Institute Of Experimental Biology Research Articles

To 110th anniversary of cardiac surgeon and researcher Igor N. Meshalkin

Igor N. Meshalkin (1913–1996) was Soviet cardiac surgeon, Dr. Sci. (Medicine). He was a graduate of the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute (2nd MSMI, now the N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University). He was a participant in the Great Patriotic War. Igor N. Meshalkin began his professional career as a medical resident and an assistant of the clinic of faculty surgery in the 2nd MSMI since 1947; then as a medical resident of the Main Military Hospital of the Armed Forces of the USSR since 1951 and an assistant of the general surgery department of the pediatric faculty in the 2nd MSMI since 1954. In 1958–1963, he headed the Department of Acquired Heart Diseases in the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine (now the E.N. Meshalkin National Medical Research Center). In 1963–1977, Igor N. Meshalkin was the head of the department in the Central Clinical Hospital of the 4th Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health. His research interests were focused on urgent abdominal surgery, thoracic surgery, mitral stenosis surgery. Igor N. Meshalkin was the author of 55 scientific works including two monographs. Received 8 November 2023. Accepted 14 November 2023. Funding: The study did not have sponsorship. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Contribution of the authors: The authors contributed equally to this article. Acknowledgment: The authors would like to thank Marina, daughter of Igor N. Meshalkin, for providing personal documents and photographs.

In Search of an Anti-Ageing Drug or the History of Gravidan Therapy in the USSR

The article is devoted to the history of discovery, experimental testing and practical implementation of the gravidan therapy, a method for the treatment of various diseases, introduced by the doctor named A. A. Zamkov. The method was based on the administration of gravidan, a preparation obtained from pregnant women’s urine. The inventor of this miracle drug promulgated a novel medical approach, based on the rehabilitation of the whole organism rather than of its poorly functioning individual organs. According to Zamkov, gravidan contained a complex of various hormones and bioactive substances, invigorated, aided in speedy recovery, and possessed a rejuvenating action. In 1930, after the publication of experiments with gravidan, conducted at the Institute of Experimental Biology, Zamkov was criticized by his scientific colleagues in the Izvestiya newspaper. Soon both he and his wife, the sculptress V. I. Mukhina, were arrested for their attempt to illegally escape abroad, sentenced with seizure of property, and sent into exile to Voronezh. At the time, Zamkov’s influential patients in Moscow joined in a campaign for his return to the capital. In 1932, he created the Laboratory of Urogravidan Therapy that was in 1933 reorganized into a scientific research institute. In 1938, after the Third Moscow Trial, where, inter alia, several physicians were accused of the deaths of a number of prominent figures in the Soviet Union, the USSR People’s Commissariat for Health Care dissolved the Institute of Urogravidan Therapy. The experiments with gravidan were prohibited but Zamkov and, after his death, Mukhina appealed to different authorities to permit production and therapeutic use of gravidan. In the end, it never came into widespread use in medical practice, as a rigorous testing of its effectiveness yielded the results that dispelled the myth of the omnipotent drug.

Turning the Pages of History

The article highlights the experience of the first years of the creation of Soviet science in the conditions of revolutionary upheavals and Russian civil war. It is noted that, despite the difficult internal and international situation of Soviet Russia, in the early 1920s 33 new research institutes were already operating, including those that would become the glory of Russian science in the future - the Institute of Brain and Mental Activity, the Institute of Experimental Biology, the Institute for the Study of the North. Along with laying the foundations for Soviet science, there was an intensive formation of a new - Soviet - scientific and technical intelligentsia, which was achieved through a radical change in the structure of higher education, the classand national composition of students, training personnel for work in various sectors of the national economy, science, culture. It is with the activity of Soviet scientists that the creation of such branches of the national economy that ensured the autonomy and independence of the USSR economy from world capitalism is connected: mechanical engineering and machine tool building, aircraft building. The most direct participation of scientists was manifested in the creation of a metallurgical complex in the Urals (Magnitogorsk), the coal mining industry (Kuzbass), in the creation of automobile factories in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, tractorfactories in Stalingrad, Chelyabinsk, and Minsk. Thus, the Soviet experience of creating a scientific and technological sphere in the most difficult conditions of the revolutionary crisis and civil war turned out to be successful. It was precisely the understanding of the role and significance of science for solving current and especially promising tasks that became one of the foundations for the victory of the socialist transformation of the country.

