L-Glutamine therapy reduces endothelial adhesion of sickle red blood cells to human umbilical vein endothelial cells

BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that therapy with orally administered L-glutamine improves nicotinamide adenosine dinucleotide (NAD) redox potential of sickle red blood cells (RBC). On further analysis of L-glutamine therapy for sickle cell anemia patients, the effect of L-glutamine on adhesion of sickle RBC to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) was examined. METHODS: The first part of the experiment was conducted with the blood samples of the 5 adult sickle cell anemia patients who had been on L-glutamine therapy for at least 4 weeks on a dosage of 30 grams per day compared to those of patient control group. In the second part of the experiment 6 patients with sickle cell anemia were studied longitudinally. Five of these patients were treated with oral L-glutamine 30 grams daily and one was observed without treatment as the control. t-test and paired t-test were used for determination of statistical significance in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies respectively. RESULTS: In the first study, the mean adhesion to endothelial cells with the autologous plasma incubated cells were 0.97 ± 0.45 for the treated group and 1.91 ± 0.53 for the nontreated group (p < 0.02). Similarly with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) incubated cells the mean adhesion to endothelial cells were 1.39 ± 0.33 for the treated group and 2.80 ± 0.47 for the untreated group (p < 0.001). With the longitudinal experiment, mean decrease in the adhesion to endothelial cells was 1.13 ± 0.21 (p < 0.001) for the 5 treated patients whereas the control patient had slight increase in the adhesion to endothelial cells. CONCLUSION: In these studies, oral L-glutamine administration consistently resulted in improvement of sickle RBC adhesion to HUVEC. These data suggest positive physiological effects of L-glutamine in sickle cell disease

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Soil and nutrients losses under different crop covers in vertisols of Central India

Not AvailableAccelerated erosion removes fertile top soil along with nutrients through runoff and sediments, eventually affecting crop productivity and land degradation. However, scanty information is available on soil and nutrient losses under different crop covers in a vertisol of Central India. Thus, a field experiment was conducted for 4 years (2010–2013) to study the effect of different crop cover combinations on soil and nutrient losses through runoff in a vertisol. Materials and methods Very limited information is available on runoff, soil, and nutrient losses under different vegetative covers in a rainfed vertisol. Thus, the hypothesis of the study was to evaluate if different crop cover combinations would have greater impact on reducing soil and nutrient losses compared to control plots in a vertisol. This experiment consisted of seven treatment combinations of crop covers namely soybean (Glycine max) (CC1), maize (Zea mays) (CC2), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) (CC3), soybean (Glycine max) + maize (Zea mays) − 1:1 (CC4), soybean (Glycine ma x) + pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) −2:1 (CC5), maize (Zea mays) + pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) − 1:1 (CC6), and cultivated fallow (CC7). The plot size was 10 × 5 m with 1% slope, and runoff and soil loss were measured using multi-slot devisor. All treatments were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications. Results and discussion Results demonstrated that the runoff and soil loss were significantly (p < 0.05) higher (289 mm and 3.92 Mg ha−1) under cultivated fallow than those in cropped plots. Among various crop covers, sole pigeon pea (CC3) recorded significantly higher runoff and soil loss (257 mm and 3.16 Mg ha−1) followed by that under sole maize (CC2) (235 mm and 2.85 Mg ha−1) and the intercrops were in the order of maize + pigeon pea (211 mm and 2.47 Mg ha−1) followed by soybean + maize (202 mm and 2.38 Mg ha−1), and soybean + pigeon pea (195 mm and 2.15 Mg ha−1). The lowest runoff and soil loss were recorded under soybean sole crop (194 mm and 2.27 Mg ha−1). The data on nutrient losses indicated that the highest losses of soil organic carbon (SOC) (25.83 kg ha−1), total nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) (7.76, 0.96, 32.5 kg ha−1) were recorded in cultivated fallow (CC7) as compared to those from sole and intercrop treatments. However, sole soybean and its intercrops recorded the minimum losses of SOC and total N, P, and K, whereas the maximum losses of nutrients were recorded under pigeon pea (CC3). The system productivity in terms of soybean grain equivalent yield (SGEY) was higher (p < 0.05) from maize + pigeon pea (3358 kg ha−1) followed by that for soybean + pigeon pea (2191 kg ha−1) as compared to sole soybean. Therefore, maize + pigeon pea (1:1) intercropping is the promising option in reducing runoff, soil-nutrient losses, and enhancing crop productivity in the hot sub-humid eco-region. Conclusions Study results highlight the need for maintenance of suitable vegetative cover as of great significance to diffusing the erosive energy of heavy rains and also safe guarding the soil resource from degradation by water erosion in vertisols.Not Availabl