Search results for "choline"
showing 10 items of 1138 documents
Erythrocyte Phospholipid and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Composition in Diabetic Retinopathy
2014
Background: Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) including docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid are suspected to play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. LCPUFAs are known to be preferentially concentrated in specific phospholipids termed as plasmalogens. This study was aimed to highlight potential changes in the metabolism of phospholipids, and particularly plasmalogens, and LCPUFAs at various stages of diabetic retinopathy in humans. Methodology and Principal Findings: We performed lipidomic analyses on red blood cell membranes from controls and mainly type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with or without retinopathy. The fatty acid composition of erythrocytes was det…
Plasma lysosphingomyelin demonstrates great potential as a diagnostic biomarker for Niemann-Pick disease type C in a retrospective study.
2015
Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a devastating, neurovisceral lysosomal storage disorder which is characterised by variable manifestation of visceral signs, progressive neuropsychiatric deterioration and premature death, caused by mutations in the NPC1 and NPC2 genes. Due to the complexity of diagnosis and the availability of an approved therapy in the EU, improved detection of NP-C may have a huge impact on future disease management. At the cellular level dysfunction or deficiency of either the NPC1 or NPC2 protein leads to a complex intracellular endosomal/lysosomal trafficking defect, and organ specific patterns of sphingolipid accumulation. Lysosphingolipids have been shown to be e…
Non-neuronal acetylcholine, a signalling molecule synthezised by surface cells of rat and man.
1997
Acetylcholine acts as a prominent transmitter in the central and peripheral nervous system. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether mammalian non-neuronal cells can synthesize and store acetylcholine. A cotton tipped applicator (Q-tip) was used to collect surface cells from airways and alimentary tract. Histological inspection indicated that rubbing of the luminal surface of human bronchi did not penetrate the basal membrane. Acetylcholine was measured by an HPLC-method using substrate-specific enzyme reactor-columns. Non-neuronal acetylcholine was found in cells covering inner and outer surfaces of rat and man. For example, acetylcholine was detected in the surface epitheli…
Epithelium modulates the reactivity of sensitized guinea-pig trachea: influence of the surface of drug entry.
1991
Abstract A technique by which drug access was restricted to either the mucosal or the adventitial surface of tracheal rings isolated from sensitized guinea-pigs was applied to study the role of the epithelium in modulating responses to KCl, acetylcholine, histamine and antigen (bovine serum albumin, BSA). Epithelium removal did not alter the responsiveness or sensitivity of tracheal rings to KCl. In contrast, a leftward shift occurred for concentration-response curves to acetylcholine (concentration ratio (CR) = 4·1), histamine (CR = 2·9) and BSA (CR = 33·9) entering from the mucosal surface of de-epithelialized trachea. This shift was not associated with changes in the maximal effect of th…
Magnetic resonance imaging in juvenile Canavan disease
1993
We present a 2-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl with mild Canavan disease (CD). Aspartoacylase activity in skin fibroblasts was deficient. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain did not show the prominent leucodystrophy previously reported in CD, but there was a hyperintense signal from the lentiform nuclei and the heads of the caudate nuclei on the T2-weighted MR images. This suggests a specific vulnerability of the corpus striatum in these patients. In the older patient, the white matter became affected at the age of 6 years. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) of white matter revealed a normal concentration of N-acetyl-L-aspartate (NAA) and a markedly decreased conce…
Steatotic liver: a suitable source for the isolation of hepatic progenitor cells.
2011
Background: Alternative and/or complementary sources of cells such as hepatic progenitor cells (HPC) are under investigation for hepatic cell therapy purposes. Steatotic livers are those most commonly rejected for clinical transplantation and are also unsuitable for good quality hepatocyte isolation. Aim: Taken together these two facts, our aim was to investigate whether they could represent a suitable source for the isolation of progenitor cells. Methods: Rats fed for 7 weeks with methionine–choline deficient diets showing proved steatotic signs (i.e. increase in hepatic lipids; macrovesicular steatosis) and steatotic and normal human liver samples were used to study the expression of HPC …
Further delineation of eye manifestations in homozygous 15q13.3 microdeletions including TRPM1: a differential diagnosis of ceroid lipofuscinosis.
2014
The 15q13.3 heterozygous microdeletion is a fairly common microdeletion syndrome with marked clinical variability and incomplete penetrance. The average size of the deletion, which comprises six genes including CHRNA7, is 1.5 Mb. CHRNA7 has been identified as the gene responsible for the neurological phenotype in this microdeletion syndrome. Only seven patients with a homozygous microdeletion that includes at least CHRNA7, and is inherited from both parents have been described in the literature. The aim of this study was to further describe the distinctive eye manifestations from the analysis in the three French patients diagnosed with the classical 1.5 Mb homozygous microdeletion. Patients…
An intrinsic neuronal-like network in the rat pineal gland
1999
Recent studies have shown that in rat pineal glands kept in vitro action potential-producing cell clusters are demonstrable. To test whether the clusters interact, multiple-unit recordings were carried out simultaneously from different clusters, with or without electrical stimulation. Clusters with rhythmic burst activity exhibit highly synchronized firing and electrical stimulation of one cluster elicits an immediate response in another one, apparently involving synapses but not gap junctions. It is hypothesized that the interacting clusters form a network. As the firing is affected by norepinephrine, acetylcholine and Ca2+, the network may monitor the interstitial concentrations of these …
Characterization of the prejunctional muscarinic receptors mediating inhibition of evoked release of endogenous noradrenaline in rabbit isolated vas …
1994
The aim of the present study was to characterize the prejunctional modulation of evoked release of endogenous noradrenaline in rabbit vas deferens by the use of muscarinic receptor agonists and subtype-preferring antagonists. Vasa deferentia of the rabbit were stimulated electrically by trains of 120 pulses delivered at 4 Hz or trains of 30 pulses at 1 Hz. The inhibition by muscarinic agonists of the stimulation-evoked overflow of endogenous noradrenaline in the absence and presence of antagonists was used to determine affinity constants for antagonists. These values were compared with those observed at putative M1 receptors inhibiting neurogenic twitch contractions in the rabbit vas defere…
Effect of cholinergic stimulation in early Alzheimer's disease - functional imaging during a recognition memory task.
2011
Treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) enhances cholinergic activity and alleviates clinical symptoms. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated the effect of the AChEI rivastigmine on cognitive function and brain activation patterns during a face recognition memory task. Twenty patients with newly-diagnosed mild AD were administered a single oral dose of placebo, a single dose of rivastigmine (acute), and twice-daily treatment with rivastigmine for 4 weeks (chronic). After each treatment, the patients underwent a facial recognition task during fMRI. The prefrontal areas known to be involved in face recogni…