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Age-related changes in cholesterol metabolism in macrosomic offspring of rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes.
2001
The aim of this study was to determine the impact of diabetic macrosomia on cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism. Age-related changes in the activities of serum LCAT, hepatic HMG-CoA reductase, cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase, and ACAT, the major enzymes involved in cholesterol metabolism, were determined in macrosomic offspring of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Hepatic, serum, and lipoprotein cholesterol contents were also examined. Mild hyperglycemia in pregnant rats was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight) on day 5 of gestation. Control pregnant rats were injected with citrate buffer. At birth, macrosomic pups had higher serum, LDL-HDL1, and H…
Community detection-based deep neural network architectures: A fully automated framework based on Likert-scale data
2020
[EN] Deep neural networks (DNNs) have emerged as a state-of-the-art tool in very different research fields due to its adaptive power to the decision space since they do not presuppose any linear relationship between data. Some of the main disadvantages of these trending models are that the choice of the network underlying architecture profoundly influences the performance of the model and that the architecture design requires prior knowledge of the field of study. The use of questionnaires is hugely extended in social/behavioral sciences. The main contribution of this work is to automate the process of a DNN architecture design by using an agglomerative hierarchical algorithm that mimics th…
Aquaporin-4 distribution in control and stressed astrocytes in culture and in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with traumatic brain injuries
2012
Distribution of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) was studied by western analysis and immunofluorescence in rat astrocytes exposed to either hypothermic (30 °C) or hyperosmolar (0.45 M sucrose) stress, and in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients who suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI). CSF was obtained from 5 healthy subjects and from 20 patients suffering from severe TBI. CSF samples were taken at admission and on days 3 and 5-7. Here we report that, in response to both hypothermia and hyperosmolar stress, AQP4 was markedly reduced in cultured astrocytes. We also found that AQP4 significantly increased in patients with severe brain injury in respect to healthy subjects (P < 0.002). AQP4 in CSF rem…
Temporary warm ischaemia, 5/6 nephrectomy and single uranylnitrate administration — comparison of three models intended to cause renal fibrosis in ra…
2001
In patients the progression of pathologic renal processes after the treatment of primary disease is a problem of increasing importance and therapeutic strategies are insufficient till now. The aim of this paper was to search for rat models of interstitial fibrosis as a basis for testing therapeutic strategies to prevent end-stage renal failure. Experiments were done on adult female Wistar rats (Han:Wist) to investigate long-term consequences of temporary warm ischaemia, 5/6 nephrectomy (5/6 NX) and single uranyl nitrate (UN) administration (0.3 or 0.5 mg/ 100 g body wt. intraperitoneally). Observation time was 20 weeks after injury in each group. Creatinine clearance, urinary protein excret…
cGMP MODULATES STEM CELLS DIFFERENTIATION TO NEURONS IN BRAIN IN VIVO
2010
During brain development neural stem cells may differentiate to neurons or to other cell types. The aim of this work was to assess the role of cGMP (cyclic GMP) in the modulation of differentiation of neural stem cells to neurons or non-neuronal cells. cGMP in brain of fetuses was reduced to 46% of controls by treating pregnant rats with nitroarginine-methylester (L-NAME) and was restored by co-treatment with sildenafil.Reducing cGMP during brain development leads to reduced differentiation of stem cells to neurons and increased differentiation to non-neuronal cells. The number of neurons in the prefrontal cortex originated from stem cells proliferating on gestational day 14 was 715 +/- 14/…
Breakdown of choline-containing phospholipids in rat brain during severe weight loss.
2002
Recent investigations in human anorectic patients indicated changes of brain choline metabolism. We used starved rats to investigate possible changes of brain choline metabolites during severe weight loss. Reductions of body weight by 15, 30 and 45% resulted in significant decreases of cerebral phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin levels. Concomitantly, the brain tissue content of glycerophosphocholine was increased while phosphocholine and free choline were unchanged. We conclude that severe weight loss is accompanied by phospholipase activation and breakdown of choline-containing phospholipids in the brain.
Increased mRNAs for procollagens and key regulating enzymes in rat skeletal muscle following downhill running.
1999
The purpose of the study was to investigate pre-translational regulation of collagen expression after a single bout of exercise. We analysed steady-state messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels for collagen types I, III and IV, alpha- and beta-subunits of prolyl 4-hydroxylase and lysyl oxidase (enzymes modifying procollagen chains), and enzyme activity of prolyl 4-hydroxylase from rat soleus muscle (MS) and the red parts of quadriceps femoris muscle (MQF) after 12 h and after 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14 days of downhill (-13.5 degrees ) treadmill running at a speed of 17 m.min-1 for 130 min. Histological and biochemical assays revealed exercise-induced muscle damage in MQF but not MS. Steady-state m…
Effects of dopamine in isolated rat colon strips.
2005
The aim of the present work is to investigate the effects of dopamine on isolated rat colon strips, and whether dopamine receptors are involved in these effects. Experiments on spontaneous motility and under potassium contraction were performed with dopamine and isoprenaline, both in the absence and presence of antagonists (distal colon strips, isotonic recording, Tyrode solution, 31 °C, 1 g of resting tension). At higher concentration (10–4mol/L), dopamine abolished spontaneous motility of the rat colon and this effect was not modified by antagonists. In isolated rat colon strips that were depolarized with potassium, dopamine produced concentration-dependent relaxation, without significant…
Modulatory role of a constitutively active population of α1D-adrenoceptors in conductance arteries
2002
A constitutively active population of α1D-adrenoceptors in iliac and proximal, distal, and small mesenteric rat arteries was studied. The increase in resting tone (IRT) that evidences it was observed only in iliac and proximal mesenteric and was inhibited by prazosin (pIC50 = 9.57), 5-methylurapidil (pIC50 = 7.61), and BMY 7378 (pIC50 = 8.77). Chloroethylchlonidine (100 μmol/l) did not affect IRT, but when added before the other antagonists it blocked their effect. The potency shown by BMY 7378 confirms the α1D-subtype as responsible for IRT. BMY 7378 displayed greater inhibition of adrenergic responses in iliac (pIC50 = 7.57 ± 0.11) and proximal mesenteric arteries (pIC50 = 8.05 ± 0.2) th…
Lipid peroxidation capacities in the myocardium of endurance-trained rats and mice in vitro.
1992
The endurance-training programme in Experiment 1 (Exp. 1) consisted of a total swimming time of 149–159 h per male Han Wistar rat and in Experiment 2 (Exp. 2) the male NMRI-mice run on a treadmill at a speed of 25 m min-1 1 h per day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks. One group of the rat hearts was perfused with 0.3 mm cumene hydroperoxide (CumOOH) while the others were fractioned (mitochondria, sarcolemma and sarcoplasmic reticulum) and these cell fractions and homogenates were used to determine the total concentration of peroxidative lipids and the susceptibility to lipid peroxidation. The perfusion with CumOOH caused the release of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) into the perfu…