THE MORPHOLOGICAL SIMILARITY AND SYMMETRY OF NEURONES IN THE LEECH Whitmania pigra

Using the method of intracellular injection of horseradish peroxidase, the arborizations of several neurones with different functions in the segmental ganglia of the leech Whitmania pigra are investigated. Comparison is made in each kind of neurones in order to verify their typical pattern. Results show that the morphology of the axonal arbors of identified neurones has an accurate similarity within and among the individuals of the leech, and the axonal arborizations of the bilaterally identified neurones in the same ganglion have a stable symmetry. The possible reasons of the formation and its functional significance of the symmetrical nervous system are discussed.     

A new pteridinedione from Whitmania pigra

<正>A new compound,6-methylsulfinylthieno[3,2-g]-2,4(1H,3H)-pteridinedione,was isolated from the water extract of Whitmania pigra Whitman.Its structure was elucidated on the basis of NMR and ESIMS spectra.     

A rapid method for isolation and purification of an anticoagulant from Whitmania pigra

Whitmania pigra is common in China and has been used as a traditional Chinese anticoagulant medicine for years, but its effective components are unknown to scientists. In this article we report a rapid method for isolation and purification of an anticoagulant from W. pigra for the first time. An acetone-water extract of W. pigra was subjected to anion-exchange chromatography on a Sephadex DEAE A-50 column, and gel permeation chromatography on Sephadex G-25 and Sephadex LH-20 columns successively, which afforded a fraction with potent anticoagulant activity. An anticoagulant was isolated and purified from this fraction by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). It was identified as a single pure substance by RP-HPLC and sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). This component was named whitmanin and its molecular weight was determined as 8608 Da by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS).