Post mortem changes in adenylate cyclase activity in rat brain striatum

Adenylate cyclase activity in rat striatum decreased post mortem. Half-lives were about 2.7 h at 22 degrees C, 72 h at 4 degrees C. Differences in stability after death of adenylate cyclase in human brain and rat striatum, and possible heterogenity of the enzyme, are briefly discussed.     

Temperature acclimation and learning in fish

Summary Control fish acclimated at 21°C learned to swim upright following the attachment of floats to their ventral surfaces, while fish acclimated at both 5°C and 33°C failed to learn the swimming skill. Fish previously acclimated at 5°C and then transferred to 21°C 48 h before the task, learnt the swimming skill better than the control fish, but fish acclimated at 33°C and transferred to 21°C failed to acquire the new skill. Acclimation temperature, therefore, significantly modifies the learning behaviour of fish.     

Hypothalamic histamine modulates adaptive behavior of rats at high environmental temperature

Summary Histamine content in the rat hypothalamus was lower at 4°C and higher at 31°C compared to that at 21°C. Pretreatment with -fluoromethylhistidine, a suicide inhibitor of histidine decarboxylase, attenuated both the increased level of hypothalamic histamine and rat adaptive behavior at 31°C. Increase of histamine content in the hypothalamus appears to be an important factor contributing to rat adaptive behavior to high environmental temperature.     

Increased erythrocyte permeability to Li and Na in the spontaneously hypertensive rat

Summary Red blood cells incubated in a physiological medium in which Li replaces Na (LiPSS) gain Li in exchange for Na and K. The rate of Li uptake is modestly but significantly increased in the spontaneously hypertensie rat (SHR) at 37°C and at 22°C. The slow rate of Na gain and K loss during cooling at 2°C was about doubled in unmodified whole blood samples from the SHR.This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the British Columbia Heart Foundation.     

Effect of relative humidity on the free-living stages ofStrongyloides papillosus (Rhabdiasoidea: Nematoda)

Summary The eggs and larvae are affected by the changes in the humidity level around them. The eggs do not develop below 87% relative humidity at 30 °C and 25 °C. At sub-developmental rel. hum. they remain viable for 30 h at 81%, but at 73% rel. hum. level they do not survive beyond 18 h. Survival of larvae in 100% rel. hum. is longer at 30 °C than at 25 °C and 35 °C, and also they exhibit a poor resistance to desiccation.Acknowledgment. The author is grateful to Dr. Devendra Prasad of Patna University for his supervision and constant help in the work. The assistance of State University Grants Commission through a research scholarship is gratefully acknowledged.     

Solubilisation de la monoamineoxydase des mitochondries de foie de rat

Summary The monoamineoxidase of the mitochondria of rat liver may be dissolved up to 50% of the initial activity by treatment with a tensioactive agent followed by ultracentrifugation. The best experimental conditions are obtained with 0.2% of sodium laurylsulphate (pH 7) during 1 h at + 2°C.     

Heat shock enhances thermotolerance of infective juvenile insect-parasitic nematodesHeterorhabditis bacteriophora (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae)

Insect-parasitic nematodes possess many of the attributes of ideal biological control agents, but intolerance to extreme temperatures can restrict their use. We examined whether heat-shock treatments could improve nematode survival and infectivity at temperatures that normally inhibit their activity (35 and 40°C). Nematodes exposed to a sub-lethal temperature (35°C) for 3 h with a latency period of 1–2 h at 25°C killed insects at 35 and 40°C. Correlative evidence was obtained between increased thermotolerance and the synthesis of 70-kDa heat-shock proteins (hsps). These results provide the first evidence of hsp synthesis in the development of thermotolerance and biological activity in the non-feeding, developmentally arrested, infective juvenile nematodes.     

Effects of photoperiod and temperature on reproductive diapause inDrosophila testacea

Summary In photoperiodic adult diapause ofDrosophila testacea, the critical daylength fell between 14 and 16 h at 15°C, but between 13 and 14 h at 18°C. None entered diapause at LD 1014 and LL at 23°C. This species quantitatively responded to daylengths around the critical daylength in the process of diapause induction. The length of the sensitive period seems to change with temperature.     

Freezing and transplantation of brain tissue in rats

Summary Neocortical tissue obtained from rat embryos was frozen and stored at –70°C for 6 h prior to transplantation into the cerebellum of neonatal rats. Growth, differentiation, and integration of this tissue within the host brain was comparable to that obtained from freshly dissected and transplanted tissue. It is suggested that freezing to low temperatures does not adversely effect the viability or transplantability of the neural tissue.Supported by N.I.H. research grants Nos NS-08817 and CA-14650.     

Motility of leukocytes in slide cells

Zusammenfassung Die Leukozytenbewegung wurde in Glaskammern während 24 h Inkubation beobachtet: die Kurve der Leukozytenbewegung besteht aus 2 Phasen, welche mittels 2 Exponentialgleichungen (durch das Wachstumsgesetz bestimmt) ausgedrückt werden können.In der vierten Stunde der Inkubation tritt eine Steigerung der Leukozytenbewegung auf.Die Leukozytenbewegung bei einer Temperatur von 30 und 40°C wurde mit der bei 37°C verglichen: Die Leukozytenbewegung ist bei 30°C langsamer und bei 40°C schneller als bei 37°C.     

The effect of chronic heat stress on cortisol levels in the antarctic fishPagothenia borchgrevinki

Radioimmunoassay was used to determine levels of the stress-inducible glucocorticoid, cortisol, circulating in the plasma of the extremely stenothermal Antarctic fishPagothenia borchgrevinki at rest and after heat stress. Fish sampled immediately after capture (–1.9°C) had low cortisol levels (10.4±1.4 ng ml^–1, mean±SEM) as did fish which were laboratory rested for 3 days. Sudden exposure to 5°C (48h) resulted in a peak cortisol value after 3 h (69.9±6.8 ng ml^–1) whereas exposure to 8°C (6h) resulted in a peak value after 1 h (73.5±8.0 ng ml^–1). At both temperatures levels remained significantly elevated (p<0.05) for the entire period of exposure. Increased temperature also resulted in a significant change in haemoglobin, haematocrit and mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (p<0.05). Plasma lactate was significantly elevated only after exposure to 8°C (p<0.05). Plasma cortisol levels fromP. borchgrevinki are reported here for the first time and show this cryopelagic Antarctic species to have an unusual hormonal stress profile.     

N-ethylmaleimide antagonizes stress-induced gastric ulcers in rats

Summary N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) 10 or 25 mg/kg b.wt, given s.c. 20 min beforehand, dose-dependently and significantly antagonizes the severity of gastric glandular ulcers produced by restraint at 4°C (stress) for 2 h. These findings suggest that reduced activity of endogenous nonprotein sulfhydryl substances in gastric tissue does not worsen stress-induced ulceration in rat stomachs, unlike the deleterious effect its depletion is claimed to have on ethanol-evoked gastric mucosal damage. Thus, decreased SH activity appears not to play a role in the aetiology of mucosal ulcers due to stress.     

Juvenile hormone and reproduction in the cricket. II. Effect of rearing temperature on corpus allatum activity (in vitro) in adult females

Summary In the Mediterranean field cricket,Gryllus bimaculatus, reproduction is controlled by temperature and the corpus allatum (CA) hormone JH III. In CA of females reared at 24°12°C(168 h) (high reproduction rate) a first peak in JH III synthesis is reached about 4 days earlier than in those of 20°C females (low reproduction rate). Furthermore, in 20°C animals CA activity is low during the entire oviposition period, whereas at 24°12°C high CA activity is found during this period of adult life. The results indicate a stimulation of CA activity and reproduction by thermoperiods around a constant low temperature.Supported by the DFG (SFB 87 A 4).     

Mixed life cycles in the transitional zone between voltinisms in the fall webworm,Hyphantria cunea

The fall webworm,Hyphantria cunea Drury, was introduced from North America into Japan at half a century ago. At present, the populations north of 36° N are bivoltine and those south of 36° N are trivoltine. In the present study, the life cycle in the transitional zone between voltinisms was clarified in Tsukuba (36.1° N). When fourth instar larvae of the second generation were collected in the field and maintained in the laboratory, the incidence of pupal diapause increased when the sampling date was delayed from 16 August to 5 September. The fact that some developed without diapause inidcates the occurrence of a trivoltine life cycle in this locality, where a bivoltine life cycle is predominant. The critical photoperiod for diapause induction at 20 and 25°C was 14 h 13 min and 14 h 10 min, respectively. The photoperiodic response may explain the rapid increase in diapause incidence in late summer. In laboratory-reared diapause pupae, the time and period of chilling (5°C) greatly influenced the time required for adult emergence at the final incubation temperature of 25°C. However, diapause pupae chilled for a sufficiently long period developed to adulthood rapidly, irrespective of the conditions before chilling. Therefore, the difference in timing of entering diapause between pupae of the second and third generations would not result in their temporal reproductive isolation in the following spring. It is concluded that the mixed voltinism in Tsukuba is not a result of a mixture of genetically distinct bivoltine and trivoltine populations, but a result of the phenotypic plasticity in a genetically rather homogeneous population.     

Auto-oxidation of hemoglobin in plasma

Summary The rate of auto-oxidation of human hemoglobin to methemoglobin was measured in plasma at 37°C. Halflives of hemoglobin were found to be 20 h, 12 h and 7 h at the oxygen tensions of 126, 57 and 23 mm Hg, respectively.     

Improved separation at low temperature of glycoproteins by Con A-Sepharose affinity chromatography in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)

Summary The Con A-Sepharose affinity chromatography of glycoproteins was even more effective at 4°C than that at room temperature (26–28°C) in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Application of this methodology to the seperation of several glycoproteins from SDS-solubilized membrane proteins in rat cerebellum, including a glycoprotein characteristics of the Purkinje cells, was sucessful.Acknowledgments. A part of this research was supported by a Grantin-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (No. 58480150), and also by a grant from National Center of Nervous, Mental and Muscular Disorders (NCNMMD) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (No.83-11) in Japan.     

Mutagenic activity of sodium bisulphite in barley

Summary Sodium bisulphite (7 and 10 mM) treatments administered at 30°C for 6 h have been found to be strongly mutagenic in barley.     

Differential scanning calorimetry of rat liver mitochondria

Summary Differential scanning calorimetry was employed for studying rat liver mitochondria and extracted mitochondrial lipids. Endothermic transition in the range 15–40°C was detected for the whole mitochondria and between 10–20°C for the extracted lipids.Acknowledgment. This work was supported in part by Volkswagen Foundation A.Z. 11-2711.     

Étude de l'activité in vitro de la glycogène phosphorylase de la Carpe (Cyprinus carpio L.)

Summary In this paper we give some values of glycogen phosphorylase activity of heart, red muscle and white muscle from the Carp. We show that in vitro optimum temperature is 25°C for the fish, and not 30°C as in Mammalians. We also made measurements with rat and tench liver, but it has been impossible, under the same experimental conditions, to observe normal release of inorganic phosphorus from G-1-P with carp liver.     

Developmental patterns of supercooling capacity in a subantarctic wingless fly

Anatalanta aptera is a wingless fly which lives in subantarctic islands, particularly in sea bird colonies. Developmental patterns of supercooling capacity were studied in an experimental population reared at 5°C and fed ad libitum. Mean supercooling points of the eggs, second and third instar larvae, pupae, teneral and mature adults were –28.0°C, –10.8°C, –8.8°C, 17.6°C, –16.6°C and –8.2°C respectively. Low mean supercooling points were found for inactive stages (eggs, pupae) and, unexpectedly among Diptera, teneral adults. Mature adults had a combination of low supercooling ability, high lipid content and physogastry. The results are compared with those obtained in winged species from other families of Diptera.