Search results for "pigments"

Age-dependent allocation of carotenoids to coloration versus antioxidant defences.

2009

SUMMARYAging is commonly attributed to age-related changes in oxidative damage due to an increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a weakened efficacy of enzymatic antioxidants. These age-related changes might therefore modify the use of dietary antioxidants, including carotenoids. As carotenoids are closely associated with the expression of secondary sexual signals, the allocation of carotenoids to sexual signal versus antioxidant defences may vary with age. In this study, we explored how carotenoid-based ornament and antioxidant activity varied with age and how an inflammatory-induced oxidative burst affected ornament and antioxidant activity across a range of ages. Using …

Color Signals in the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix): Signal Properties and Their Condition Dependency

2009

Recent progress in techniques of quantifying between-individual differences of color-based ornaments has revealed undiscovered possibilities for research in sexual selection. We present how the color spectra data can be comprehensively used for studying the importance of sexual ornaments in the black grouse and how these ornaments are related to a male condition. For this, we used both correlative field and experimental data. Field data indicated that older males had more chromatic coloration than yearlings. Blue chroma of males was correlated with male mating success. We experimentally manipulated yearling birds with testosterone implants and found that testosterone-implanted males had imp…

The nutrigenetic influence of the interaction between dietary vitamin E and TXN and COMT gene polymorphisms on waist circumference: a case control st…

2015

Background Abdominal obesity (AO) is a common modifiable risk factor for certain non-communicable diseases associated with enhanced oxidative stress (OS). The objective of this work was to investigate whether the interaction between antioxidant vitamin intake and OS-related polymorphisms modulates gene-associated anthropometry in a Spanish population. Methods A total of 246 subjects with AO, and 492 age and gender matched non-AO subjects were included in the study. Anthropometric, biochemical, and OS parameters, and antioxidant dietary intake data were assessed using validated procedures. DNA from white blood cells was isolated and the genotype of seven polymorphisms from genes involved in …

Ultraviolet vision in lacertid lizards: evidence from retinal structure, eye transmittance, SWS1 visual pigment genes, and behaviour

2014

Abstract Ultraviolet (UV) vision and UV colour patches have been reported in a wide range of taxa and are increasingly appreciated as an integral part of vertebrate visual perception and communication systems. Previous studies with Lacertidae, a lizard family with diverse and complex coloration, have revealed the existence of UV-reflecting patches that may function as social signals. However, confirmation of the signalling role of UV coloration requires demonstrating that the lizards are capable of vision in the UV waveband. Here we use a multidisciplinary approach to characterize the visual sensitivity of a diverse sample of lacertid species. Spectral transmission measurements of the ocula…

Ultrastructural studies of the retina in infantile neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis.

1988

A 9-year-old boy who had died of infantile neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis had experienced retina-derived visual failure. Ophthalmologically and morphologically, his retina was severely atrophic and scarred by a dense fibrillary gliosis while photoreceptor cells had completely disappeared, cells of the bipolar layer had decreased in number and had become atrophic beyond cytologic recognition. Retinal pigment epithelial cells had undergone either atrophy or proliferation. Disease-specific granular lipopigments had accumulated in perikarya and processes of remaining cells and were infrequently associated with melanin within huge melanolipofuscin bodies and RPE cells of sessile and migrating na…

Effects of titanium dioxide pigments on mouse peritoneal macrophages in vivo.

1982

Functional, Biochemical, and Morphological Hepatobiliary Effects in Rats Chronically Exposed to a Steroidal Antiandrogen

1996

Abstract Yellow–brown deposits in intrahepatic bile ducts and portal macrophages were observed for male, but not female, Sprague–Dawley rats fed zanoterone, a steroidal antiandrogen, for ≥3 months. The lesion did not affect biliary canaliculi and was associated with changes of biliary epithelium, portal chronic inflammation, and bile duct proliferation. Deposit formation was assumed to be related to a gender-related anomaly in bile composition and/or flow. Therefore, the pathogenesis of the lesion was investigated in male, female, and orchiectomized rats. Hepatobiliary structure and function were evaluated after 3 months of treatment and 3 months of reversibility. Drug biliary disposition w…

Pigment variant of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis

1995

A 6-year-old girl had progressive ataxia, and visual disturbances resulting in blindness. She died in her sleep at age 22 years. She shared with her sister and paternal relatives bilateral pes cavus deformities and impaired deep-tendon reflexes which suggested Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Her sister, who also had both polyneuropathy and a progressive central nervous system (CNS) disease, did not have pigmentary retinopathy. At autopsy, the patient was found to have neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis (NCL) marked by intraneuronal accumulation of autofluorescent granular lipopigments in ballooned perikarya and conspicuous extraneuronal pigmentation of subcortical grey matter, but without axonal s…

Natural iron oxide (earth colour) deposits in Latvia: an assessment of the possibilities for their use in inorganic pigment manufacturing

2018

Ag nanoparticles agargel nanocomposites for SERS detection of cultural heritage interest pigments

2018

Agarose gel (agargel) composites with commercial and laboratory made silver nanoparticles were prepared by a wet solution method at room temperature. The gel composites were used for pigment extraction and detection by Raman spectroscopy. Red (alizarin) and violet (crystal violet) pigments deposited on paper were extracted by the composites and were investigated by micro-Raman spectroscopy. Evaluation was carried out of the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) effect induced by the silver nanoparticles embedded in the gel. A kinetic approach as a function of time was used to determine the efficiency of pigments extraction by composites deposition. A non-invasive extraction process of …