Experimental Stations of the Institute of Experimental Biology and the Development of Russian Genetics (1917–1929)

The history of the experimental stations of the Institute of Experimental Biology organized near Moscow by N.K. Kol’tsov, the founder of the Institute, is analyzed, and the role of these stations in the development of Russian genetics is investigated. Under the conditions of postrevolutionary chaos, the transfer of research outside the city allowed scientists to continue working, simultaneously determining a number of features of the Moscow school of geneticists, in particular, the characteristic combination of experimental and naturalistic (field) research. These features were peculiarly reflected in the works of A.S. Serebrovskii who formulated the idea of ​​the “gene fund,” and S.S. Chetverikov, his students and followers, who demonstrated the genetic “heterogeneity” of free-living populations and their difference from Drosophila laboratory lines.

Distribution and activity of benthic bacteria in four lakes in the Bory Tucholskie National Park (Poland)

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 79:127-135 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01827 Distribution and activity of benthic bacteria in four lakes in the Bory Tucholskie National Park (Poland) Łukasz Kubera*, Wojciech Donderski Department of Microbiology, Institute of Experimental Biology, Kazimierz Wielki University, Al. Powstańców Wielkopolskich 10, 85-090 Bydgoszcz, Poland *Corresponding author: kubera@ukw.edu.pl ABSTRACT: Benthic bacteria play a major role in the decomposition and transformation of organic matter in water bodies. The imbalance between organic matter input and decomposition leads to its accumulation in the benthos and thus to the conversion of aquatic into terrestrial systems. This is a global problem, exacerbated by anthropic activities. The factors that determine the metabolic activity of bacteriobenthos have been extensively discussed. The complexity and importance of this information inspired us to study the occurrence and activity of benthic bacterial populations in different environmental conditions. We investigated 4 lakes of different trophic status (eutrophic, mesotrophic, oligotrophic and dystrophic) in the Bory Tucholskie National Park, Poland. The results indicated that the abundance of benthic bacteria was not determined by the trophic status of these water bodies; the lowest number was recorded in the eutrophic lake, and was considerably higher in meso- and oligotrophic lakes. Organic carbon oxidation was most intense in the eutrophic lake, despite containing the lowest number of benthic bacteria. Our results show no significant correlation between the total number of benthic bacteria and their respiratory activity, expressed as the rate of organic carbon oxidation. Taxonomic analysis demonstrated that species of the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla were predominant among benthic strains. In conclusion, our research shows that the abundance and activity of benthic bacterial communities are lake-specific and can be determined by many environmental factors. KEY WORDS: Benthic bacteria · Taxonomic diversity · Respiratory activity · Lakes Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Kubera Ł, Donderski W (2017) Distribution and activity of benthic bacteria in four lakes in the Bory Tucholskie National Park (Poland). Aquat Microb Ecol 79:127-135. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01827 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 79, No. 2. Online publication date: May 09, 2017 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.

Shikimate dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1. 25 ShDH) alleles as potential markers for flowering phenology in Pinus sylvestris

The aims of this study were 1) to determine the variability in the flowering phenology of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) clones in a seed orchard and 2) to compare the genetic structure and genetic markers (13 isozyme loci and 5 chloroplast and 3 nuclear DNA microsatellite loci) among groups of clones that are differentiated by flowering phenology. Using the timing of male inflorescence development, 57 plus trees represented by their clones in a seed orchard were classified into three phenological groups: early-, intermediate-, and late-flowering. The microsatellites showed no significant differences in the genetic structure of the analyzed phenological groups. However, the frequency of allele 2 at the shikimate dehydrogenase A locus (ShDH A 2) differed significantly between the groups of earlyand late-flowering trees and between the groups of intermediateand late-flowering trees. In addition, a significant difference in the frequencies of the genotype ShDH A 11 was observed between the intermediateand late-flowering groups. Nei’s genetic distance indicated that the late-flowering group was the most genetically distant among the phenological groups. These results suggest that the ShDH A locus might be considered as isoenzymatic marker that differentiates these flowering groups of Scots pine clones. At several isozyme and DNA loci, the presence of private alleles in each group of pines was observed. However, these alleles cannot serve as markers of Scots pine flowering time because of their low frequencies. Additional key words: Scots pine, male inflorescence, isozymes, chloroplast DNA, nuclear DNA Addresses: W. Prus-Glowacki, A. Lewandowska-Wosik, R. Nowak-Bzowy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Institute of Experimental Biology, Genetics Department, 89, Umultowska Str., 61-614 Poznan, Poland, e-mail: prusw@amu.edu.pl L. Sukovata, Forest Research Institute, Forest Protection Department, 3, Braci Lesnej St., Sekocin Stary, 05-090 Raszyn, Poland

An Analysis In-vitro of the Cytotoxic, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Aqueous and Alcoholic Extracts of Annona muricata L. Seed and Pulp

1 Faculty of Science, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Central University of Venezuela, Postal code 1041-A, Postal zip 47097, Caracas, Venezuela. 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Laboratory of Natural Products, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. 3 Faculty of Science, Institute of Experimental Biology, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. 4 Foundation Institute for Advanced Studies, IDEA, Caracas, Venezuela.

