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showing 10 items of 19256 documents
A new mass spectrometry-based method for the quantification of histones in plasma from septic shock patients.
2017
The aim of this study was to develop a novel method to detect circulating histones H3 and H2B in plasma based on multiple reaction monitoring targeted mass spectrometry and a multiple reaction monitoring approach (MRM-MS) for its clinical application in critical bacteriaemic septic shock patients. Plasma samples from 17 septic shock patients with confirmed bacteraemia and 10 healthy controls were analysed by an MRM-MS method, which specifically detects presence of histones H3 and H2B. By an internal standard, it was possible to quantify the concentration of circulating histones in plasma, which were significantly higher in patients, and thus confirmed their potential as biomarkers for diagn…
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition: a new target in anticancer drug discovery
2016
The conversion of cells with an epithelial phenotype into cells with a mesenchymal phenotype, referred to as epithelial-mesenchymal transition, is a critical process for embryonic development that also occurs in adult life, particularly during tumour progression. Tumour cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition acquire the capacity to disarm the body's antitumour defences, resist apoptosis and anticancer drugs, disseminate throughout the organism, and act as a reservoir that replenishes and expands the tumour cell population. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition is therefore becoming a target of prime interest for anticancer therapy. Here, we discuss the screening and classification o…
Women's socioeconomic position in ontogeny is associated with improved immune function and lower stress, but not with height
2020
AbstractImmune function, height and resource accumulation comprise important life history traits in humans. Resource availability models arising from life history theory suggest that socioeconomic conditions influence immune function, growth and health status. In this study, we tested whether there are associations between family income during ontogeny, adult height, cortisol level and immune response in women. A hepatitis B vaccine was administered to 66 young Latvian women from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and blood samples were then collected to measure the level of antibodies that the women produced in response to the vaccination. Cortisol levels were measured from plasma sample…
The two-stage process in visual working memory consolidation
2019
AbstractTwo hypotheses have been proposed to explain the formation manner for visual working memory (VWM) representations during the consolidation process: an all-or-none process hypothesis and a coarse-to-fine process hypothesis. However, neither the all-or-none process hypothesis nor the coarse-to-fine process hypothesis can stipulate clearly how VWM representations are formed during the consolidation process. In the current study, we propose a two-stage process hypothesis to reconcile these hypotheses. The two-stage process hypothesis suggests that the consolidation of coarse information is an all-or-none process in the early consolidation stage, while the consolidation of detailed infor…
Human hippocampal neurogenesis drops sharply in children to undetectable levels in adults.
2018
New neurons continue to be generated in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus of the adult mammalian hippocampus(1-5). This process has been linked to learning and memory, stress and exercise, and is thought to be altered in neurological disease(6-10). In humans, some studies have suggested that hundreds of new neurons are added to the adult dentate gyrus every day(11), whereas other studies find many fewer putative new neurons(12-14). Despite these discrepancies, it is generally believed that the adult human hippocampus continues to generate new neurons. Here we show that a defined population of progenitor cells does not coalesce in the subgranular zone during human fetal or postnatal …
The Carnism Inventory: Measuring the ideology of eating animals.
2016
Beliefs surrounding the practice of eating animals are widely held, and have been argued to constitute an ideology named carnism (Joy, 2009). We developed and validated the novel Carnism Inventory to measure two positively related components of carnistic beliefs: carnistic defense and carnistic domination. We anticipated that carnistic defense would legitimate the practice of eating animals, while carnistic domination would support the killing of animals for their meat. The Carnism Inventory showed the hypothesized two-dimensional structure as well as good internal consistencies and stability (N = 302, Study 1). We also demonstrated the convergent and discriminant validity of the Carnism In…
Cognitive network hyperactivation and motor cortex decline correlate with ALS prognosis.
2021
We aimed to quantitatively characterize progressive brain network disruption in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) during cognition using the mismatch negativity (MMN), an electrophysiological index of attention switching. We measured the MMN using 128-channel EEG longitudinally (2-5 timepoints) in 60 ALS patients and cross-sectionally in 62 healthy controls. Using dipole fitting and linearly constrained minimum variance beamforming we investigated cortical source activity changes over time. In ALS, the inferior frontal gyri (IFG) show significantly lower baseline activity compared to controls. The right IFG and both superior temporal gyri (STG) become progressively hyperactive longitudina…
Chronic, but not acute, fatigue predicts self-reported attentional driving errors in mothers attending infant children
2019
AbstractMothers attending infant children usually experience high levels of fatigue, and fatigue has been shown to be related to car crashes through attentional errors, among other causes. The current study investigates the effects of fatigue on the attentional errors while driving of women attending infant children. A sample of 112 women—67 attending infant children and 45 not attending—filled out self-report questionnaires assessing acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and attention-related driving errors. A mediational analysis showed that women attending infant children had higher levels of fatigue, and that chronic fatigue, but not acute fatigue, was related to attentional errors while driv…
In vivo muscle morphology comparison in post-stroke survivors using ultrasonography and diffusion tensor imaging.
2019
AbstractSkeletal muscle architecture significantly influences the performance capacity of a muscle. A DTI-based method has been recently considered as a new reference standard to validate measurement of muscle structure in vivo. This study sought to quantify muscle architecture parameters such as fascicle length (FL), pennation angle (PA) and muscle thickness (tm) in post-stroke patients using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to quantitatively compare the differences with 2D ultrasonography (US) and DTI. Muscle fascicles were reconstructed to examine the anatomy of the medial gastrocnemius, posterior soleus and tibialis anterior in seven stroke survivors using US- and DTI-based techniques…
Different Brain Circuitries Mediating Controllable and Uncontrollable Pain.
2015
Uncontrollable, compared with controllable, painful stimulation can lead to increased pain perception and activation in pain-processing brain regions, but it is currently unknown which brain areas mediate this effect. When pain is controllable, the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) seems to inhibit pain processing, although it is unclear how this is achieved. Using fMRI in healthy volunteers, we examined brain activation during controllable and uncontrollable stimulation to answer these questions. In the controllable task, participants self-adjusted temperatures applied to their hand of pain or warm intensities to provoke a constant sensation. In the uncontrollable task, the temperature time …