Search results for "REGIONS"
showing 10 items of 1521 documents
Diagnostic efficacy of the ELISA test for the detection of deamidated anti-gliadin peptide antibodies in the diagnosis and monitoring of celiac disea…
2009
Background and Aim: We evaluated the diagnostic performance of an ELISA test for anti-gliadin IgA and IgG antibodies, which uses synthetic deamidated gliadin peptides (anti-gliadin antibodies, AGAs) as coating; the results were compared with a test that uses extracted gliadin (AGAe). Methods: The study was conducted on the sera of 144 patients suffering from celiac disease (CD), including 20 patients with IgA deficiency and 9 who were following a gluten-free diet (GFD), and 129 controls. Results: In the 115 CD patients (without IgA deficiency), the sensitivity of AGAe IgA and IgG was 32.2 and 60.9%, whereas that of AGAs IgA and IgG was 59.1 and 72.2%. The specificity for AGAe IgA and IgG, a…
Mutation analysis of the SPG4 gene in Italian patients with pure and complicated forms of spastic paraplegia
2010
Mutations in the SPG4 gene are the most common causes of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) accounting for up to 40% of autosomal dominant (AD) forms and 12-18% of sporadic cases. The phenotype associated with HSP due to mutations in the SPG4 gene tends to be pure. There is increasing evidence, however, of patients with complicated forms of spastic paraplegia in which SPG4 mutations were identified. A cohort of 38 unrelated Italian patients with spastic paraplegia, of which 24 had a clear dominant inheritance and 14 were apparently sporadic, were screened for mutations in the SPG4 gene.We identified 11 different mutations, six of which were novel (p.Glu143GlyfsX8, p.Tyr415X, p.Asp548Asn, c…
Large-scale brain networks emerge from dynamic processing of musical timbre, key and rhythm
2012
We investigated the neural underpinnings of timbral, tonal, and rhythmic features of a naturalistic musical stimulus. Participants were scanned with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while listening to a stimulus with a rich musical structure, a modern tango. We correlated temporal evolutions of timbral, tonal, and rhythmic features of the stimulus, extracted using acoustic feature extraction procedures, with the fMRI time series. Results corroborate those obtained with controlled stimuli in previous studies and highlight additional areas recruited during musical feature processing. While timbral feature processing was associated with activations in cognitive areas of the cerebel…
Cognitive vs. affective listening modes and judgments of music - An ERP study
2010
The neural correlates of processing deviations from Western music rules are relatively well known. Less is known of the neural dynamics of top-down listening modes and affective liking judgments in relation with judgments of tonal correctness. In this study, subjects determined if tonal chord sequences sounded correct or incorrect, or if they liked them or not, while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured. The last chord of the sequences could be congruous with the previous context, ambiguous (unusual but still enjoyable) or harmonically inappropriate. The cognitive vs. affective listening modes were differentiated in the event-related potential (ERP) responses already before the end…
Distribution of origin of nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive nerve fibers in the rat epididymis.
1996
Abstract Distribution of neuronal nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive (nNOS-IR) nerve fibers and somata in the rat epididymis and major pelvic ganglia was studied by immunohistochemical methods. In the epididymis, the supply of nNOS-IR fibers was highest in the cauda and became progressively fewer toward the caput. In the cauda and corpus, nNOS-IR fibers were distributed throughout the subepithelial tissues and around the epithelium. The pattern of distribution of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)- and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive fibers in the epididymis was similar but the latter was generally more numerous in a given region as compared to that of nNOS-IR fibers. A popu…
Algorithm for clinical evaluation and surgical treatment of gynaecomastia.
2006
Algorithm for clinical evaluation and surgical treatment of gynaecomastia. Cordova A, Moschella F. Source Dipartimento di Discipline Chirurgiche ed Oncologiche, Cattedra di Chirurgia Plastica e Ricostruttiva, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy. adriana.cordova@excite.com Abstract BACKGROUND: Gynaecomastia can be classified on the basis of the main characterising factors, i.e. pathogenesis, histopathology and morphology. The morphological classifications of gynaecomastia currently made often use subjective parameters and qualifying adjectives. In this paper the authors propose a scheme for morphological classification of gynaecomastia which can serve as a guide for choosing th…
Thyroid hormone induction of the adrenoleukodystrophy-related gene (ABCD2).
2003
X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a demyelinating disorder associated with impaired very-long-chain fatty-acid (VLCFA) beta-oxidation caused by mutations in the ABCD1 (ALD) gene that encodes a peroxisomal membrane ABC transporter. ABCD2 (ALDR) displays partial functional redundancy because when overexpressed, it is able to correct the X-ALD biochemical phenotype. The ABCD2 promoter contains a putative thyroid hormone-response element conserved in rodents and humans. In this report, we demonstrate that the element is capable of binding retinoid X receptor and 3,5,3'-tri-iodothyronine (T3) receptor (TRbeta) as a heterodimer and mediating T3 responsiveness of ABCD2 in its promoter conte…
Mouse photoreceptor synaptic ribbons lose and regain material in response to illumination changes
2004
Abstract Chemical synapses equipped with ribbons are tonically active, high-output synapses. The ribbons may play a role in the trafficking of synaptic vesicles. Recent findings in retinal rod cells of BALB/c mice indicate that ribbons are large and smooth in the dark phase, and, due to the formation and release of protrusions, small during the light phase. As a consequence of these changes, ribbons may traffick fewer vesicles in the light than in the dark phases. The aim of the present study was to find out whether the above ribbon changes in this mouse strain are strictly illumination-dependent and which signalling processes may be involved. Here, we show that ribbons form protrusions and…
Ipsilateral corticomotor responses are confined to the homologous muscle following cross-education of muscular strength
2017
Cross-education of strength occurs when strength-training 1 limb increases the strength of the untrained limb and is restricted to the untrained homologous muscle. Cortical circuits located ipsilateral to the trained limb might be involved. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to determine the corticomotor responses from the untrained homologous (biceps brachii) and nonhomologous (flexor carpi radialis) muscle following strength-training of the right elbow flexors. Motor evoked potentials were recorded from the untrained left biceps brachii and flexor carpi radialis during a submaximal contraction from 20 individuals (10 women, 10 men; aged 18–35 years; training group, n = 10; c…
Fibrate induction of the adrenoleukodystrophy-related gene (ABCD2)
2001
X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a neurodegenerative disease due to a defect in the ABCD1 (ALD) gene. ABCD1, and the two close homologues ABCD2 (ALDR) and ABCD3 (PMP70), are genes encoding ATP-binding cassette half-transporters of the peroxisomal membrane. As overexpression of the ABCD2 or ABCD3 gene can reverse the biochemical phenotype of X-ALD (reduced beta-oxidation of very-long-chain fatty acids), pharmacological induction of these partially redundant genes may represent a therapeutic approach to X-ALD. We previously reported that the ABCD2 and ABCD3 genes could be strongly induced by fibrates, which are hypolipidaemic drugs and peroxisome-proliferators in rodents. We provide e…