The cytotoxicity of spergualin on cultured L5178Y cells is dependent on the kind of serum contained in culture media. Spergualin has stronger cytotoxicity to L5178Y cells in calf serum (IC50 = 2 micrograms/ml) than in horse serum (IC50 = 60 micrograms/ml). This was thought to be caused by amine oxidase in sera. Because calf serum was rich in amine oxidase and horse serum was very poor. Spergual...

The aim of this paper was to evaluate active principles for diabetic complications from Rhus verniciflua. Nine compounds were isolated via bioactivity guided fractionation and isolation and tested for their effects on recombinant human aldose reductase and advanced glycation endproducts. Butein and sulfuretin isolated from ethyl acetate fraction were found to possess strongly both forms of aldo...

Ionic selectivity of the acetylcholine-activated ionic channel of frog endplate membranes to various organic cations has been studied. The ratio of test cation permeability (PX) to sodium permeability (PNa) was estimated by two methods, one based on the measurements in test cation solutions of the amplitude of transient depolarization induced by iontophoretic application of acetylcholine, and t...

To address potential mechanisms for oxidative modification of lipids in vivo, we investigated the possibility that phospholipids react directly with glucose to form advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) that then initiate lipid oxidation. Phospholipid-linked AGEs formed readily in vitro, mimicking the absorbance, fluorescence, and immunochemical properties of AGEs that result from advanced...

Nonenzymatic glycation of proteins has been implicated in various diabetic complications and age-related disorders. Proteins undergo glycation at the N-terminus or at the epsilon-amino group of lysine residues. Glycation of proteins proceeds through the stages of Schiff base formation, conversion to ketoamine product and advanced glycation end products. Gramicidin S, which has two ornithine res...

Modern diets are largely heat-processed and as a result contain high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Dietary advanced glycation end products (dAGEs) are known to contribute to increased oxidant stress and inflammation, which are linked to the recent epidemics of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This report significantly expands the available dAGE database, validates the dA...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of carnosine (CA), aminoguanidine (AG), and aspirin (ASA) drops, all inhibitors of glycation, on the development of diabetic cataract in rat. METHODS Rats were made diabetic with streptozotocin, and based on the level of plasma glucose, they were assigned as non-diabetic rats (<14 mmol/l plasma glucose) and diabetic rats (>14 mmol/l plasma glucose). Animals i...

Fertile eggs were injected 10 or 20 mg/egg of aminoguanidine sulfate (AGS) into the albumen on the 5th day of incubation and examined macroscopically and histopathologically. The marked abnormalities were observed in liver, gallbladder and spleen while other organs were not different from the control. The earliest change was an increase of mitotic cells in the liver which reached to the peak at...

Nitric oxide (NO) is a soluble gas that participates in important functions of the central nervous system, such as cognitive function, maintenance of synaptic plasticity for the control of sleep, appetite, body temperature, neurosecretion, and antinociception. Furthermore, during exercise large amounts of NO are released that contribute to maintaining body homeostasis. Besides NO production, ph...

IOxidative stress development in different brain structures and the influence of nitric oxide (NO) overproduction during sepsis was investigated using male Wistar rats. Rats were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or were sham-operated. To evaluate the source of NO production, 30 min before the operation septic and control animals were treated with single intraperitoneal doses of NO...