Serum mucoid

Numerous studies have been carried out in animals in which total adrenalectomy has been performed and subsequent injury has not been accompanied by replacement therapy. The 2 acute phase globulins rise after repeated injurious stimuli in rats adrenalectomized animals retain the globulin response and serum mucoid response to tissue damage although it is reduced. Replacement therapy with cortisol in adrenalectomized animals restores the response to normal (W3). Adrenalectomy suppresses the breakdown of liver polypeptides and urinary nitrogen excretion in rats subjected to whole-body irradiation (Nl). 

The search for useful inhaled antibiotics has been driven, in part, by a concern about the adequacy of systemic antimicrobial therapy for respiratory infections. Some agents, including aminoglycoside antibiotics, exhibit limited penetration into respiratory tract secretions. In fact, aminoglycosides may achieve sputum concentrations that are 12% of related serum concentrations. In addition, cystic fibrosis patients are often colonized with mucoid strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This phenotype is associated with a further reduction in penetration of antibiotics. 

These are protein-carbohydrate compounds which contain 10-75% of carbohydrate and over 4% of hexosamines (as distinct from glycoproteins which contain from a trace up to 15% carbohydrate and less than 4% of hexosamines). Oroso-mucoid, haptoglobin and haemopexin are examples of muco-proteins. Increased serum mucoprotein levels are found in many inflammatory conditions such as acute infections and rheumatoid arthritis. Mucoproteins can be estimated by selective precipitation using phosphotungstic acid, followed by determination of the protein or carbohydrate content of the precipitate. 

At least two species of sialic acid, V-acetyl- and N-glycolylneura-minic acids, have been identified in poultry serum, together with a very small amount of a third species, possibly A, 0-diacetylneuraminic acid (Faillard and Cabezas, 1%3 Dzulynska f u/., 1%9). The nest-cement-ing substance of the Chinese swiftlet, collocalia mucoid, is a glycoprotein containing V-acetyl-4-O-acetylneuraminic acid (Kathan and Weeks, 1969). 

---