not differ from them.

Brain benign tumors /hypophyseal adenoma, meningeoma/ caused definite effects on the enzymes of pentosephosphate pathway in blood of patients. Distinct decrease in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase /G6PD/ activity was observed in erythrocytes of patients with adenoma of hypophysis as compared with a control group; transketolase /TK/ activity was unaltered. In blood of patients with brain meningeomas the G6PD was activated by 8% and TK - by 36%. Within the first day after resection of the tumors activity of the enzymes was distinctly increased; it remained markedly higher than the enzymatic activity before the operation within all the periods studied /5-7 days and 10-15 days after the operation/.

The effects of prostaglandin F2 alpha (0,004--0,4 mg per 100 g) on the activity of NADP-dependent dehydrogenases from rat liver and uterus were studied. After 4 hrs following F2 alpha injection the activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase was found to increase 4,3- and 1,2-fold in the liver and 5- and 1,6-fold in the uterus, respectively. The content of glucose in the blood remained practically unchanged. No correlation between the amount of F2 alpha and the activities of the pentose phosphate pathway dehydrogenases was observed. The effect of F2 alpha on the dehydrogenases from rat uterus (but not liver) depended on the phase of the sexual cycle and reached its maximum in the period of the secretory activity (estrus). The administration of F2 alpha in combination with alpha- and beta-adrenergic blockers (phentolamine or propranolol) did not only enhance but also potentiated their stimulating effects on the activities of the dehydrogenases. F2 alpha shifted the ratio of reduced and oxidized forms of pyridine nucleotides in the liver, increasing it by 11,2 and 33,3% for NADPH/NADP+ and NADH/NADP+, respectively. The NADP-dependent isocitrate, malate and glutamate dehydrogenases from rat liver and uterus as well as the non-oxidizing enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway of carbohydrate metabolism were insensitive to F2 alpha.

The data on 216 cases of cancer of the thoracic part of the esophagus treated by radiation are presented. The course of treatment was completed in 169 patients only. Two modalities of Co-60 teletherapy were employed. Complete regression of tumor was slightly more frequent in patients who were exposed to split-course radiation at two weeks' intervals than in those receiving a continuous course (22 +/- 4 and 33 +/- 6%, respectively). A five-year disease-free survival after a full course totalling a NSD of 60-70 Gy was registered in 14%.

Rates of glucose-6-phosphate oxidation and formation of sedoheptulose-7-phosphate were increased after 10 min preincubation of human blood platelets with prostaglandins F2 and F2a. When the preincubation was prolonged up to 60 min, the prostaglandins activating effect was manifested only as an increase in sedoheptulose-7-phosphate content. Preincubation of thrombocytes with dibutyryl-cAMP led to an increase in the rate of ribose-5-phosphate consumption as well as of sedoheptulose-7-phosphate formation. Chlorpromazine hydrochloride decreased the rates of glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate oxidation in extracts of human thrombocytes and inhibited the activating effect of prostaglandins on sedoheptulose-7-phosphate formation.

The ratio of concentrations Na+/K+ decreases in the brain and liver and increases in the cardiac muscle during the chick embryogenesis. The maximum concentration of Ca2+ was noted in the tissues under study on 14th day of chick embryonic development and its content decreased reliably at the subsequent stages. The concentration of Mg2+ in the tissues under study decreased during the embryogenesis as well.

A procedure is developed for estimation of glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenases activity in human erythrocytes. The procedure involved polarographic registration of oxygen consumption, which is directly related to content of NADPH formed, in a coupled enzymatic system containing peroxidase and Mn2+.

A study was made of the content of prostaglandins E, A, F2 alpha and malonic dialdehyde (MDA) in the blood plasma and urine of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis and healthy persons. The levels of plasma and urine prostaglandins and MDA were significantly elevated in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and in systemic scleroderma they did not differ from those in normal. The ratio of pressor and depressor prostaglandins in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis did not change, and in systemic scleroderma there was a strong shift to pressor prostaglandins. Change in the content and ratio of prostaglandins and MDA in systemic diseases of connective tissue was suggestive of differences of pathogenetic effects of these mediators in some diseases of this group.