Myoglobin content and enzymatic activity of muscle and altitude adaptation

Quantitative determinations of myoglobin were made in the sartorius muscle of healthy human subjects native to sea level and high altitude. The specific activities of the reduced form of diphosphopyridine nucleotide oxidase (DPNH-oxidase), DPNH- and the reduced form of triphosphopyridine nucleotide (TPNH)-cytochrome c reductases, transhydrogenase, and isocitric and lactic dehydrogenases were also examined. There was found a significantly higher myoglobin concentration in the muscle of the high-altitude native as compared with the sea-level resident. The enzyme systems DPNH-oxidase, TPNH-cytochrome c reductase, and transhydrogenase similarly showed a significantly higher activity in the altitude resident. It was concluded that the respiratory capacity of the muscle was apparently higher in the altitude native than in the sea-level one. The enhanced enzymatic activity was probably related to the higher pigment content of the skeletal muscle. Results on myoglobin determinations in several other muscles from certain sea-level patients are discussed.

Submitted on July 24, 1961

ON THE MECHANISM OF SOME TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON DROSOPHILA

The results of detailed kinetic studies on temperature adaptation and on crossvein deformation in Drosophila melanogaster pupae are presented. A scheme which unifies most of these effects is offered, suggesting that the basic events are a series of changes in the tertiary structure of a protein. Implications of the findings and the scheme are discussed with particular respect to temperature adaptation and to development.

EVOLUTION OF THE IMMUNE RESPONSE. I. THE PHYLOGENETIC DEVELOPMENT OF ADAPTIVE IMMUNOLOGIC RESPONSIVENESS IN VERTEBRATES

1. The California hagfish, Eptatretus stoutii, seems to be completely lacking in adaptive immunity: it forms no detectable circulating antibody despite intensive stimulation with a range of antigens; it does not show reactivity to old tuberculin following sensitization with BCG; and gives no evidence of homograft immunity. 2. Studies on the sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, have been limited to the response to bacteriophage T(2) and hemocyanin in small groups of spawning animals. They suggest that the lamprey may have a low degree of immunologic reactivity. 3. One holostean, the bowfin (Amia calva) and the guitarfish (Rhinobatos productus), an elasmobranch, showed a low level of primary response to phage and hemocyanin. The response is slow and antibody levels low. Both the bowfin and the guitarfish showed a vigorous secondary response to phage, but neither showed much enhancement of reactivity to hemocyanin in the secondary response. The bowfin formed precipitating antibody to hemocyanin, but the guitarfish did not. Both hemagglutinating and precipitating antibody to hemocyanin were also observed in the primary response of the black bass. 4. The bowfin was successfully sensitized to Ascaris antigen, and lesions of the delayed type developed after challenge at varying intervals following sensitization. 5. The horned shark (Heterodontus franciscii) regularly cleared hemocyanin from the circulation after both primary and secondary antigenic stimulation, and regularly formed hemagglutinating antibody, but not precipitating antibody, after both primary and secondary stimulation with this antigen. These animals regularly cleared bacteriophage from the circulation after both the primary and secondary stimulation with bacteriophage T(2). Significant but small amounts of antibody were produced in a few animals in the primary response, and larger amounts in the responding animals after secondary antigenic stimulation. 6. Studies by starch gel and immunoelectrophoresis show that the hagfish has no bands with mobilities of mammalian gamma globulins; that the lamprey has a single, relatively faint band of this type; and that multiple gamma bands are characteristic of the holostean, elasmobranchs, and teleosts studied. By this method of study, the bowfin appeared to have substantial amounts of gamma(2) globulin. 7. We conclude that adaptive immunity and its cellular and humoral correlates developed in the lowest vertebrates, and that a rising level of immunologic reactivity and an increasingly differentiated and complex immunologic mechanism are observed going up the phylogenetic scale from the hagfish, to the lamprey, to the elasmobranchs, to the holosteans, and finally the teleosts.

