Changes of the renin-angiotensin and of the kallikrein-kinin system after administration of saline, christalloid and colloid solution in the rat. Effects of captopril.

Analysis of the Thymidylate Synthase Gene Structure in Colorectal Cancer Patients and Its Possible Relation with the 5-Fluorouracil Drug Response

Thymidylate synthase (TS) catalyzes methylation of dUMP to dTMP and it is the target for the 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) activity. Barbour et al. showed that variant structural forms of TS in tumour cell lines confer resistance to fluoropyrimidines. We planned to perform the whole TS gene structure by means of sequencing techniques in human colorectal cancer (CRC) samples to try to identify the presence of any possible TS variant form that could be responsible of fluoropyrimidines drug resistance and of the worse prognosis. We performed the TS-DNA gene sequence in 68 CRC from patients of A, B, and C Dukes' stages and different histological grade, but we did not find any mutation in the TS-DNA str…

Variations of plas14a benin activity and aldostehone levels in the rat after administration of saline, chrystalloid and colloid solutions

Abstract The data reported in the present paper refer to quantitative variations of plasma renin activity (PRA.) and of plasma aldosterone levels in rats after adiministration of saline, chrystalloid and colloid solutions. In our experimental conditions PRA and plasma aldosterone levels were shown to increase significantly after administration of distilled water and glucose solution. Variations of PRA and plasma aldosterone levels were only slight when plasma volume was made to increase due to administration of polyvinylpirrolidone solution. PRA, instead, was significantly lower in rats having received saline salution.