A specific high-pressure liquid chromatographic method for the determination of chlorpheniramine and pseudoephedrine in urine was developed and applied in a urinary excretion study of normal healthy subjects who received a sustained-release dosage form contianing 8 mgof chlorpheniramine maleate and 120 mg of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. Five subjects received one dose on Day 1, followed by multiple dosing every 12 hr for 7 days without ammonium chloride administration. Four subjects received one dose of the sustained-release dosage form together with ammonium chloride. Urine samples were collected during the 1st day and at steady state. The method is specific and simultaneously determines choorpheniramine, two metabolites (mono- and di-desmethylchlorpheniramine), pseudoephedrine, and norpseudoephedrine. The assay recovery was less than 97% (0.06-3 microgram/ml) for chlorpheniramine maleate and less than 98% (1.5-75 microgram/ml) for pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. Excretion of chlorpheniramine and its two metabolites in urine was enhanced after ammonium chloride administration. At steady state, a change in urine pH from 5.69 to 6.46 resulted in more than a 25% decrease in chlorpheniramine and monodesmethylchlorpheniramine excretion. In spite of expected changes in its biological half-life, the overall amount of unchanged pseudoephedrine excreted in urine was not affected by urine pH, presumably because it is primarily excreted in urine as intact drug.

Painful unanesthetized arterial puncture may produce transient hyperventilation, and this hyperventilation might alter resting values of arterial pH and PCO2. We investigated this possibility by comparing pH and PCO2 values of blood samples obtained by arterial puncture with values of arterialized venous blood obtained by a painless method. In 19 consecutive subjects, virtually no difference in pH or PCO2 resulted from an arterial puncture that could not be attributed to the inherent precision of the measuring instrument. Mean +/- SEM pH was identical (7.45 +/- 0.05) both before and during an arterial puncture, as was PCO2 (34.4 +/- 1.2 mm Hg). The variation (SD) in PCO2 within an individual subject was +/- 1.7 mm Hg, which was almost identical to the inherent precision of the Radiometer ABL-2 acid base laboratory (SD, +/- 1.32). We conclude that an unanesthetized arterial puncture provides an accurate measurement of resting pH and PCO2.

Mycobacterium lacticolum 121 grows and synthesizes exopolysaccharide at the initial values of pH of the medium from 5.0 to 11.5. The accumulation of biomass is maximal (10 to 12 gram/litre) at pH 6.0 to 11.5; the rate of growth is highest at pH 8.0 to 11.5. The largest amount of exopolysaccharide (2.0 to 2.4 gram/litre) is produced in the medium at pH 8.0 to 11.0; the rate of its production is highest at pH 9.0 to 11.0. The growth of Mycobacterium lacticolum 121 and the biosynthesis of polysaccharide are optimal at pH 8.0 to 8.2. Changes in acidity of the medium have no effect on the qualitative composition, structure, and molecular weight of the polysaccharide.

The levels of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase in various rat tissues including those undergoing differentiation or regeneration revealed that the enzyme is related to tissue proliferation and differentiation. In the liver upon neoplastic transformation, the level of glucosamine 6-phosphate synthetase rises and the liver form of the enzyme having a pI at 5.0 is replaced by a form with a pI of 4.1. Since the latter form has also been found present in whole embryos (12- and 14-day) and brain, the molecular alterations of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase in liver neoplasia can be considered to be carcinofetal.

We have observed a high and significant mortality in spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to normotensive and hypotensive controls, in the fifth generation. The hypertensive rats exhibited a high frequency of cerebral haemorrhage and periarteritis nodosa.

Microsomal phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (phosphatidate phosphatase EC 3.1.3.4) was solubilized and fractionated to yield at least two distinct enzymatically active fractions. One, denoted FA, was non-specific, had a relatively high Km for phosphatidic acid and was insensitive to inhibition by diacylglycerol. The second fraction, FB, was specific for phosphatidates, had a low Km, and was inhibited, non-competitively, by diacylglycerol. FA exhibited a sigmoid substrate-activity curve. The isolated FB aggregated to particles of about 10(6) in the absence of salts and could be dissociated by the addition of monovalent cations at ionic strength 0.4-0.6 to about 2-10(5) daltons and thereby doubled its activity. Dissociation was time- and temperature-dependent. F- was inhibitory. Divalent ions were not required for the activity of FA or FB and inhibited at concentrations exceeding 1 mM.