Search results for "factor"
showing 10 items of 17757 documents
Effects of Ranolazine on Astrocytes and Neurons in Primary Culture.
2016
Ranolazine (Rn) is an antianginal agent used for the treatment of chronic angina pectoris when angina is not adequately controlled by other drugs. Rn also acts in the central nervous system and it has been proposed for the treatment of pain and epileptic disorders. Under the hypothesis that ranolazine could act as a neuroprotective drug, we studied its effects on astrocytes and neurons in primary culture. We incubated rat astrocytes and neurons in primary cultures for 24 hours with Rn (10-7, 10-6 and 10-5 M). Cell viability and proliferation were measured using trypan blue exclusion assay, MTT conversion assay and LDH release assay. Apoptosis was determined by Caspase 3 activity assay. The …
miR-128 Is Implicated in Stress Responses by Targeting MAFG in Skeletal Muscle Cells.
2017
MAFG (v-Maf avian musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog G) is a bZIP-type transcriptional regulator that belongs to the small MAF (sMAFs) protein family. By interacting with other bZIP transcription factors, sMAFs can form homo- and heterodimers governing either repressive or activating transcriptional functions. As heterodimeric partner of Nrf2, MAFG positively influences the ARE-dependent antioxidant/xenobiotic pathways, at least in condition of a correct MAFG:Nrf2 balance. MicroRNAs (miRs) participate to different regulatory networks being involved as fine-tuning regulators of gene expression. However, the connections between cellular surveillance to stresses mediated by MAFG:…
New insights into the genetic component of non-infectious uveitis through an Immunochip strategy.
2016
BACKGROUND: Large-scale genetic studies have reported several loci associated with specific disorders involving uveitis. Our aim was to identify genetic risk factors that might predispose to uveitis per se, independent of the clinical diagnosis, by performing a dense genotyping of immune-related loci.METHODS: 613 cases and 3693 unaffected controls from three European case/control sets were genotyped using the Immunochip array. Only patients with non-infectious non-anterior uveitis and without systemic features were selected. To perform a more comprehensive analysis of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) region, SNPs, classical alleles and polymorphic amino acid variants were obtained via impu…
Unexpected diversity in socially synchronized rhythms of shorebirds.
2016
The behavioural rhythms of organisms are thought to be under strong selection, influenced by the rhythmicity of the environment1,2,3,4. Such behavioural rhythms are well studied in isolated individuals under laboratory conditions1,5, but free-living individuals have to temporally synchronize their activities with those of others, including potential mates, competitors, prey and predators6,7,8,9,10. Individuals can temporally segregate their daily activities (for example, prey avoiding predators, subordinates avoiding dominants) or synchronize their activities (for example, group foraging, communal defence, pairs reproducing or caring for offspring)6,7,8,9,11. The behavioural rhythms that em…
Quantity language speakers show enhanced subcortical processing
2016
Abstract The complex auditory brainstem response (cABR) can reflect language-based plasticity in subcortical stages of auditory processing. It is sensitive to differences between language groups as well as stimulus properties, e.g. intensity or frequency. It is also sensitive to the synchronicity of the neural population stimulated by sound, which results in increased amplitude of wave V. Finnish is a full-fledged quantity language, in which word meaning is dependent upon duration of the vowels and consonants. Previous studies have shown that Finnish speakers have enhanced behavioural sound duration discrimination ability and larger cortical mismatch negativity (MMN) to duration change comp…
Cutaneous manifestations associated with anosmia, ageusia and enteritis in SARS-CoV-2 infection - a possible pattern? Observational study and review …
2021
BACKGROUND: The cutaneous manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been covered insufficiently in the literature. METHODS: Thirty-nine patients admitted to the study hospital with confirmed COVID-19 who experienced various skin manifestations during hospitalization or in the convalescence period, were analysed retrospectively. RESULTS: Thirty-nine patients with COVID-19, admitted to the study hospital between 23 March and 12 September 2020, had intra-infectious rash or lesions of cutaneous vasculitis during convalescence. The most common cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 were erythematous and erythematous papular rash. Twenty-seven of the 39 patients had anosmia (69.2%)…
DNA methylomes reveal biological networks involved in human eye development, functions and associated disorders
2017
This work provides a comprehensive CpG methylation landscape of the different layers of the human eye that unveils the gene networks associated with their biological functions and how these are disrupted in common visual disorders. Herein, we firstly determined the role of CpG methylation in the regulation of ocular tissue-specification and described hypermethylation of retinal transcription factors (i.e., PAX6, RAX, SIX6) in a tissue-dependent manner. Second, we have characterized the DNA methylome of visual disorders linked to internal and external environmental factors. Main conclusions allow certifying that crucial pathways related to Wnt-MAPK signaling pathways or neuroinflammation are…
Elevated Serum Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 in Humans with Acute Pancreatitis.
2016
Background The metabolic regulator Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 (FGF21) is highly expressed in the acinar pancreas, but its role in pancreatic function is obscure. It appears to play a protective role in acute experimental pancreatitis in mice. The aim of this study was to define an association between FGF21 and the course and resolution of acute pancreatitis in humans. Methods and Principal Findings Twenty five subjects with acute pancreatitis admitted from May to September 2012 to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) were analyzed. Serial serum samples were collected throughout hospitalization and analyzed for FGF21 levels by ELISA. Twenty healthy subjects sampled three times o…
Impact of parental over- and underweight on the health of offspring.
2019
Parental excess weight and especially pregestational maternal obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy have been related to an increased risk of metabolic (obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome) and nonmetabolic (cancer, osteoporosis, asthma, neurologic alterations) diseases in the offspring, probably mediated by epigenetic mechanisms of fetal programming. Maternal underweight is less common in developed societies, but the discrepancy between a poor nutritional environment in utero and a normal or excessive postnatal food supply with rapid growth catch-up appears to be the main candidate mechanism of the development of chronic diseases during the off…
Telomere Length and Frailty: The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study
2018
Objectives: Telomere length is associated with aging-related pathologies. Although the association between telomere length and frailty has been studied previously, only a few studies assessing longitudinal changes in telomere length and frailty exist. Design: Longitudinal cohort study. Setting and participants: A subpopulation of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study consisting of 1078 older adults aged 67 to 79 years born in Helsinki, Finland, between 1934 and 1944. Measures: Relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction at the average ages of 61 and 71 years, and at the latter the participants were assessed for frailty according to …