Assessment of plasma nitric oxide concentration and erythrocyte arginase activity in dairy cows with traumatic reticuloperitonitis

ΔΕΝ ΔΙΑΤΙΘΕΤΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗThe aim of this study was to evaluate plasma nitric oxide (NO) concentrations, erythrocyte arginase (ARG) activity, plasma fibrinogen (Fb) and serum iron (Fe) levels and some biochemical parameters in dairy cows with traumatic reticuloperitonitis (TRP). The animal material of the study consisted of 14 Swiss Brown cows diagnosed with TRP (TRP group) between 4-8 years old brought to Firat University Animal Hospital Clinics and 14 healthy Swiss Brown cows (control group) aged 4-8 years obtained from dairy farms in different regions. Blood samples were taken from the vena jugularis of the animals. Concentrations of plasma NO, Fb, erythrocyte ARG activity, and some biochemical markers were determined after the serum and plasma of the receiving blood were separated. While the NO (318.9±5.8 vs. 270.3±9.6 μmol/L) concentrations of the TRP group were found to be significantly higher than the control group (P<0.001), the erythrocyte ARG activity (29.5±0.5 vs. 35.2±1.0 U/hb) was found to be higher in the control group (P<0.001). It was also observed that total protein (TP) (6.6±0.5 vs. 7.8±0.1 g/dL) (P<0.05) and Fb (914.3±68.6 vs. 265.4±19.8 mg/dL) (P<0.001) concentrations were higher in the TRP group, compared to the control group, while albumin (ALB) (1.9±0.2 vs. 3.1±0.1 g/dL) and Fe (47.00±5.29 vs.106.79±9.44 μg/dL) concentrations were significantly lower than the control group (P<0.001). In addition, a positive correlation was found between NO and Fb concentrations and between erythrocyte ARG activity and Fe concentrations. As a result, it was determined that NO concentrations were increased and erythrocyte ARG activity was not significant in dairy cows with TRP. In addition, increased plasma Fb concentration and decreased serum Fe concentration were determined in dairy cows with TRP. This study demonstrated that plasma NO, Fb and serum Fe concentrations in dairy cows with TRP may be useful markers for prognosis

Time evolution of methotrexate-induced kidney injury: A comparative study between different biomarkers of renal damage in rats

Methotrexate (MTX) is commonly used in the treatment of malignant diseases and autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorders. Along with its effective therapeutic power, MTX has adverse effects on the kidneys. Discovery of new biomarkers is required to improve the early detection of renal damage and optimize the effectiveness of treatments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the time course of MTX-induced nephrotoxicity and to compare the urinary excretion of the organic anion transporter 5 (uOat5) with alterations in other markers of renal function, and to elucidate the possible molecular mechanisms involved in uOat5. Animals were exposed to a unique dose of MTX (80 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneal). Experiments were carried out at days 2, 4, 8 or 14 after MTX administration. Markers of renal damage, such as creatinine and urea plasma levels, urinary activity of alkaline phosphatase, microalbuminuria, urinary excretion of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) and histopathology, were evaluated. Renal organic anion transporter 5 (Oat5) expression and its presence in different urine fraction were assessed by western blotting. uOat5 was significantly increased 2 days after MTX treatment, before than any alteration in other parameters of kidney injury or renal morphology occurred. uNGAL showed an inverted pattern of urinary excretion compared to uOat5. Exosomal pathway is involved in the urinary excretion of Oat5 and depends on the degree of damage induced by MTX. These experimental data allow proposing uOat5 as a potential non-invasive biomarker for early detection of MTX-induced nephrotoxicity.Fil: Severin, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmaceuticas. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Area Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Campagno, Romina Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmaceuticas. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Area Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Brandoni, Anabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmaceuticas. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Area Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Torres, Adriana Mónica. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmaceuticas. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Area Farmacología; Argentin

