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The interior structure of Saturn, the depth of its winds, and the mass and age of its rings constrain its formation and evolution. In the final phase of the Cassini mission, the spacecraft dived between the planet and its innermost ring, at altitudes of 2600 to 3900 kilometers above the cloud tops. During six of these crossings, a radio link with Earth was monitored to determine the gravitational field of the planet and the mass of its rings. We find that Saturn's gravity deviates from theoretical expectations and requires differential rotation of the atmosphere extending to a depth of at least 9000 kilometers. The total mass of the rings is (1.54 ± 0.49) × 1019 kilograms (0.41 ± 0.13 times that of the moon Mimas), indicating that the rings may have formed 107 to 108 years ago.

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The influences of hypertension and hypothyroidism on diabetic cardiomyopathy are not clear. We studied this problem further by characterizing the effects of chronic triiodothyronine (T3) treatment on cardiac performance of diabetic renovascular hypertensive (RVH) rats. Hypertension was effected by clipping the left renal artery of Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, and diabetes was induced 2 weeks later by streptozotocin (STZ; 55 mg/kg i.v.). The WKY strain was selected because it is relatively resistant to the cardiodepressant effects of diabetes, so that the influence of superimposed hypertension would be more apparent. Performance of working Krebs-Henseleit buffer perfused hearts was quantified by measuring left ventricular pressure and flow characteristics. The results showed that renovascular clipping caused a marked hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) but had no effect on perfused heart performance after 10 weeks. They also showed that diabetes during the final 8 weeks (i) caused a marked impairment in the performance of perfused hearts ex vivo of hypertensive rats but had no measurable effect in the normotensive WKY, (ii) had no effect on arterial pressure of either the normotensive or the hypertensive rats but reduced heart rate of hypertensive animals in vivo, and (iii) caused equivalent hyperglycemia, hypoinsulinemia, and hypothyroidism (depressed serum T3 and T4 levels) of hypertensive and normotensive rats. Treatment of diabetic RVH rats with T3 (10 micrograms.kg-1.day-1) in vivo was nearly as effective as insulin therapy (10 U.kg-1.day-1) in preventing the cardiac dysfunction ex vivo and was as effective as insulin therapy in preventing the bradycardia in vivo and the decline loss.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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RESUMEN

Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes depresses the rate of vascular collagen synthesis in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), but it also reduces arterial pressure (SAP) in this strain. We investigated this phenomenon further by comparing the SHR with the renovascular hypertensive (RVH) rat, because diabetes does not affect SAP in the latter model of hypertension. Renovascular hypertension was induced by clipping the left renal artery of Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats; sham-operated WKY were included as normotensive controls. Collagen synthesis of arterial tissue in vitro was quantified as prolyl hydroxylase activity and the rate of radioactive proline incorporation into collagen. Arterial collagen synthesis of nondiabetic SHR and RVH animals was elevated compared to that of the nonhypertensive WKY controls. STZ-induced diabetes (8 weeks) reduced SAP of SHR, but had no effect on SAP of either RVH or normotensive WKY rats. However, diabetes significantly depressed vascular collagen synthesis of both SHR and RVH rats, and, less consistently, of the WKY. The results strongly suggest that STZ-induced diabetes in SHR impairs arterial collagen synthesis independent of associated changes in arterial pressure.

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