Repeated brief isoflurane anesthesia during early postnatal development produces negligible changes on adult behavior in male mice

Brain development is a complex process regulated by genetic programs and activity-dependent neuronal connectivity. Anesthetics profoundly alter neuronal excitability, and anesthesia during early brain development has been consistently associated with neuroapoptosis, altered synaptogenesis, and persistent behavioral abnormalities in experimental animals. However, the depth, and even more the duration and developmental time point(s) of exposure to anesthesia determine the neuropathological and long-term behavioral consequences of anesthetics. Here, we have investigated adulthood phenotypic changes induced by repeated but brief (30 min) isoflurane anesthesia delivered during two distinct developmental periods in male mice. A set of animals were subjected to anesthesia treatments at postnatal days 7, 8 and 9 (P7-9) when the animals are susceptible to anesthesia-induced neuroapoptosis and reduced synaptogenesis. To control the potential influence of (handling) stress, a separate group of animals underwent repeated maternal separations of similar durations. Another set of animals were exposed to the same treatments at postnatal days 15, 16 and 17 (P15-17), a developmental time period when anesthetics have been shown to increase synaptogenesis. Starting from postnatal week 9 the mouse phenotype was evaluated using a battery of behavioral tests that assess general locomotor activity (home cage activity, open field), learning and memory (water maze) and depression- (saccharin preference, forced swim test), anxiety- (light-dark box, stress-induced hyperthermia) and schizophrenia- (nesting, prepulse inhibition) related endophenotypes. Apart from mild impairment in spatial navigation memory, exposure to anesthesia treatments during P7-9 did not bring obvious behavioral alterations in adult animals. Importantly, maternal separation during the same developmental period produced a very similar phenotype during the water maze. Mice exposed to anesthesia during P15-17 showed mild hyperactivity and risk-taking behavior in adulthood, but were otherwise normal. We conclude that significantly longer administration periods are needed in order for early-life repeated exposures to anesthetics to produce behavioral alterations in adult mice.Peer reviewe

Pandemic Dreams : Network Analysis of Dream Content During the COVID-19 Lockdown

We used crowdsourcing (CS) to examine how COVID-19 lockdown affects the content of dreams and nightmares. The CS took place on the sixth week of the lockdown. