BACKGROUND Metformin is known to be rarely associated with lactic acidosis, a serious condition with a poor prognosis. AIM To review the National Pharmacovigilance Network of the Italian Medicines Agency reporting cases of metformin-associated lactic acidosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The National Pharmacovigilance Network of the Italian Medicines Agency, was searched for cases of lactic acido...

In cardiac myocytes, sustained (3 min) intracellular acidosis activates the ERK1/2 (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2) pathway and, through this pathway, increases sarcolemmal NHE (Na+/H+ exchanger) activity [Haworth, McCann, Snabaitis, Roberts and Avkiran (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 31676-31684]. In the present study, we aimed to determine the time-dependence, pH-dependence and upstream...

THE PREOPTIC AREA and anterior hypothalamus (POAH) is regarded as the primary site for thermoreception in the mammalian brain. Peripheral thermal afferents synapse on temperature-sensitive neurons in the POAH. The POAH, in particular, contains a high concentration of warm-sensitive neurons, which are proposed to activate heat-loss responses while inhibiting heat-production. Accordingly, electri...

Lactic acidosis is a potentially life-threatening metabolic disorder, initiated by an imbalance between lactic acid production and utilization. The only effective treatment is reversal of the cause of the disordered lactic acid metabolism [1]. Intravenous bicarbonate (HCO3 ) administration is often used as an interim treatment to attempt to ameliorate the effects of the acidosis, particularly v...

The effects of respiratory and metabolic acidosis on myocardial contractility and energy production have been investigated in the perfused rat heart. Respiratory acidosis, produced by increasing the Pco2 , caused an 80% inhibition of pressure development at pH 6.7. When artificial buffers (plus HCI) were used in place of bicarbonate and CO2, only a 30% inhibition of pressure development was obs...

Oxidative phosphorylation of isolated rat skeletal muscle mitochondria after exposure to lactic acidosis in either phosphorylating or nonphosphorylating states has been evaluated. Mitochondrial respiration and transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) were measured with pyruvate and malate as the substrates. The addition of lactic acid decreased the pH of the reaction medium from 7.5 to 6.4. When lactic ac...

INTRODUCTION Type B lactic acidosis represents a rare and often lethal complication of haematological malignancy. Here, we present a patient who developed a type B lactic acidosis presumably due to a concurrent chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. Upon swift initiation of cytoreductive chemotherapy (doxorubicin), the lactic acidosis was rapidly brought under control. This case adds to the literatu...