Icie G. Macy

METABOLISM OF WOMEN DURING THE REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE. XVII. CHANGES IN ELECTROPHORETIC PATTERNS OF PLASMA PROTEINS THROUGHOUT THE CYCLE AND FOLLOWING DELIVERY

The present investigation, an electrophoretic study of blood proteins, was planned to obtain information concerning the preconceptional physiologic status of women, the physiologic changes in the maternal organism in preparation for the exigencies of labor and losses at delivery, for the readjustment during the puerperium, and the demands of lactation. The results of this study will provide the basis for a better understanding of electrophoretic determinations of the proteins in the blood of women whose child-bearing was com

Plasma proteins in toxemias of pregnancy.

Numerous studies of the toxemias of late pregnancy have consistently demonstrated the association of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia with disturbances of protein metabolism indicated by derangements in the protein composition of the blood. Whether these changes in themselves cause the symptoms of toxemia or are secondary to the elusive toxic factor has not been determined. Many circumstances are known to provide the basis for protein deficiency within the human body, by increasing the tissue requirement for protein or by interfering with assimilation and utilization of an intake which would otherwise be adequate (1, 2). Evidence relating to the possible relationship of nutritional disturbances to the occurrence of toxemia is contradictory (3-9). In an excellent analysis of the problem of comparing conflicting reports in the literature, M0ller-Christensen and Thygesen (10) emphasized the intimate connection between changes in protein balance and accompanying shifts in water and salt balances, and suggested the possibility of derangement in function of the adrenal in protein metabolism in toxemia. A complex explanation involving the presence of a toxic protein (an atypical euglobulin) in the circulating blood during menstruation, labor, and toxemia of pregnancy has been advanced by Smith and Smith (11, 12). While a relationship between disturbed protein metabolism and toxemia of pregnancy has been established, the evidence does not show that the disturbance results from dietary protein deficiency. Dieckmann (13) believes that hypoproteinemia is neither the cause of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, nor the cause of edema. Novak and Lustig (14) caution against identification of the hypoproteinemia of pregnancy with hypoproteinemia due to malnutrition and believe that within limits it is a physiologic condition. The finding by Bibb (15) that most women who developed toxemia had some previously existing hypoproteinemia would be expected. Despite suggestive data, theories relating toxemia to nutritional deficiency fail, as do all other hypotheses advanced, to explain many features of this disorder, notably its singular predilection for the primigravida. Our increased understanding in the past few years of the importance of interrelationships among various components of the food intake may provide a key to further elucidation of the role of nutrition in toxemias of pregnancy, but it seems likely that both nutritional and physiologic factors may be involved, the number varying perhaps with still other conditions. Certainly, even with respect to the part played by well-established changes in blood proteins, eclampsia remains the disease of theories. The conflicting reports in the literature and the recent development of the electrophoretic technique of analysis were responsible for the decision to determine the distribution of plasma proteins in the blood of women during pregnancy, at delivery, and in the puerperium. A preceding publication (16) reported the distribution of proteins in the plasma of healthy women during the menstrual cycle, during successive stages of normal pregnancies, and postpartum, demonstrating the shifts in plasma protein composition which are characteristic of uncomplicated gestation. The same techniques were employed under comparable conditions in investigations of the protein constituents of the blood plasma of women whose pregnancies were complicated by toxemia and other gestational disturbances. The results demonstrate some of the causes of the wide variations encountered in the literature and indicate profit-

Physiological adaptation and nutritional status during and after pregnancy.

The physiological adaptation of women to pregnancy and the postpartum and their nutritional status was studied and related literature is discussed. Those aspects studied and discussed included differences in capillary and venous blood samples blood changes in the postpartum methods for analyzing hemoglobin total serum protein serum Vitamin-C serum Vitamin-A and carotenoids and serum alkaline phosphatase the quality of dietary intake the usual physiological changes during pregnancy clinical dietary and seriatim biochemical assessment of nutritional status biochemical assessment of hemoglobin total serum protein serum Vitamin-C serum Vitamin-A and carotenoids and serum alkaline phosphatase and maternal and infant blood components and their relationships. The results are discussed with regard to nutritional status clinical symptoms dietary intakes race socioeconomic factors and other influences.

