This study describes the estimation of age at death from the compact bone of burned and unburned human ribs. Bone samples came from individuals of known age, sex, and cause of death. Each bone was divided into four sections; three sections were burned at 700, 800, and 1000°C. Undecalcified, unstained ground cross sections were photographed, and 28 variables were analyzed in the bones using SigmaScan Pro 5. Age-related as well as heat-induced microstructural changes were found. These changes were often very similar and made estimating the age at death difficult in the burned bones. Differences between the sexes were found in some variables, caused by both aging and also by the different behavior of some variables during burning. Regression equations were developed to estimate age at death for unburned bones (r² = 0.579 and 0.707), bones burned at 700°C (r² = 0.453 and 0.501), and 800°C (r² = 0.334 and 0.340).

No abstract

To evaluate the influence of cholinergic stimulation on the composition of glycoconjugates in goblet cells, we studied the tracheal epithelium of rabbits 5 minutes and 20 minutes after i.v. administration of acetylcholine in doses 0.1 mg and 0.5 mg, respectively. Using both conventional and lectin histochemistry, we compared the percentage of tracheal goblet cells containing neutral glycoconjugates to those containing total acidic glycoconjugates, sulphated acidic glycoconjugates, and sialylated acidic glycoconjugates. A conspicuous increase in percentage of neutral glycoconjugates-containing goblet cells and a decrease of sialylated glycoconjugatescontaining goblet cells occurred as early as 5 minutes after the administration of the lower dose and were recorded 20 minutes post exposure, too. Five minutes post exposure, the higher dose evoked a decrease in percentage of both neutral-and sialylated glycoconjugates-containing goblet cells. Twenty minutes after the administration of the higher dose, percentage of all studied elements reached values similar to those found in the lower dose group. The cholinergic stimulation did not cause total disappearance of both neutral-and sialylated glycoconjugates-containing goblet cells. Only the reaction of goblet cells 5 minutes after the administration of the higher acetylcholine dose differed quantitatively from the reactions in remaining experimental groups. Airways' epithelium, cholinergic stimulation, glycoconjugates, lectin histochemistryIn our previous studies, we demonstrated that the goblet cells (GC) in the rabbit tracheal epithelium were overstimulated and damaged due to the intravenous (i.v.) administration of acetylcholine. An apocrine type of secretion and also chain exocytosis were found after the administration of both doses of acetylcholine. Twenty minutes after the administration of 0.5 mg of acetylcholine, the degeneration of GC evoked massive differentiation of new secretory elements (Konrádová et al. 1996ab). Similar reaction of GC was also described by Specian and Neutra (1980) in the tissue culture of intestinal GC, and by Newman et al. (1996) in the tracheal epithelium of guinea pigs. Tokuyama et al. (1990) andFung et al. (1992) confirmed the stimulating effect of vagal control to the secretion of airways' GC and submucosal glands. Ramnarine and Rogers (1994) stressed non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) neural mechanisms, coworking with neurogenic acetylcholine as "the secretion fine tuning". A direct effect of acetylcholine on tracheal secretory elements was further confirmed as a dose-dependent in studies by Kamijo et al. (1993), Woods et al. (1996), andMatera et al. (1998). Miyata et al. (1998) doubted the acetylcholine role in controlling production of high molecular weight-glycoconjugates in spite of the study by Steel and Hanrahan (1997) on GC of the tracheal epithelium in hamsters.The presence of neutral and acidic sulphated and acidic sialylated glycoconjugates

Inhalation of aerosol of mineral water is frequently used in therapy of various respiratory disorders. Ultrastructure of the airway epithelium in rabbits and character of glycoconjugates produced by secretory cells were studied immediately and 24 h after 10-min inhalation of this aerosol. Goblet cells were overstimulated and the mechanism of mucus evacuation was accelerated. The exhausted goblet cells mostly took part in further secretory cycles, but the number of degenerated secretory elements gradually increased in the course of 24 h. Cells not entirely filled with secretory granules prevailed in the epithelium. Massive differentiation of goblet cells and development of intraepithelial mucous glands were noticed. Compared with controls, significant (α = 0.01) decrease in the acid sulphated glycoconjugates in the secretion of the goblet cells was accompanied by an increase of the acid sialylated ones immediately after inhalation. Twenty-four hours post exposure, significant (α = 0.05) decrease in total sialylated glycoconjugates was ascertained. The ciliated cells revealed only mild pathological alteration. Significant (α = 0.01) decrease in number of kinocilia/µm 2 was accompanied by an increase in percentage of altered cilia. During 24 h post exposure, signs of ciliary border regeneration were noticed. Morphological signs of impaired self-cleaning ability of the airway epithelium were encountered during the whole experiment. Single 10-min inhalation of mineral water aerosol caused changes in the ultrastructure of the airway epithelium and influenced the chemical composition of the goblet cells' secretion. These changes did not disappear completely during 24 h post exposure. Airways, ultrastructure, regeneration, lectin histochemistry, glycoconjugates, rabbitIn our previous study, we demonstrated that 10-min inhalation of saline affected the ultrastructure of the airway epithelium (Konrádová et al. in press). We therefore decided to study also the effect of aerosol of mineral water, frequently used in therapy of various respiratory disorders, and to follow the process of regeneration of this epithelium in the course of 24 h. Materials and MethodsIn our experiments, 19 SPF New Zealand White rabbits (body weight 1,500-3,000 g, Charles River Deutschland, Sulzfeld, Germany) were used. Seven of them served as untreated controls. The remaining animals were placed successively for 10 min into a plastic cage connected with the inhalation device PARI Master and nebuliser PARI LL (Pari GmbH, Starnberg, Germany, medium diameter of produced droplets 3.1 µm, total output 0.6 g/min). The rabbits inhaled an aerosol of mineral water for 10 min. Chemical composition of this spring water is given in Tab. 1. Under general anaesthesia, the material for electron microscopic and histochemical examinations was collected from six animals immediately and 24 h post exposure, respectively.Tiny fragments of the tracheal mucous membrane were processed using standard methods for electron microscopy (Konrádová 1991). The ciliary border and ...

Uhlík J., V. Konrádová, L. Vajner, J. Zocová: Ultrastructure of the Epithelium of Terminal Bronchioles in Rabbits After the Administration of Acetylcholine. Acta Vet. Brno 1999, 68: 179-184. In this experiment, the ultrastructure of the epithelium of terminal bronchioles was studied 5 and 20 minutes after intravenous administration of two different doses of acetylcholine. The administration of 0.5 mg acetylcholine resulted in pathological alteration of the cytoplasm of epithelial cells recorded 5 and 20 minutes post exposure. In the first phase, the secretion of Clara cells was inhibited. Twenty minutes after the acetylcholine administration, a mild stimulation of these cells to discharge the content of their secretory granules was observed. After the administration of 0.1 mg acetylcholine, the signs of pathological alteration of the epithelial cell cytoplasm were mild. Twenty minutes post exposure, the findings did almost not differ from those in the epithelium of healthy control rabbits. After an initial inhibition, the secretory activity of Clara cells was resumed and did not differ from that found in controls. No increased proliferation of epithelial cells was recorded in any experimental group.