Procjena serumskoga srčanog troponina I u ovaca s akutnom mliječnokiselinskom acidozom buraga.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is known to be a sensitive cardio biomarker to determine the myocardial damage in diseases affecting the cardiac muscles. However, there has not been sufficient research about cTnI concentration, which is the most sensitive indicator of myocardial damage in sheep with acute ruminal lactic acidosis (ARLA). For this reason this study aimed to evaluate the serum cTnI concentration in sheep with ARLA. Those diagnosed with ARLA (n = 20) from the total of 40 Akkaraman (White karaman) sheep, aged between 1-2 years used in this study comprised the affected group and the healthy ones (n = 20) comprised the control group. Ruminal fluid was obtained from the animals from both groups with the help of a stomach tube, and examined immediately. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein of the sheep and the serum was separated. Serum cTnI concentration was measured with a commercial immunoassay system, using the one-step sandwich method. Serum enzyme (ALT, AST, CK-MB and LDH) activities were determined via a clinical biochemistry autoanalyzer. The average serum cTnI concentration was at the level of 0.035 ± 0.015 ng/mL (range; 0.02-0.06 ng/mL) in the control group sheep. It was determined that there was a substantial increase in the group with ARLA and the average concentration reached the level of 0.103 ± 0.080 ng/mL (range; 0.03-1.7 ng/mL) (P<0.0001). It was observed that another cardio marker, CK-MB, was found in the group with ARLA 454.50 ± 191.88 U/L (range; 214-861 U/L) and increased in comparison with the control group 224.35 ± 83.33 U/L (range; 133-421 U/L) (P<0.0001). An increase in LDH (P<0.001) and AST (P<0.001) from liver enzymes in the group with ARLA and ALT activities compared to the control group was identified (P<0.01). In conclusion, this present study determined that the serum cTnI concentration was high in sheep with ARLA and it was concluded that it could be useful to evaluate cTnI concentration as an important marker to determine the prognosis in sheep with ARLA.U bolestima koje zahvaćaju srčani mišić, srčani troponin I (cTnI) poznat je kao osjetljivi biomarker za određivanje oštećenja srčanog mišića. Ipak, nema puno istraživanja o koncentraciji cTnI kao najosjetljivijeg indikatora za oštećenje srčanog mišića kod ovaca s akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom buraga. Zbog navedenog, u ovom istraživanju namjera je bila procijeniti koncentraciju serumskog cTnI kod ovaca s akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom. Ovce s dijagosticiranom akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom (n = 20) u skupini od ukupno 40 akaraman (bijeli karaman) ovaca, u dobi od jedne do dvije godine, činile su pokusnu skupinu bolesnih jedinki. Preostale ovce (n = 20) činile su kontrolnu skupinu zdravih jedinki. Tekućina buraga od svih pretraženih životinja dobivena je sondiranjem i odmah analizirana. Uzorci krvi uzeti su iz jugularne vene te je iz njih izdvojen serum. Koncentracija serumskog cTnI mjerena je komercijalnim imunoenzimnim testom, sendvič postupkom. Aktivnosti serumskih enzima (ALT, AST, CK-MB i LDH) utvrđene su uporabom kliničkog biokemijskog autoanalizatora. Prosječna serumska koncentracija cTnI u kontrolnoj skupini ovaca bila je na razini 0,035 ± 0,015 ng/mL (raspon: 0,02 - 0,06 ng/mL). U skupini ovaca s acidozom utvrđeno je postojano povećanje koncentracije cTnI koja je dosegla razinu od 0,103 ± 0,080 ng/mL (raspon: 0,03 - 1,7 ng/mL) (P<0,0001). U pokusnoj skupini opaženo je povećanje i drugog srčanog markera CK-MB koji je u ovoj skupini iznosio 454,50 ± 191,88 U/I (raspon: 214 - 861 U/I), a u kontrolnoj 224,35 ± 83,33 U/I (raspon: 133 - 421 U/I) (P<0,0001). Također je ustanovljeno da su ovce s acidozom u odnosu na ovce kontrolne skupine imale povišene jetrene enzime LDH (P<0,001) i AST (P<0,001), odnosno ALT (P<0,01). Zaključeno je da ovce s acidozom imaju povećanu koncentraciju serumskog cTnI koji može poslužiti kao važan biljeg za prognozu bolesti

Pearling: stroke segmentation with crusted pearl strings

We introduce a novel segmentation technique, called Pearling, for the semi-automatic extraction of idealized models of networks of strokes (variable width curves) in images. These networks may for example represent roads in an aerial photograph, vessels in a medical scan, or strokes in a drawing. The operator seeds the process by selecting representative areas of good (stroke interior) and bad colors. Then, the operator may either provide a rough trace through a particular path in the stroke graph or simply pick a starting point (seed) on a stroke and a direction of growth. Pearling computes in realtime the centerlines of the strokes, the bifurcations, and the thickness function along each stroke, hence producing a purified medial axis transform of a desired portion of the stroke graph. No prior segmentation or thresholding is required. Simple gestures may be used to trim or extend the selection or to add branches. The realtime performance and reliability of Pearling results from a novel disk-sampling approach, which traces the strokes by optimizing the positions and radii of a discrete series of disks (pearls) along the stroke. A continuous model is defined through subdivision. By design, the idealized pearl string model is slightly wider than necessary to ensure that it contains the stroke boundary. A narrower core model that fits inside the stroke is computed simultaneously. The difference between the pearl string and its core contains the boundary of the stroke and may be used to capture, compress, visualize, or analyze the raw image data along the stroke boundary