Introduction to Leonhard Lapin's “Objective Art”

Abstract Leonhard Lapin's “Objective Art” was written for “Event Harku '75. Objects, Concepts” – an exhibtion and an accompanying symposium on the premises of the Institute of Experimental Biology in Harku, near Tallinn, Estonia, in December 1975. Objective art, in the artist's mind, answered to the industrialization and urbanization of the late 20th century, to the growing significance of not only mechanical but also electronic machines in everyday life, and to the emergence of the so-called artificial environment. Rather than representing this environment, new art had to intervene in it or even produce it. Lapin's call was quite different from other reactions to the changing postindustrial environment in the mid 1970s in the Soviet Union in that instead of active intervention many of them proposed withdrawal as the most appropriate tactics to resist the grim surrounding reality.

Objective Art

Abstract Leonhard Lapin's “Objective Art” was written for “Event Harku '75. Objects, Concepts” – an exhibtion and an accompanying symposium on the premises of the Institute of Experimental Biology in Harku, near Tallinn, Estonia, in December 1975. Objective art, in the artist's mind, answered to the industrialization and urbanization of the late 20th century, to the growing significance of not only mechanical but also electronic machines in everyday life, and to the emergence of the so-called artificial environment. Rather than representing this environment, new art had to intervene in it or even produce it. Lapin's call was quite different from other reactions to the changing postindustrial environment in the mid 1970s in the Soviet Union in that instead of active intervention many of them proposed withdrawal as the most appropriate tactics to resist the grim surrounding reality.

A novel mitochondrial potassium channel in embryonic hippocampal mitochondra

Since 1991, when in Nature Inoue and co-workers described the first potassium channel in the inner mitochondrial membrane, ATP-regulated (mitoKATP), four other channels were found. ATP-regulated (mitoKATP), large-conductance calcium activated (mitoBKCa), voltage-dependent (mitoKv1.3), intermediate-conductance calcium-activated potassium channel (mitoIKCa), were identified by the electrophysiological techniques. The last, TWIK-related acid-sensitive potassium channel (TASK-3) was identified with the use of immunofluorescence methods.Patch-clamp single channel studies on mitochondria isolated from embryonic rat hippocampus revealed the presence of the potassium channel which has outwardly rectifying activity at the symmetrical conditions (150mM/150mM KCl). The channel displayed a conductance of 61 pS, at positive voltages, and also strong voltage dependence. Patch-clamp studies at the mitoplast-attached mode showed that this channel was not sensitive to the classical activators and inhibitors of the mitochondrial potassium channels, but regulated by the pH and arachidonic acid.In summary, by the single channel recordings, we characterized for the first time an ion channel which was cation selective, permeable to potassium ions and displayed voltage sensitivity. The channel not correspond to the potassium ion channels described earlier in the inner mitochondrial membrane.Grant sponsor: 793/N-DAAD/2010/0 and Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology

Descriptions of new Genera and Species of the Family Trichogrammidae (Hym. Chalcidoidea) from the Palearctic Region, with notes - Supplement1

Zeitschrift für Angewandte EntomologieVolume 26, Issue 4 p. 624-663 Descriptions of new Genera and Species of the Family Trichogrammidae (Hym. Chalcidoidea) from the Palearctic Region, with notes — Supplement1 Swiatosław Nowicki, Swiatosław Nowicki Forest Engineer Laboratory of General Biology of the Neneki's Institute of Experimental Biology. Warschau, Protectorate PolandSearch for more papers by this author Swiatosław Nowicki, Swiatosław Nowicki Forest Engineer Laboratory of General Biology of the Neneki's Institute of Experimental Biology. Warschau, Protectorate PolandSearch for more papers by this author First published: January/December 1939 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0418.1939.tb01582.x 1 Continued from this periodical 1936, vol. XXIII, p. 148. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume26, Issue4January/December 1939Pages 624-663 RelatedInformation

Two anniversaries of the Institute of Developmental Biology

Established in 1917, the Institute of Experimental Biology, after numerous reorganizations, was, in fact, reestablished in 1967 as the Institute of Developmental Biology. Many famous scientists, who were the cream of Russian biology, worked at this institute. Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences (no. 4, 2007) published an assay on the history of this institute. However, significant distortions crept into this publication through the fault of the science editor. Today we publish the corrected version of the essay.

