Comprehensive study of Toxocara cati infection in stray cats at Al-Anbar province: Molecular detection and investigation vision

Cats are important hosts for different zoonotic including Toxocara, a group of ‎parasitic roundworms known as ascarid nematodes. This study aimed to analyse the ‎presence of T. ‎cati in stray cats in Al-Anbar province. Iraq This is first study of this ‎parasite in Al-Anbar province, which include the prevalence of T. ‎cati in stray ‎cats, as well as molecular study. This study was conducted on 50 stray cats, were examined ‎clinically, the signs were recorded for each animal, as well as the collection of faecal ‎samples to detect the eggs of parasite under microscope, and molecular examinations. ‎Blood samples also examined to know the effect of parasite on blood cells, especially the ‎eosinophils. Our results recognized the prevalence of infection was 48% when the ‎molecular method was used, and 40% when the microscopy method was used. Clinically, ‎the infected cats with signs were 4 (8%) from the total sick animals, as well as the same ‎percentage appeared in haematological examination (the eosinophilia). However, in Al-‎Anbar cities, T. cati is highly prevalent among stray cats. In order to eradicate the T. cati ‎parasite from the region's stray cat population, efficient methods for doing so need to be ‎devised, and public education on animal and human health should also be stressed‎‎‎‎

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: a Rare Neoplasm Presenting with Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are rare tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that arise from primitive mesenchymal cells. GISTs occur throughout the GI tract but are usually located in the stomach and small intestine. GISTs are known with myoid, neural or mixed features of differentiation. Clinical findings are gastrointestinal bleeding, abdominal pain, and weight loss. GISTs express a heterogeneous clinical course not easily predicted. The histologic features that correlate best with development of recurrence and metastasis are mitotic activity, tumor size and the presence of tumor necrosis and most recently, mutation in the c-kit gene. Some authors specifically use the term GIST to refer to only those mesenchymal tumors that express CD117, whereas others believe that the diagnosis can be made in the absence of CD117 positivity based on clinical and morphologic features. Surgical resection remains the treatment of choice, since chemotherapy and radiation are ineffective. Long-term follow-up is imperative and recurrence rates are high. We report the case of a 60 years old female patient who presented with intermittent melena, chronic dyspepsia, and anemia. Upper digestive tract endoscopy showed a submucosal tumor, broad-based, centrally ulcerated, projection of >5 cm in the gastric corpus-antral wall as the cause of the upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Endoscopic biopsies were negative for neoplastic changes. After triple eradication therapy of Helicobacter pylori and treatment continued with proton pump inhibitor agent, the patient underwent distal gastrectomy with Billroth-I reconstruction. Histopatological studies on the surgical resection specimen revealed a GIST of smooth muscle with spindle cell, no evidence of mitotic activity but of uncertain biological behavior. One year after surgery the patient is was improved with no signs of residual Malignancy. However, metastases were found later in the liver in the next two year

Plasma measures of B-endorphin-like immunoreactivity in depressives and other psychiatric subjects

We report the utilization of a very sensitive radioimmunoassay for plasma B-END, which has enabled us to examine the suppressibility of B-END-like material, under dexamethasone challenge, on a population of depressed patients. We have found that B-END-like material in plasma is suppressed by dexamethasone in a psychiatric control population, whereas suppression is less likely in endogenously depressed patients. There also appears to be a dissociation between cortisol and B-END measures (tested at 4:00 PM) in the endogenously depressed group.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23836/1/0000075.pd

Influence of Material Parameter Variability on the Predicted Coronary Artery Biomechanical Environment via Uncertainty Quantification

Central to the clinical adoption of patient-specific modeling strategies is demonstrating that simulation results are reliable and safe. Simulation frameworks must be robust to uncertainty in model input(s), and levels of confidence should accompany results. In this study we applied a coupled uncertainty quantification-finite element (FE) framework to understand the impact of uncertainty in vascular material properties on variability in predicted stresses. Univariate probability distributions were fit to material parameters derived from layer-specific mechanical behavior testing of human coronary tissue. Parameters were assumed to be probabilistically independent, allowing for efficient parameter ensemble sampling. In an idealized coronary artery geometry, a forward FE model for each parameter ensemble was created to predict tissue stresses under physiologic loading. An emulator was constructed within the UncertainSCI software using polynomial chaos techniques, and statistics and sensitivities were directly computed. Results demonstrated that material parameter uncertainty propagates to variability in predicted stresses across the vessel wall, with the largest dispersions in stress within the adventitial layer. Variability in stress was most sensitive to uncertainties in the anisotropic component of the strain energy function. Unary and binary interactions within the adventitial layer were the main contributors to stress variance, and the leading factor in stress variability was uncertainty in the stress-like material parameter summarizing contribution of the embedded fibers to the overall artery stiffness. Results from a patient-specific coronary model confirmed many of these findings. Collectively, this highlights the impact of material property variation on predicted artery stresses and presents a pipeline to explore and characterize uncertainty in computational biomechanics.Comment: To appear: Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiolog

Pre- and Posttranslational Regulation of Β-Endorphin Biosynthesis in the CNS: Effects of Chronic Naltrexone Treatment