3D Geometric Analysis of Tubular Objects based on Surface Normal Accumulation

This paper proposes a simple and efficient method for the reconstruction and extraction of geometric parameters from 3D tubular objects. Our method constructs an image that accumulates surface normal information, then peaks within this image are located by tracking. Finally, the positions of these are optimized to lie precisely on the tubular shape centerline. This method is very versatile, and is able to process various input data types like full or partial mesh acquired from 3D laser scans, 3D height map or discrete volumetric images. The proposed algorithm is simple to implement, contains few parameters and can be computed in linear time with respect to the number of surface faces. Since the extracted tube centerline is accurate, we are able to decompose the tube into rectilinear parts and torus-like parts. This is done with a new linear time 3D torus detection algorithm, which follows the same principle of a previous work on 2D arc circle recognition. Detailed experiments show the versatility, accuracy and robustness of our new method.Comment: in 18th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing, Sep 2015, Genova, Italy. 201

Procjena serumskoga srčanog troponina I u ovaca s akutnom mliječnokiselinskom acidozom buraga.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is known to be a sensitive cardio biomarker to determine the myocardial damage in diseases affecting the cardiac muscles. However, there has not been sufficient research about cTnI concentration, which is the most sensitive indicator of myocardial damage in sheep with acute ruminal lactic acidosis (ARLA). For this reason this study aimed to evaluate the serum cTnI concentration in sheep with ARLA. Those diagnosed with ARLA (n = 20) from the total of 40 Akkaraman (White karaman) sheep, aged between 1-2 years used in this study comprised the affected group and the healthy ones (n = 20) comprised the control group. Ruminal fluid was obtained from the animals from both groups with the help of a stomach tube, and examined immediately. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein of the sheep and the serum was separated. Serum cTnI concentration was measured with a commercial immunoassay system, using the one-step sandwich method. Serum enzyme (ALT, AST, CK-MB and LDH) activities were determined via a clinical biochemistry autoanalyzer. The average serum cTnI concentration was at the level of 0.035 ± 0.015 ng/mL (range; 0.02-0.06 ng/mL) in the control group sheep. It was determined that there was a substantial increase in the group with ARLA and the average concentration reached the level of 0.103 ± 0.080 ng/mL (range; 0.03-1.7 ng/mL) (P<0.0001). It was observed that another cardio marker, CK-MB, was found in the group with ARLA 454.50 ± 191.88 U/L (range; 214-861 U/L) and increased in comparison with the control group 224.35 ± 83.33 U/L (range; 133-421 U/L) (P<0.0001). An increase in LDH (P<0.001) and AST (P<0.001) from liver enzymes in the group with ARLA and ALT activities compared to the control group was identified (P<0.01). In conclusion, this present study determined that the serum cTnI concentration was high in sheep with ARLA and it was concluded that it could be useful to evaluate cTnI concentration as an important marker to determine the prognosis in sheep with ARLA.U bolestima koje zahvaćaju srčani mišić, srčani troponin I (cTnI) poznat je kao osjetljivi biomarker za određivanje oštećenja srčanog mišića. Ipak, nema puno istraživanja o koncentraciji cTnI kao najosjetljivijeg indikatora za oštećenje srčanog mišića kod ovaca s akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom buraga. Zbog navedenog, u ovom istraživanju namjera je bila procijeniti koncentraciju serumskog cTnI kod ovaca s akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom. Ovce s dijagosticiranom akutnom mliječno-kiselinskom acidozom (n = 20) u skupini od ukupno 40 akaraman (bijeli karaman) ovaca, u dobi od jedne do dvije godine, činile su pokusnu skupinu bolesnih jedinki. Preostale ovce (n = 20) činile su kontrolnu skupinu zdravih jedinki. Tekućina buraga od svih pretraženih životinja dobivena je sondiranjem i odmah analizirana. Uzorci krvi uzeti su iz jugularne vene te je iz njih izdvojen serum. Koncentracija serumskog cTnI mjerena je komercijalnim imunoenzimnim testom, sendvič postupkom. Aktivnosti serumskih enzima (ALT, AST, CK-MB i LDH) utvrđene su uporabom kliničkog biokemijskog autoanalizatora. Prosječna serumska koncentracija cTnI u kontrolnoj skupini ovaca bila je na razini 0,035 ± 0,015 ng/mL (raspon: 0,02 - 0,06 ng/mL). U skupini ovaca s acidozom utvrđeno je postojano povećanje koncentracije cTnI koja je dosegla razinu od 0,103 ± 0,080 ng/mL (raspon: 0,03 - 1,7 ng/mL) (P<0,0001). U pokusnoj skupini opaženo je povećanje i drugog srčanog markera CK-MB koji je u ovoj skupini iznosio 454,50 ± 191,88 U/I (raspon: 214 - 861 U/I), a u kontrolnoj 224,35 ± 83,33 U/I (raspon: 133 - 421 U/I) (P<0,0001). Također je ustanovljeno da su ovce s acidozom u odnosu na ovce kontrolne skupine imale povišene jetrene enzime LDH (P<0,001) i AST (P<0,001), odnosno ALT (P<0,01). Zaključeno je da ovce s acidozom imaju povećanu koncentraciju serumskog cTnI koji može poslužiti kao važan biljeg za prognozu bolesti