Search results for "Cholin"
showing 10 items of 1261 documents
Smoking cessation and variations in nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits alpha-5, alpha-3, and beta-4 genes.
2009
Background Evidence has recently accumulated that single nucleotide polymorphisms in the genetic region encoding the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits α-5, α-3, and β-4 are associated with smoking and nicotine dependence. We aimed to determine whether these genetic variations are also predictive of smoking cessation. Methods Lifetime history of smoking was assessed by questionnaire at enrolment into a large epidemiological study of the German elderly population (ESTHER study). Cox proportional hazards modeling was applied in a retrospective cohort approach to determine the associations of individual polymorphisms and haplotypes with smoking cessation probability in 1446 subjects who…
Plasma and fibroblasts of Tangier disease patients are disturbed in transferring phospholipids onto apolipoprotein A-I
1998
Plasmas of patients with Tangier disease (TD) lack lipid-rich α-HDL which, in normal plasma, constitutes the majority of high density lipoprotein (HDL). Residual amounts of apolipoprotein (apo)A-I in TD plasma occur as lipid-poor or even lipid-free preβ-HDL. By contrast to normal plasma, TD plasma does not convert preβ-HDL into α-HDL. Moreover, fibroblasts of TD patients were found to be defective in secreting cholesterol or phospholipids in the presence of lipid-free apoA-I. We have therefore hypothesized that both defective conversion of preβ-HDL into α-HDL and defective lipid efflux from TD cells onto lipid-free apoA-I result from a disturbance in phospholipid transfer occurring in both …
Nitric oxide production and endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation ameliorated by N1-methylnicotinamide in human blood vessels.
2012
N 1 -methylnicotinamide (MNA + ) has until recently been thought to be a biologically inactive product of nicotinamide metabolism in the pyridine nucleotides pathway. However, the latest observations imply that MNA + may exert antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory effects through direct action on the endothelium. We examined both in vivo and in vitro whether the compound might induce vasorelaxation in human blood vessels through the improvement of nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and a reduction of oxidative stress mediated by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) function. MNA + treatment (100 mg/m 2 orally) in healthy normocholesterolemic and hypercholesterolemic subjects increased the l-argini…
A quantitative study of the pancuronium antagonism at the motor endplate in human organophosphorus intoxication
1995
Nine patients with organophosphorus (OP) intoxication developing neuromuscular transmission defects were given pancuronium 1, 2, or 4 mg intravenously (IV). Thirteen patient controls with hypoxic encephalopathy received similar dosages. The responses were monitored electrophysiologically using single and repetitive nerve stimulation (20 and 50 Hz). In OP patients, pancuronium did not alter the amplitude of the single CMAP, whereas its repetitive discharges were reduced. Severe neuromuscular blocks were reversed only partially by pancuronium 4 mg. In less severe blocks, 1 and 2 mg resulted in marked improvement. In the patient controls, pancuronium 4 mg induced a severe neuromuscular block b…
Metabolomic profiling in blood from umbilical cords of low birth weight newborns
2012
AbstractBackgroundLow birth weight has been linked to an increased risk to develop obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension in adult life, although the mechanisms underlying the association are not well understood. The objective was to determine whether the metabolomic profile of plasma from umbilical cord differs between low and normal birth weight newborns.MethodsFifty healthy pregnant women and their infants were selected. The eligibility criteria were being born at term and having a normal pregnancy. Pairs were grouped according to their birth weight: low birth weight (LBW, birth weight < 10thpercentile, n = 20) and control (control, birth weight between the 75th-90thpercentiles, n…
Myasthenia gravis associated with Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy: report of a case
1992
We report the case of a 24 year old woman who developed myasthenia gravis in the course of a mild form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy. We describe the clinical manifestations together with the neurophysiological, pathological, serological findings and response to therapy and discuss the unusual association in the light of the relevant literature. © 1992 Masson Italia Periodici S.r.l.
Unit study in cat claustrum of the effects of iontophoretic neurotransmitters and correlations with the effects of activation of some afferent pathwa…
1982
Glutamate (Glut), acetylcholine (ACh) and dopamine (DA) were iontophoretically applied on cat claustral neurons. Glut did not affect all the neurons; ACh had both excitatory and inhibitory effects, while DA was prevalently inhibitory. An analysis was made of the time-course of excitatory and inhibitory responses on the basis of the mean firing rate variations during and after ACh and DA release. Three types of responses are described for each drug: short lasting inhibition, long lasting inhibition and long lasting excitation. The experimental data were statistically elaborated. The effects of ACh and of DA were compared with those of activation obtained by sensorial peripheric and thalamic …
E-Hitz: A word frequency list and a program for deriving psycholinguistic statistics in an agglutinative language (Basque)
2007
We describe a Windows program that enables users to obtain a broad range of statistics concerning the properties of word and nonword stimuli in an agglutinative language (Basque), including measures of word frequency (at the whole-word and lemma levels), bigram and biphone frequency, orthographic similarity, orthographic and phonological structure, and syllable-based measures. It is designed for use by researchers in psycholinguistics, particularly those concerned with recognition of isolated words and morphology. In addition to providing standard orthographic and phonological neighborhood measures, the program can be used to obtain information about other forms of orthographic similarity, …
Cognitive deficits in aged rats correlate with levels of l-arginine, not with nNOS expression or 3,4-DAP-evoked transmitter release in the frontopari…
2005
Aging is associated with altered neurotransmitter function in the brain. In this study, we measured release parameters for acetylcholine (ACh), norepinephrine and serotonin in the frontoparietal cortex of young and aged rats. We also determined cortical amino acid concentrations and nitric oxide (NO) synthase function. Prior to sacrifice, the rats had been tested for Morris water-maze performance. In aged, compared with young rats, we observed a reduction in both uptake of choline and acetylcholine release. Serotonin release and L-arginine concentrations (a precursor of NO) showed an aging-related increase; however, L-citrulline/L-arginine ratios were decreased in aged rats. Moreover, while…
Cellular Distribution and Expression of Cortical Acetylcholine Receptors in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease
1991
Ligand binding studies show marked reductions of nicotinic, but not of muscarinic binding sites in Alzheimer's disease. Using monoclonal antibodies we studied immunohistochemically the expression of the respective receptor proteins in the frontal cortex of middle-aged (55 +/- 5 yr) controls, age-matched controls (73 +/- 6 yr), and patients with Alzheimer's disease (74 +/- 5 yr). Density of nicotinic cholinoceptive neurons was 8000/mm3 for middle-aged controls and 4000/mm3 for age-matched controls, but only 900/mm3 in Alzheimer's brains (p less than 0.0001). Densities of muscarinic cholinoceptive and of Nissl-stained neurons were not significantly different between the groups, pointing to a …