Skeletal alteration processes

The properties described above have important consequences for the way in which these skeletal tissues are subsequently preserved, and hence their usefulness or otherwise as recorders of dietary signals. Several points from the discussion above are relevant here. It is useful to ask what are the most important mechanisms or routes for change in buried bones and teeth One could divide these processes into those with simple addition of new non-apatitic material (various minerals such as pyrites, silicates and simple carbonates) in pores and spaces (Hassan and Ortner 1977), and those related to change within the apatite crystals, usually in the form of recrystallization and crystal growth. The first kind of process has severe implications for alteration of bone and dentine, partly because they are porous materials with high surface area initially and because the approximately 20-30% by volume occupied by collagen is subsequently lost by hydrolysis and/or consumption by bacteria and the void filled by new minerals. Enamel is much denser and contains no pores or Haversian canals and there is very, little organic material to lose and replace with extraneous material. Cracks are the only interstices available for deposition of material. 

It has been postulated that 2-PAM exerts its cardiac action in rabbit atria through its alteration of calcium metabolism. The relaxation phase of skeletal muscle contraction seems to be directly affected by the sarcoplasmic reticulum because of its ability to sequester calcium actively.29,46 a similar role has been suggested for the sarcoplasmic reticulum in cardiac muscle. 6,83 The onset of muscle contraction takes place when calcium reaches a crit-cal concentration. This contraction is later reduced by the increased calcium-sequestering activity of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Thus, 2-PAM can affect this process by decreasing the rate of calcium uptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which results in increasing the time required to reduce the calcium concentration enough to allow relaxation to take place. This was demonstrated by the Increase in the relaxation phase. It was suggested that this... 

There is no such clear cut difTcrcnlialiun as metamorphosis in the mammal, but development is an extremely complex process and has been shown to depend upon the presence of adequate amounts of thyroid hormones. Deficient development, especially of the central nervous system, is marked in ehildren suffering from thyroid deficiency early in life, ansi this inadequacy cannot be overcome completely by medication commenced after the first few weeks. In the adult, thyroxine is important in the maintenance of energy turnover in most of the tissues of the body, such as the heart, skeletal muscle, liver, and kidney, Other physiological functions, most notably brain aclivity and reproduction, are also dependent upon thyroxine, although the metabolic rales of the tissues concerned in these functions do not seem to be altered. 

Studies of the pyrene label on actin indicate that the ATP-induced dissociation of actin occurs via a three-step process (steps 1, 2, and c, Scheme 1 Millar and Geeves, 1983). Initial fast equilibrium binding of ATP (controlled by and probably diffusion limited) is followed by an isomerization that alters the environment of the pyrene label on actin. This isomerization is fast in myosin II and much slower for some non-muscle myosins (-500 s-1 for Dictyostelium myosin II Kurzawa et al., 1997 >1000 s-1 for rabbit skeletal myosin II, Geeves andjeffries, 1988 100 s-1 for myosin lb at 20°C Coluccio and Geeves, 1999) and is accompanied by a very rapid... 

In light of the increased number of man-6-P/IGF-II receptors in I-cell fibroblasts, the above interactions of IGF could have far-reaching effects. For example, I-cell disease has not been typically associated with abnormalities in phos-phorous/calcium metabolism. The extensive skeletal deformities could involve impairment of mechanisms of orderly calcium deposition. Rather than resulting from a primary disorder of calcium metabolism, it is possible that the bone lesions in I-cell disease are secondary to altered lysosomal processing events in the kidney or liver. 

Hurley and her collaborators have studied the perosis (faulty tendons) induced by both Mn and Zn deficiencies (17-19). Previous workers have described skeletal abnormalities in chicks and rats including disproportionate growth of skeleton, bone rarefaction and chondrodystrophy, as overt manifestation of zinc deficiency (20,21). Hurley e t al., were able to demonstrate that the metabolic lesion produced by Mn was quite different from that produced by the absence of Zn. In the case of Mn there was no alteration in the mineralization processes measured by the dynamics of radiocalcium movement. The influence of trace elements on in vitro tissue cultures of chick osteoblasts has been reported (22). Among the elements required were Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn. 

The metabolism of calcium is linked intimately with that of phosphate (Figure 49-23). " The homeostatic mechanisms are directed principally toward the maintenance of normal extracellular calcium and phosphate concentrations, which sustain the extracellular and intracellular processes and provide substrate for skeletal mineralization. The parathyroid gland responds to a decrease in free calcium concentration within seconds. During a time of calcium deprivation, the increase in serum PTH rapidly alters both renal and skeletal metabolism. 

Spectrum of consequences of defects in fatty acid oxidation. The primary effect is inadequate production of acetyl-CoA, which leads to decreased flux through the TCA cycle and lack of ketone body synthesis in the liver. Both of these events cause energy deficits and changes in metabolic regulatory processes. Alterations in hepatic metabolism lead to hypoglycemia and hyperammonemia. Abnormalities also occur in skeletal and cardiac muscle and in the central nervous system. 

Because altered sodium channels have been implicated in kdr and kdr-like resistance phenomena in insects, basic research on the biochemistry and molecular biology of this molecule, which plays a central role in normal processes of nervous excitation in animals, is of immediate relevance. The results of recent investigations of the voltage-sensitive sodium channels of vertebrate nerves and muscles have provided unprecedented insight into the structure of this large and complex membrane macromolecule. Sodium channel components from electric eel electroplax, mammalian brain, and mammalian skeletal muscle have been solubilized and purified (for a recent review, see Ref. 19). A large a subunit (ca. 2 60 kDa) is a common feature of all purified channels in addition, there is evidence for two smaller subunits ( Jl and J2 37-39 kDa) associated with the mammalian brain sodium channel and for one or two smaller subunits of similar size associated with muscle sodium channels. Reconstitution experiments with rat brain channel components show that incorporation of the a and pi subunits into phospholipid membranes in the presence of brain lipids or brain phosphatidylethanolamine is sufficient to produce all of the functional properties of sodium channels in native membranes (AA). Similar results have been obtained with purified rabbit muscle (45) and eel electroplax (AS.) sodium channels. 

In the NT-3 knockout mice, most sensory neuron populations were reduced in number. These alterations affected several sensory modalities, including somatosensory information processed by the DRGs and by the trigeminal ganglion, interoceptive visceral information conveyed by petrose-nodose ganglion cells and propioceptive information processed by DRG neurons and by the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve. During normal development, innervation of skeletal muscle by la and Ib DRG neurons induces formation... 

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