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Query: UMLS:C0847097 (acidity)
 15,165 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Published figures for per capita daily levels of nitrate ingestion in the 1970s are compared with gastric cancer mortality estimates for the same period. A strong positive correlation is observed in 12 countries, not only when the data are analyzed as a linear-linear function, as illustrated in this paper, but also when the relationship is analyzed as a function of (nitrate)2. This correlation supports the concept that important components of gastric cancer induction are the in vivo bacterial reduction of nitrate to nitrite and the intragastric formation of mutagenic/carcinogenic nitroso, and possibly nitro compounds. Data are summarized from a recent National Academy of Sciences [1981] study that enumerates by individual dietary sources the mean ingestion of nitrate and nitrite by the United States population at the present time. The ingestion figures are used to calculate the probable current gastric nitrite load in US adults with normal gastric acidity. Similar calculations are provided for past years (1925, 1936-1937, and 1971-1972). Since 1925, there has been an approximately threefold decrease in gastric cancer mortality in the US, and this decline is paralleled by an approximately fourfold decrease in average gastric nitrite load. The excessive ingestion of nitrate/nitrite in the US in past years is attributed to the very high content of nitrate and nitrite in cured meats. Several ways compatible with current US farming and marketing practices that are capable of reducing the gastric nitrite load even further are pointed out.
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PMID:Review: putative mutagens and carcinogens in foods. I. Nitrate/nitrite ingestion and gastric cancer mortality. 683 84

The toxic action of nitrates and nitrites has often been summarized by methemoglobinemia and nitrosation of amines inducing carcinogenic effects; these two impacts are spectacular, but they hide varying more or less insidious actions recently studied and perceived. In the NO3/NO2 couple, it is accepted that especially nitrite ion lays down a toxicological problem, probably because of its particular chemical reactivity: nitrite ion, which is the base of nitrous acid HNO2 (pKa = 3.36) can react with many functional groups from dietary or endogenous origin; it is also a reducing agent, only oxidable by chemical oxidants or adequate enzyme systems; at the same time it is an oxidant for many reduced substrates. These different possibilities explain the chemical complexity of these compounds and almost their reactivity in biological various media with toxicological implications (modification of the redox state). In man, the presence of nitrates in the digestive tract may result in nitrite formation, because nitrate-reductase from bacterial or enterocyte origin; more particularly in stomach, nitrites are characterized by a great instability imputable to the low pH of gastric juice and to secreted factors which accelerate phenomena; at the same time, nitrates and nutrites exercise opposite effects on gastric secretion (volume, acidity, pepsin) and on gastric mucosal irrigation: while nitrates increase these different parameters, nitrites reduce secretory activity but correlations between secretion and irrigation show that nitrates induce a deep modification of hydric compartment whereas nitrites rather react through cellular anoxy. In intestine, nitrates and chiefly nitrites are very quickly absorbed by a passive mechanism and they are characterized by an extrahepatic cycle; nitrates and nitrites are also eliminated in large quantities by kidneys, and nitrates have a very high diuretic effect: these NO3- ions move Cl- ions, inducing a Na+ waste, a decrease in extracellular space and an alkalosis; this diuretic action of ionic origin is moreover increased by a rise in glomerular blood flow facilitating filtration; these compounds therefore present vasomotor effects, probably by an action on catecholamines whose metabolism is modified. Last, nitrates are suspected to be responsible for reproduction troubles, thyroid dysfunction, perturbances of vitamins availability and nutritional effects. Most of the impacts of nitrates and nitrites are now well known, but their cellular of molecular action is not clear, and as a result there is a suspicion in regard to these products very widely present in food.
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PMID:[Toxicologic and nutritional aspects of nitrates and nitrites]. 702 May 46

