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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1988)
1 State and Local Monday, February 1, 1988AThe Battalion/Page 3 Grant will help A&M researcher study condition linked to circulation of fluids By Tracey Streater Reporter Ha swollen ankle, an enlarged stomach due to malnutrition and a runny nose can all be the result of the same problem, the head of the department of medical physiology at Texas A&M says. ■ Dr. Harris Granger, also director of the University’s Microcirculation iRpsearch Institute, says all these symptoms can be attributed to a con- aitton called edema. z Granger, a recent recipient of the National Institutes of Health MERIT (Method to Extend Re- Hirch In Time) Award for his re- ^Birch of edema, has been studying it for 20 years. He received a rene- jwable five-year, $1.5 million grant for the study of the pathophysiology of edema in 1978 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. | Edema is an excess of fluid flow ing from circulation in the small blood vessels, called capillaries, into the tissue space between cells, called the matrix. From the matrix, the fluid moves into tubes called lym phatics, where it is transported to larger veins, usually in the neck, and then emptied back into the body’s I circulatory system. ■ “Because there is pressure in (the capillaries), and there are holes in He capillary walls, then there is g( ing to be a slow movement of fluid Horn inside this capillary to the out side,” Granger says. “Just as water Capillary Red Blood Cells Proteins Intercellular 1 ^ Matrix^? ^1 Lymph Lymphatic Graphic by Susan C. Akin flows out of perforated hoses, there is a very small jet of fluid moving out of the circulation (of the blood through the capillaries).” “Lymphatics are sort of like the sewer systems of the tissues,” Gran ger says. “They remove fluid and other materials that have leaked out of the blood vessels and have not been consumed by the cells.” Under normal conditions, the rate of fluid filtering through the capilla ries equals the rate of fluid, or lymph, in the lymphatics, he says. Problems arise, however, when the rate of filtration exceeds the rate of the lymph. This is edema. “Using the hose analogy again, when you have a hose that is perfo rated and you increase the perfora tions by a factor of 10, then (water) would just gush out of there,” the physiologist says. “Now when you have a cold, what’s happening is that these holes in (the capillary walls) are increased tremendously and you have, ba sically, plasma just coming out of your nose,” Granger says. This also explains why an injured ankle might swell, Granger says. If the ankle is injured badly enough to cause damage to the capillary wall, then the pores in the wall will open up, and the fluid will penetrate the wall faster than normal. In malnutrition, it’s a bit differ ent. In normal cases, the pores are only large enough to allow water, glucose and other nutrients nec essary for a cell to survive to pass through the capillary wall, he says. Proteins are too large to permeate the wall. Granger says. These proteins form a suction in the capillaries which keeps the rate of filtration through the wall regu lated. “Suppose you don’t have these proteins in the blood — that hap pens in malnutrition,” Granger says. “Whenever you see videos in Africa of kids with those huge bellies, that’s because there are very little of these plasma proteins . . . and fluid just seeps out (through the capillary walls), especially in the organs of their abdominal cavity. If you stuck a needle in there, water would just come pouring out.” Granger began his research two decades ago at the University of Mis sissippi Medical Center. He came to A&M ten years ago and has contin ued his work on edema. “Over the last 20 years, we’ve been involved in just defining the factors that determine how fast fluid moves across the capillary walls under nor mal conditions, we’ve been looking at the physical properties of this ma trix and we’ve been studying how lymphatics work,” Granger says. “After that was done, then we be gan to focus on how the system was disturbed whenever edema was pre sent,” he says. “And, more recently, we’re looking at the relationship be tween edema, inflamation, and these neutrophils (white blood cells) and their poisons. “We’re trying to understand it, we’re not trying to develop means for curing it. That’s for other people to do after us. But the information that we provide will be the basis, or can be the basis, for developing drugs that will provide a clinical so lution.” Granger is aided in his research by four assistants, each focusing on a specific area. Dr. Ruth Lewis, assistant research assistant and cell biologist, concen trates on how the capillary wall cells and the white blood cells interact un der controlled variables during in flamation. Techniques for culturing capillary wall cells are being researched by Dr. Margaret Schelling, assistant re search scientist, and Dr. Cynthia Meininger, a post-doctorate fellow. The effects of white blood cells on the capillary wall and the matrix is the main focus of Dr. David Zawieja, a post-doctorate fellow. Israeli official disputes claim of bribery JERUSALEM (AP) — Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he was not offered a bribe by a close friend of Attorney General Ed win Meese and “would have thrown the aide out the window” if he had been, a newspaper re ported Sunday. The daily Maariv quoted Peres as also saying in an interview that it was “just nastiness” to say a bribe was behind Israel’s decision not to attack a proposed Iraqi pipeline. Meese, under investigation for corrupt business practices, has been linked to the affair by a 1985 memo from his longstand ing friend, E. Robert Wallach. In the memo to Meese, Wal lach, an American Jewish attor ney, cited a plan to pay off a top- ranking Israeli official in return for a guarantee that Israel would not bomb the pipeline. The Los Angeles Times identi fied the official as Peres, Israel’s prime minister at the time. Wallach was acting as a go-be tween for Iraq, which sought the pipeline as an alternative export route because the Persian Gulf was blocked by Iran. The pipeline was to have run from Iraq through Jordan and then along the border with Israel inside Jordanian territory to the Red Sea port of Aqaba. It was never built. Dallas crowds support police at rally, call for end to racial tensions ■DALLAS (AP) — About 1,000 ;)r ex'people rallied Sunday at City Hall re jjj For an end to racial tensions ignited by the death of an officer gunned down by a mentally ill vagrant. , youiHThe mostly white crowd carried - (remarks about the department and xartlt Police Chief Billy Prince. ■ “I thank God for every police offi- cer in Dallas, Texas and our police chief,” said Joanne Karr, the chair man of a citizen’s crime watch group. On Jan. 23, white officer John Glenn Chase, 25, was shot three times in the face by a black mentally ill homeless person. The man, Carl Dudley Williams, was then killed af ter he fired at pursuing officers. According to sworn statements by some witnesses, two or three people in the crowd that saw the shooting egged Williams on when he grabbed Chase’s gun, by saying, “Shoot him. Shoot him.” Other witnesses, how ever, said they heard no such thing. Prince laid the blame for the shooting at the feet of several coun cil members for their disparaging re marks about the department con cerning past shootings of minorities and racism in hiring. Prince said the constant “bashing” set the stage for potential violence against police. After the shooting and Prince’s comments, long-simmering tensions between the department and some minority representatives erupted again. Black council members Diane Ragsdale and A1 Lipscomb have crit icized the department and accused it of racism in hiring, promotions and the use of deadly force. At Sunday’s rally, speakers, many of them police officers, called for an end to the feuding. Dallas Jackson, a local radio talk show host, was one of the few blacks at the rally. He praised the depart ment, but told the crowd it needs to recognize there is a problem of some white officers harassing minorities. Investigator Bob Rommel com pared criticism of the department to floodwaters threatening to break through a seawall “Folks we’re the only show in town. It’s time for vou to pick up some timber and carry it to the wall,” he said. In an emotional speech, Lt. David Goelden, who had worked with Chase, said when the slaying was an nounced he saw black and white offi cers helping each other cope with the tragedy. “That’s what we need in this city, blacks and whites caring for each other,” he said. iinm I've ne» xere One you pay for, one you don't* When you treat yourself to a 100% natural Little Caesars® pizza, we’ll treat you to a second pizza, FREE. 0 Little Caesar Plugs Now Available! VALUABUE COUPON I■ VALUABLE COUPON ■! BUY ONE PIZZA... i GET ONE FREE! I Buy any size Original Round pizza at regular price, get S identical pizza FREE! 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