VESTIBULAR HABITUATION DURING REPETITIVE COMPLEX STIMULATION: A STUDY OF TRANFER EFFECTS

Thirty-two men were rotated at 7.5 rev/min while facing the center of the Pensacola slow rotation room for several hours. The men were seated 4 ft from the center of rotation; direction of rotation was toward the subject's left. During rotation, subjects were immobile except for series of measured head movements restricted to the frontal plane and to a particular quadrant of that plane for each subject. Nystagmus, illusory phenomena, and nausea were reduced by this procedure, but this habituation did not transfer to other forms of vestibular stimulation including that induced by head movements in an “unpracticed” quadrant of the same plane. Residual effects exhibited in “static tests” after the habituation program were primarily restricted to the practiced quadrant.

habituation; nystagmus; vestibular function

Submitted on January 15, 1964

RESPONSES OF COLD- AND WARM-ADAPTED DOGS TO INFUSED NOREPINEPHRINE AND ACUTE BODY COOLING

Oxygen consumption, heart rate, and colonic, pinna, and paw temperatures were recorded continuously in warm-adapted (W-A) and cold-adapted (C-A) dogs anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium (30 mg/kg), paralyzed with Flaxedil (5 mg/kg per hr), and mechanically ventilated. The dogs were infused with norepinephrine (1.25 µg/kg per min) for 20 min at 30 C and after 45 min of acute cold exposure to 5 C. Oxygen consumption of C-A dogs increased with a slight increase in the heart rate during the initial 18–20 min of body cooling. O2 consumption decreased continuously during cold exposure in W-A dogs. Calorigenic effects of infused noradrenaline were similar in C-A and W-A dogs at 30 C and 5 C. Heart rate increased in W-A dogs at 30 and 5 C. These results show that nonshivering thermogenesis is well developed by cold acclimation in dogs, and suggest that the increase may be due to an increase in noradrenaline in blood rather than to increased sensitivity of the animals to the calorigenic effects of noradrenaline.

MECHANISMS OF RECEPTOR ADAPTATION

Two determinants of adaptation in a mechanoreceptor (Pacinian corpuscle) are described. Both are filters of non-transients. One, a mechanical filter, prevents static components of the mechanical stimulus from reaching the transducer element (nerve ending). This filter is represented by the laminar capsule of the receptor. When the capsule is eliminated by dissection, the generator potential of the nerve ending in response to a sustained stimulus is markedly prolonged. Another filter is represented by an inactivation process of the mechanisms of nerve impulse initiation which prevents a steady outward current from producing repetitive impulses. Both filters cut the duration of the receptor response to a few milliseconds.

PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS TO HEAT OF BUSHMEN AND OF UNACCLIMATIZED AND ACCLIMATIZED BANTU

Bushmen in the Kalahari desert fulfill two criteria for acclimatization to heat. They exercise actively, in hunting, in relatively severe heat in midsummer. Compared with unacclimatized Bantu they have higher sweat rates per square meter and lower heart rates. However, rectal temperatures are not much lower than those of unacclimatized Bantu. River Bushmen present a paradoxical picture. In summer sweat rates are higher than in winter, but are not as high as desert Bushmen. Summer heart rates are, however, higher than in winter. Rectal temperatures in the two seasons are similar. The higher sweat rates in summer are good evidence of better acclimatization than in winter; the higher heart rates may be a reflection of differences in physical fitness in the two seasons.

association of morphology and metabolism on cold exposure; cold responses of Bantu, Bushmen, and Caucasians; heat conductance and skinfold thickness in cold; metabolisms of Bantu, Bushmen, and Caucasians in cold; toe, finger, and rectal temperatures of different ethnic groups in cold

Submitted on February 4, 1964

THE EFFECT OF ADAPTATION OF THE TASTE THRESHOLD OBSERVED WITH A SEMIAUTOMATIC GUSTOMETER

A special "gustometer" has been built, which permits continuous measurement of the threshold of taste sensations. Taste sensations show strong adaptation even at the threshold level. The adaptation was much the same for the four primary tastes, but there were large individual differences. Of theoretical interest is the finding that adaptation to a taste can occur even with subliminal stimuli.