1. Unlike rhodopsin, the extracted 521-pigment of the Tokay gecko (Gekko gekko) is pH-sensitive and changes its spectral absorbance in the pH range of 4.5-7.3. The colour change is reversible and pH can be employed to adjust the spectral maximum anywhere between 490 nm and its native location at 521 nm.2. The hypsochromic shift with increasing acidity is opposite to that expected for the protonation of the Schiff base nitrogen and suggests an action on the secondary system of interacting charges that have long been postulated to adjust vertebrate visual pigment colour within the visible spectrum.3. Chloride ions modulate this pH effect in a systematic and significant manner. For the pigment extracted in the chloride-deficient state the colour change occurs in the pH range of 6.0-7.0, the midpoint being close to 6.5, suggesting the possible participation of the imidazole group of histidine as the functional moiety. With added NaCl the colour shifts to the region below pH 6.2.4. The modulating action of chloride is postulated to be a conformational change of the opsin leading to a shift of the secondary interacting site from one functional group to another or else to a change in pK of a single group due to the conformational alteration of the electrostatics of the system.5. At pH values between 7.5 and 9.0 a different mechanism becomes apparent. In this region a decrease occurs in the photopigment density as well as a shift in absorbance toward the blue. This alkaline effect is readily reversed either by adding NaCl or else by lowering the pH. Along with the other protective effects of chloride these ions serve to reduce or prevent this alkaline loss in density.6. Associated with this reversible photopigment loss is a reversible appearance of a product with a maximum at about 366 nm. The spectrum of this product is like that produced by the addition of 11-cis retinal to the extract. Acidification of the alkaline preparation leads to a restitution of the photopigment as well as to a reduction of the 366-product.7. Addition of hydroxylamine to the alkaline extract in appropriate concentration inhibits the restitution of pigment-521 with acid or NaCl, but adding 11-cis retinal to the system leads to restoration of the photopigment after acidification. All the evidence suggests that product-366 is either free 11-cis retinal or else held to the opsin in a form that does not alter its spectral absorbance. The alkaline effect is therefore a disruption of the aldimine bond of the visual pigment.8. In many respects the gecko 521-pigment behaves like the chicken cone pigment, iodopsin, suggesting that an investigation of the latter in terms of pH may be a worthy project for future study.9. With its ability to change colour with pH, with chloride, with nitrate, etc. the extractable gecko pigment offers possibilities for the investigation of mechanisms responsible for adjusting visual pigment absorbance throughout the visible spectrum. The techniques of circular dichroism, Raman spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, etc. may find here a suitable material for these studies.
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PMID:The gecko visual pigment: a pH indicator with a salt effect. 733 18

Effects of different abiotic factors (acidity, salinity, nitrate and temperature) on growth rate of root-nodule bacteria (Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium) strains were investigated in vitro. Strains isolated from Vicia faba L., Coronilla varia L. and Lupinus albus L. exhibited a large variation in tolerance of the above-mentioned factors. These bacteria should be screened under stimulated conditions for enhanced survival before selection to be used for commercial inoculant production. Linear correlation matrix data were useful to find the appropriate concentrations for the selection of the tolerant strains.
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PMID:Effect of some environmental factors on Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium strains. 762 Aug 14

A large number of studies have indicated associations between particulate air pollution and adverse health outcomes. Wintertime air pollution in particular has been associated with increased mortality. Identification of causal constituents of inhalable particulate matter has been elusive, although one candidate has been the acidity of the aerosol. Here we report measurements of acidic aerosol species made for approximately 1.5 years in Erfurt, Germany, and Sokolov, Czech Republic. In both locations, the burning of high-sulfur coal is the primary source of ambient air pollution. Twenty-four-hour average measurements were made for PM10, [particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter (da) < or = 10 microns], as well as fine particle (da < 2.5 microns) H+ and SO4(2-) for the entire study. Additionally, separate day and night measurements of fine particle H+, SO4(2-), NO3-, and NH4+ and the gases, SO2, HNO3, HONO, and NH3 were collected with an annular denuder/filter pack system over a 7-month (late winter-summer) period with additional measurements during pollution episodes the following winter. At both sites, 24-hr SO2 (mean concentrations of 52 micrograms/m3, with peak levels of > 585 micrograms/m3) and PM10 (mean concentration 60 micrograms m3) concentrations were quite high. However, aerosol SO4(2-) concentrations (mean concentration of approximately 10 micrograms/m3) were not as great as expected given the high SO2 concentrations, and acidity was very low (mean concentration of < 1 microgram/m3, with peak levels of only 7 micrograms/m3). Low acidity is likely to be the result of NH3 neutralization and slow conversion of SO2 to SO4(2-).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Measurement of acidic aerosol species in eastern Europe: implications for air pollution epidemiology. 765 78