There appear to be two anatomically distinct Β-endorphin (ΒE) pathways in the brain, the major one originating in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus and a smaller one in the area of the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) of the caudal medulla. Previous studies have shown that these two proopiomelanocortin (POMC) systems may be differentially regulated by chronic morphine treatment, with arcuate cells down-regulated and NTS cells unaffected. In the present experiments, we examined the effects of chronic opiate antagonist treatment on ΒE biosynthesis across different CNS regions to assess whether the arcuate POMC system would be regulated in the opposite direction to that seen after opiate agonist treatment and to determine whether different ΒE-containing areas might be differentially regulated. Male adult rats were administered naltrexone (NTX) by various routes for 8 days (subcutaneous pellets, osmotic minipumps, or repeated intraperitoneal injections). Brain and spinal cord regions were assayed for total ΒE-ir, different molecular weight immunoreactive Β-endorphin (ΒE-ir) peptides, and POMC mRNA. Chronic NTX treatment, regardless of the route of administration, reduced total ΒE-ir concentrations by 30–40% in diencephalic areas (the arcuate nucleus, the remaining hypothalamus, and the thalamus) and the midbrain, but had no effect on ΒE-ir in the NTS or any region of the spinal cord. At the same time, NTX pelleting increased POMC mRNA levels in the arcuate to ∼ 140% of control values. These data suggest that arcuate POMC neurons are up-regulated after chronic NTX treatment (whereas NTS and spinal cord systems remain unaffected) and that they appear to be under tonic inhibition by endogenous opioids. Chromatographic analyses demonstrated that, after chronic NTX pelleting, the ratio of full length ΒE 1–31 to more processed ΒE-ir peptides (i.e., ΒE 1–27 and ΒE 1–26 ) tended to increase in a dose-dependent manner in diencephalic areas. Because ΒE 1–31 is the only POMC product that possesses opioid agonist properties, and ΒE 1–27 has been posited to function as an endogenous anatgonist of ΒE 1–31 , the NTX-induced changes in the relative concentrations of ΒE 1–31 and ΒE 1–27 /ΒE 1–26 may represent a novel regulatory mechanism of POMC cells to alter the opioid signal in the synapse.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65603/1/j.1471-4159.1993.tb05820.x.pd

Preparation and Characterization of pH- and Temperature-responsive by Different Composition Chitosan-P(MAA-co-NIPAM) Hydrogel for Drug Delivery System / S. Z. M. Rasib ...[et al.]

In this paper, (chitosan-poly(methacrylic acid-co-N-isopropylacrylamide)) [Chitosan-P(MAA-co-NIPAM)], a multi-responsive hydrogel was successfully fabricated by free-radical polymerization in aqueous media. Chitosan was crosslinked with P(MAA-co-NIPAM) network as a suggestion to improve the efficiency of chitosan as a drug carrier. Due to the hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics of MAA and NIPAM monomers presented in the network, the swelling behaviour at different pH and temperature was investigated in this paper. The composition, morphological stability, swelling behavior at various pH and temperature environment of the Chitosan-P(MAA-co-NIPAM) hydrogel were studied using Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and swelling test by weight ratio of the hydrogel. This study found that additional feed of MAA and NIPAM monomers during polymerization increased the amount of PMAA and PNIPAM crosslinked in the hydrogel. As a result, the value of LCST increased from 32℃ to more than 37℃. The swelling ratio of the hydrogel was found to be maximum at pH 7 which is suitable to be used in body system especially in human blood of pH 7.4. Thus, the role of Chitosan-P(MAA-co-NIPAM) as a carrier of a drug in drug delivery system has been approved

Postdexamethasone plasma cortisol and [beta]-endorphin levels in depression: Relationship to severity of illness

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is dysregulated in many patients with depression, probably at all levels of the axis. To determine if HPA dysregulation is associated with severity of depression, we studied a group of 66 patients with major depressive disorder. Each patient underwent a pretreatment Dexamethasone Suppression Test, with plasma postdexamethasone cortisol determination at 8:00 AM, 4:00 PM, and 11:00 PM. All three postdexamethasone cortisol levels were significantly correlated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores. We also examined the "profile" measures of mean, maximum, and minimum of the three cortisol values; again, all three were significantly correlated with HRSD scores. To evaluate associations between clinical severity and HPA dysregulation at the pituitary level, we studied a second group of 44 patients with major depressive disorder. Each had postdexamethasone cortisol determinations at 4:00 PM and 11:00 PM as well as pre- and postdexamethasone [beta]-endorphin determinations at 4:00 PM. The cortisol data from this group followed the same pattern as in the first sample, and there was a significant relationship between HRSD score and degree of [beta]-endorphin nonsuppression as well. These results suggest that severity of depression is one of the determinants of dysregulation at both adrenal and pituitary levels of the HPA axis, accounting for 10%-20% of the observed variance.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26603/1/0000144.pd

Decreased locomotor activity in mice expressing tTA under control of the CaMKIIΑ promoter

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72144/1/j.1601-183X.2007.00339.x.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72144/2/GBB339Figs_S1-3.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72144/3/GBB_339_sm_FigureS1-3.pd