Search results for "Tunic"
showing 10 items of 131 documents
Endothelial dysfunction and carotid lesions are strong predictors of clinical events in patients with early stages of atherosclerosis: a 24-month fol…
2008
Background The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the vasodilator response to brachial artery and the presence of carotid lesions may have a prognostic significance in patients with early stages of atherosclerosis. Methods and results Vascular echography was performed to analyze flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) at the brachial artery and intima–media thickness (IMT) of carotid arteries in 84 asymptomatic patients. At baseline, we evaluated all the established traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Transient ischemic attack, stroke, effort or unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction, peripheral arterial disease and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular death served as outc…
Impact of infectious burden on progression of carotid atherosclerosis.
2002
Background and Purpose— Recent findings suggest a causative role of infections in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The extent of atherosclerosis and the prognosis of patients with atherosclerosis seem to be increased by the number of infections to which an individual has been exposed. In a prospective study, we evaluated the effect of 8 pathogens and the aggregate pathogen burden on the progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Methods— In 504 patients (74.9% men; age, 62.9±10 years), we measured intima-media thickness and prevalence of carotid artery stenosis. Follow-up measurements after a mean of 2.5 years were available in 427 patients (85%). Blood samples were taken, and IgG or IgA …
External stenting with a new polyester mesh reduces neointimal hyperplasia of vein grafts in a sheep model.
2007
Objective External stents placed around vein grafts have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing neointimal hyperplasia by preventing distension of the thin-walled vein grafts when exposed to arterial pressure. However, the ideal stent material has yet to be defined. The following study investigates the short- and long-term effects of an innovative polyester mesh stent designed with optimized adaptation of circumferential compliance. Methods Following in vitro definition of the ideal macro-porous polyester stent material, a total of 12 sheep underwent implantation of bilateral carotid artery vein graft bypasses. In six sheep, the short-term outcome (four weeks of implantation) was investigat…
Association of elevated fibrinogen and C-reactive protein levels with carotid lesions in patients with newly diagnosed hypertension or type II diabet…
2006
BACKGROUND: Inflammation may be important for accelerated progression of atherosclerosis in patients with hypertension or diabetes, but few studies included subjects with early stages of atherosclerosis such as those with asymptomatic carotid lesions. METHODS: We studied 100 patients with newly diagnosed hypertension and another 100 patients with newly diagnosed type II diabetes to evaluate in such groups the association of two markers of inflammation, fibrinogen and C-reactive protein (CRP), with carotid atherosclerosis, beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., older age, male gender, obesity, smoking, family history of CAD, dyslipidemia). RESULTS: We found positive correlatio…
Sex differences in early carotid atherosclerosis (from the community-based Gutenberg-Heart Study).
2010
The objectives of this study were to describe gender differences in intima-media thickness (IMT) in a community-based population study and to define normal IMT values for healthy men and women. In total, 4,814 participants (aged 35 to 74 years; 2,433 men, 2,381 women) from the Gutenberg-Heart Study (GHS) were included. IMT was measured at both common carotid arteries using an edge detection system. Median IMT was 0.62 mm (25th percentile 0.55, 75th percentile 0.70) in women and 0.65 mm (25th percentile 0.57, 75th percentile 0.75) in men and was significantly associated with age (p0.0001). On multivariate analysis, advanced age, smoking, and arterial hypertension were positively associated w…
Characterization of fusion from without induced by herpes simplex virus
1991
The process of fusion from without (FFWO) induced by herpes simplex virus (HSV) was analyzed by using various inhibitors and compared to fusion from within (FFWI). The fate of certain elements of the cytoskeleton after FFWO was also investigated. Our experiments demonstrate FFWO as a very suitable system for study of early virus-cell interactions. Zn++ ions proved inhibitory for penetration whilst pretreatment of cells with Ca++ ions before infection enhanced FFWO activity. Dissociation of penetration from the fusion process itself was possible by use of Zn++ ions, low pH-treatment and antiserum on the one hand and N-ethylmaleimide and cytochalasin D on the other. Penetration itself needs o…
Reversible stress-induced lipid body formation in fast twitch rat myofibers
2012
We analyzed the existence of lipid bodies (LBs) in the fast twitch rat flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) myofibers and found that these structures were scarce. However, isolation procedure of the myofibers, heath shock, viral infection or the glycosylation inhibitor tunicamycin induced formation of the LBs, which were stationary structures flanking Z lines. We next infected FDB myofibers with recombinant Semliki Forest virus expressing caveolin 3-yellow fluorescent protein (cav3-YFP) since this chimeric protein was targeted to the LBs facilitating their further analysis. Photobleaching experiments showed that the LBs recovered cav 3-YFP extremely slowly, indicating that they were not continuous…
Sphingomyelin inhibition of Ciona intestinalis (Tunicata) cytotoxic hemocytes assayed against sheep erythrocytes
1995
Hemocytes from the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis, are capable of lysing erythrocytes in vitro following cell membrane contact. With the aim of examining the mechanism of cytotoxicity, we performed inhibition experiments with lipid components of erythrocyte membranes. Cholesterol is not an inhibitor, whereas, among the phospholipids tested, (sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine) sphingomyelin inhibits the hemolytic activity of hemocytes. However, thin layer chromatography showed that sphingomyelinase activity was not contained in the chloroform-methanol extracts from hemocyte debris. The inhibition capacity of the components ceramide and phosphorylc…
ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) presence in the heart of a tunicate, Ciona intestinalis.
2010
Atrial natriuretic peptide was found in the heart of vertebrates, we studied the ANP presence in the heart of Ciona intestinalis. This is animal is very important because of the its evolutionary position between invertebrates and vertebrates. ANP presence was only revealed in myoepithelial cells of the myocardium. Results suggest the hypothesis that ANP is present not only in the vertebrates but also in the invertebrates and in Ciona heart ANP might play a similar role like in the heart of vertebrates.
Phenoloxidase characterization in vacuolar hemocytes from the solitary ascidian Styela plicata
1995
Phenoloxidase (PO) activity was shown in lysates of Styela plicata hemocytes assayed spectrophotometrically by means of L-Dopa oxidation without divalent cations. Trypsin and chymotrypsin pretreatment and preincubation with microbial lipopolysaccharides significantly activated PO, whereas laminarin or zymosan were ineffective. Soybean trypsin inhibitor, tropolone, and phenylthiourea, but not benzamidine, were inhibitors. Finally, hemocytes were separated by a discontinuous Percoll density gradient to determine which cells were active. PO activity was demonstrated, by both biochemical and cytochemical assays, in the separated fraction enriched mainly with the globular granulocytes called mor…