Living Precisely in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Vienna’s Institute of Experimental Biology, better known as the Vivarium, helped pioneer the quantification of experimental biology from 1903 to 1938. Among its noteable scientists were the director Hans Przibram and his brother Karl (a physicist), Paul Kammerer, Eugen Steinach, Paul Weiss, and Karl Frisch. The Vivarium’s scientists sought to derive laws describing the development of the individual organism and its relationship to the environment. Unlike other contemporary proponents of biological laws, however, these researchers created an explicitly anti-deterministic science. By “laws” they meant statistical regularities or “patterns.” They interpreted their experimental results in ways that forged a “third way” between determinism and pure spontaneity, aiming to capture the complexity of the interaction between the organism and its environment. This common feature of their research was made possible by the availability at the Vivarium of the latest in climate-control technology and of methods borrowed from statistical physics. The deeper roots of this search for a “third way” lay, I suggest, in the shared educational, social, and aesthetic experiences of the laboratory’s workers.

Notes on a mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1985 for the collection of land-races of cultivated plants

A collecting mission was carried out in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea jointly by staff members of the Institute for Experimental Biology, Pyongyang, and the Zentralinstitut fur Genetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung, Gatersleben, in November 1985 for studying and collecting indigenous forms of cultivated plants. 127 samples, mainly of grain legumes, vegetables and medicinal plants were collected. The material represents highly variable old land-races; this is especially true for french beans, soya beans, other grain legumes and some vegetables. Genetic erosion is rather advanced for maize, rice, wheat, radish and the brassicas. Genetic resources of these crops can be expected in more marginal areas. The results of the mission stress the necessity for continuing the explorations.

Supernova remnants: Defining the Crab nebula

Supernova remnants: Defining the Crab nebula

Translocation of14C-labelled Assimilates in Barley Plants Infected with Powdery Mildew (Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei Marchal)

Journal of PhytopathologyVolume 84, Issue 1 p. 88-95 Translocation of 14C-labelled Assimilates in Barley Plants Infected with Powdery Mildew (Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei Marchal) F. Frič, Corresponding Author F. Frič Institute of Experimental Biology and Ecology, 80900 Bratislava, (Czechoslovakia)F. Frič, Institute of Experimental Biology and Ecology, 80900 Bratislava, Dúbravská 26 (Czechoslovakia).Search for more papers by this author F. Frič, Corresponding Author F. Frič Institute of Experimental Biology and Ecology, 80900 Bratislava, (Czechoslovakia)F. Frič, Institute of Experimental Biology and Ecology, 80900 Bratislava, Dúbravská 26 (Czechoslovakia).Search for more papers by this author First published: September 1975 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0434.1975.tb03549.xCitations: 19 With 5 figures AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume84, Issue1September 1975Pages 88-95 RelatedInformation

Biochemistry at the Nencki Institute of experimental biology, Warsaw, Poland

Biochemistry at the Nencki Institute of experimental biology, Warsaw, Poland

Analysis of the histocompatibility-2 (H-2) locus of NZB mice.

Department of Genetics School of Medicine, Stanford University Palo Alto, California 2Czechoslovakia, Academy of Sciences, Institute of Experimental Biology and Genetics, Pargue, Czechoslovakia

Contribution on the biochemical investigation of external factors required for type transformation in the pneumococcus.

(1) It was found that different anti-R-Pneumococcus sera display a great variability in DNase activity contained therein. There are sera in which a high DNase activity remains even after inactivation at 65° C for 30 min. At dilutions which are commonly used in the experiments a certain residual activity is always found. (2) The presence of suitable concentrations of salts with univalent cations in the transformation medium inhibits the DNase activity in it, thus regularizing the results obtained during type transformation in the Pneumococcus. This explains the results of our earlier work concerning the significance of these salts in the transformation reaction even if their role is manifold. (3) By preliminary estimation of DNase activity in sera or serous fluids, globulin and albumin preparations, it can readily be shown whether these sera are or are not suitable for supporting the transformation reaction. Antisera with a high residual activity of DNase do not support the transformation reaction unless DNase had been suitably inhibited. (4) High DNase content in serum may by inhibited by higher temperature or occasionally by increased salt concentration. By using a mixture of citrate, magnesium ions and a small amount of pancreatic DNase activated for 15 min. at 30° C and then inactivated for 15 min. at 60° C, together with DNA, a positive result may be achieved during transformation using some antisera with a high DNAse activity which will not allow such a reaction to proceed without the agents added. (5) The transformation reaction always takes place in the presence of a small amount of DNase which is blocked by different factors in the system. The possible active role of DNase in the transformation reaction is discussed. The author is indebted to Academician I. Malek for the interest with which he followed the entire work described. Technical assistance of PhMr. P. Křeckova and Mr. J. Kubicek is acknowledged. Our thanks are due to Dr. Hilgert of the Institute of Experimental Biology and Genetics for a sample of DNA from chick erythrocytes.

REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE IN THE ALLOXAN DIABETIC FEMALE RAT

Department of Anatomy, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, and Institute of Experimental Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. Acta endocrinol., 33: 175, 1960