Nitric oxide and superoxide, which are produced by several cell types, rapidly combine to form peroxynitrite. This reaction can result in nitric oxide scavenging, and thus mitigation of the biological effects of superoxide. Also, superoxide can trap and hence modulate the effects of nitric oxide; superoxide dismutase, by controlling superoxide levels, therefore can influence the reaction pathways open to nitric oxide. The production of peroxynitrite, however, causes its own sequelae of events: Although neither .NO nor superoxide is a strong oxidant, peroxynitrite is a potent and versatile oxidant that can attack a wide range of biological targets. The peroxynitrite anion is relatively stable, but its acid, peroxynitrous acid (HOONO), rearranges to form nitrate with a half-life of approximately 1 s at pH 7, 37 degrees C. HOONO exists as a Boltzmann distribution of rotamers; at 5-37 degrees C HOONO has an apparent acidity constant, pKa,app, of 6.8. Oxidation reactions of HOONO can involve two-electron processes (such as an SN2 displacement) or a one-electron transfer (ET) reaction in which the substrate is oxidized by one electron and peroxynitrite is reduced. These oxidation reactions could involve one of two mechanisms. The first mechanism is homolysis of HOONO to give HO. and .NO2, which initially are held together in a solvent cage. This caged pair of radicals (the "geminate" pair) can either diffuse apart, giving free radicals that can perform oxidations, or react together either to form nitrate or to reform HOONO (a process called cage return). A large amount of cage return can explain the small entropy of activation (Arrhenius A-factor) observed for the decomposition of HOONO. A cage mechanism also can explain the residual yield of nitrate that appears to be formed even in the presence of high concentrations of all of the scavengers studied to date, since scavengers capture only free HO. and .NO2 and not caged radicals. If the cage mechanism is correct, the rate of disappearance of peroxynitrite be slower in solvents of higher viscosity, and we do not find this to be the case. The second mechanism is that an activated isomer of peroxynitrous acid, HOONO*, can be formed in a steady state. The HOONO* mechanism can explain the inability of hydroxyl radical scavengers to completely block either nitrate formation or the oxidation of substrates such as methionine, since HOONO* would be less reactive, and therefore more selective, than the hydroxyl radical itself.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The chemistry of peroxynitrite: a product from the reaction of nitric oxide with superoxide. 776 72

A pH dependent reduction in growth, pigment, ATP content, O2- evolution, carbon fixation, photosynthetic electron transport system, nutrient uptake (NO3- and NH4+), nitrate reductase, and ATPase activities and increase in K+ efflux of Chlorella vulgaris was noticed following supplementation of Cu and Ni to the culture medium. PS II was found to be more sensitive to both pH and metals than PS I. Though, nitrate reductase (NR) was more sensitive to both pH and metals, the ATPase was however, more sensitive to metals but less sensitive to acidic pH. Acid pH was found to inhibit the nutrient (NO3- and NH4+) uptake and nitrate reductase in a non-competitive manner. The inhibition produced by the test metals alone was of non-competitive type for NO3- uptake, nitrate reductase and ATPase and competitive for NH4+ uptake. Acidity not only inhibited the metabolic variables directly but also through facilitated uptake of metals and increased membrane permeability. A very low sensitivity of ATPase to acidic pH seems to be responsible for the survival of algae in acid environment.
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PMID:Effect of Cu and Ni on growth, mineral uptake, photosynthesis and enzyme activities of Chlorella vulgaris at different pH values. 802 20