Chemical anthropology : a new approach to growth in children

tion-that of J. G. Frisch, who headed the Wisconsin group, being a jarring revelation to most readers. The Madison dentist was a man possessed, whose greatest interest lay in the promotional rather than the scientific side of fluoridation, and whose emotional reactivity blinded him to any and all suggestions for moderation in dealing with the problem. It is regrettable that the volume draws far more attention to the humorous side issues and strange personalities of the controversy than to the serious basic problems that it poses. The Wisconsin group took fluoridation out of the scientific field and thrust it into the political arena. McNeil is amused by the spectacle and writes about it with the relish one would expect from a young news reporter. It is a safe prediction that his book will not help to thrust the controversy back where it belongs. This book comes as another in the series of publications on the remarkable and valuable studies conducted, under the direction of Dr. Macy, on the nutrition and growth of children. However, while based on the data collected and presented in the three volumes of Nutrition and Chemical Growth in Childhood, it pioneers a new interdisciplinary approach whereby the tools of physical anthropology and physiology are applied to the previous essentially chemical studies. Their approach uses a new conceptualization of physical anthropology as a dynamic science which obtains and studies its measurements in terms of function and life. Or, as the authors state, the scope of physical anthropology has been expanded and extended to include chemical growth and its relationship to physical growth and physiological function. We call this chemical anthropology. They have reinterpreted their data in terms of this concept and evolved a protocol for analysis using it as a basis. This has considerably broadened the sphere of interest of the work so that where it formerly included mainly the nutritionist and biochemist , it now includes the physiologist, the pediatrician, and certainly the practicing physician. A consideration of the soft tissues-muscle, neural, and organ-and the hard tissues is presented. Certain phases of nitrogen, calcium, and mineral metabolism are analyzed in relation to age, change of body size, maturation and body composition during the physiological adjustments and adaptations of childhood. For example, the nitrogen and calcium ingested and excreted are analyzed physico-chemically, and their interrelationships and functions are considered. Incremental increases of the entire body, organ systems, …

Complications of pregnancy and nutritional status: I. Toxemias of pregnancy

Abstract Although experimental evidence derived from laboratory animals clearly demonstrates a relationship between maternal nutrition and reproductive performance, objective proof of a similar relationship during the gestation of human mothers is lacking. Indeed, reports attempting to relate maternal and fetal complications of human pregnancy to specific aspects of poor nutrition have been contradictory and largely inconclusive. Within recent years several independently sponsored, intensive studies have been initiated in efforts to determine the role of nutrition in normal and complicated pregnancies through the application of more exact techniques. 1–12 Our investigation, 13, 14 begun in 1947, yielded data based upon clinical observations, medical histories, food intakes, and seriatim microchemical determinations of hemoglobin, total serum protein, vitamin C, vitamin A, carotenoids, and alkaline phosphatase. This communication presents data concerning pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in comparison with published data for subjects whose gestations were judged to have followed essentially normal courses. 14

Plasma Proteins in Venous and Cord Blood at Delivery Following Uncomplicated and Complicated Pregnancies

Summary 1. Total protein, albumin, and 5 globulin fractions were determined by electrophoresis in the plasma of samples of cord blood and of venous blood from 11 women whose pregnancies were uncomplicated. Similar samples were obtained for electrophoretic analysis from 21 women whose pregnancies were complicated by toxemia of pregnancy and other diseases. 2. For the samples representing uncomplicated pregnancy total protein values for venous blood were higher than for cord blood. Greater average amounts of albumin and gamma globulin were found in cord blood than in the corresponding venous blood, coincident with lesser amounts of alpha, beta, and phi globulins. 3. In complicated pregnancies the ranges for total plasma protein in venous and cord blood were lower than for the normal group. Ranges of values for serum protein (calculated as plasma minus fibrinogen) fractions in cord blood following complicated pregnancies were, in general, higher for albumin and gamma globulin and lower for alpha, beta, and phi globulins than the ranges for venous blood.

Composition of the human placenta: III Vitamin content

Abstract For nine human placentas the average fresh weight was 583 Gm., the dry weight was 72 Gm. The average content of total thiamine was 256 migrograms; of free thiamine, 84 mmg.; total riboflavin, 820 mmg.; free riboflavin, 296 mmg.; niacin, 1.99 mg.; pantothenic acid, 1,535 mmg.; firmly bound biotin, 8.9 mmg.; and of loosely bound biotin, 2.0 mmg. Per 100 Gm. of fresh weight the average content was: total thiamine, 47 mmg.; free thiamine 15 mmg.; total riboflavin, 151 mg.; free riboflavin, 54 mmg.; niacin, 1.99 mg.; pantothenic acid, 279 mmg.; firmly bound biotin, 1.6 mmg.; and loosely bound biotin, 0.4 mmg.