This study concerns the inhibitory effects of acid pH and nickel on growth, nutrient (NO3- and NH4+) uptake, carbon fixation, O2 evolution, electron transport chain and enzyme (nitrate reductase and ATPase) activities of acid tolerant and wild-type strains of Chlorella vulgaris. Though a general reduction in all these variables was noticed with decreasing pH, the tolerant strain was found to be metabolically more active than the wild-type. A reduced cation (NH4+, Na+, K+ and Ca2+) uptake, coupled with a facilitated influx of anions (NH4+, PO4(3-) and HCO3-), suggested the development of a positive membrane potential in acid tolerant Chlorella. Nevertheless, a tremendous increase in ATPase activity at decreasing pH revealed the involvement of superactive ATPase in exporting H+ ions and keeping the internal pH neutral. A difference in Na+ and K+ efflux of the two strains at decreasing pH suggests there is a difference in membrane permeability. The low toxicity of Ni in the acid tolerant strain may be due to the low Ni uptake brought about by a change in membrane potential as well as in permeability. Hence, the development of superactive ATPase and a change in both membrane potential and permeability not only offers protection against acidity, but also co-tolerance to metals.
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PMID:Effect of nickel on certain physiological and biochemical behaviors of an acid tolerant Chlorella vulgaris. 814 21

Streptozotocin (STZ), a diabetogenic agent, is thought to damage pancreatic beta-cells by activating immune mechanisms and by alkylating DNA. In the present study, we demonstrated that STZ can produce nitric oxide (NO), a bioregulatory and cytotoxic molecule. When STZ was dissolved in a sodium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.4) and irradiated with a 22 W circular fluorescent light, nitrite and nitrate, stable oxidation products of NO, were produced. The wavelengths of light most responsible for the photo-decomposition were 300-310 nm and 410-420 nm. When a mixture of reduced hemoglobin and STZ was irradiated with UV light (280-320 nm), hemoglobin underwent characteristic NO-dependent spectral changes. STZ relaxed deendothelialized aortic strips only in the presence of light. STZ/light-dependent relaxation was attenuated by reduced hemoglobin. These results indicated photo-induced NO production from STZ. NO generation depended on the concentration of STZ, the duration of irradiation, and the distance between sample and light source. In acidic conditions, NO production from STZ was spontaneous even in the dark. Light-independent NO generation was augmented by increasing acidity, and markedly diminished in a D2O-based buffer, indicating the involvement of protons in the mechanism of STZ decomposition in acid. These results imply the usefulness of STZ as an NO-generating reagent, and indicate that direct NO-generation may be a mechanism of STZ toxicity in diabetogenesis.
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PMID:Nitric oxide generation from streptozotocin. 818 71

The quality of tomato fruit and juice (Lycopersicon esculentum L. cv. VF M82-1-8) grown in an aerohydroponic system in a greenhouse was affected by the level of Cl- and NO3-, and by the osmotic potential (OP) of the nutrient solutions. The total suspended solids (degrees Brix) in the fresh juice increased from approximately 4.0 in the nonsaline solutions (OP approximately -0.05 MPa) to approximately 5.6-5.8 in the saline solutions (OP approximately -0.45 MPa). Juice acidity was similarly affected by the Cl-, NO3- and OP levels in the nutrient solutions. Less affected, the ascorbic acid content of juice, was lowest (approximately 8-9 mg/100 cc) in the high-NO(3-) -nonsaline solution treatments, and was between 10 and 12 mg/100 cc at OP levels greater than approximately -0.2 MPa. NO3- in the juice was high (approximately 60 mg/L) under low OP conditions (approximately -0.05 to -0.1 MPa), especially when combined with high NO3- levels, and lower (between 8 and 30 mg/L) in plants exposed to saline conditions (low OP). Fruit puffiness (boxiness) was reduced markedly by salinity and was not considerably affected by the NO3-/Cl- ratio, while fruit firmness was influenced by both factors.
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PMID:The quality of tomato for canning as affected by combined chloride, nitrate and osmotic potential of the nutrient solution. 850 35


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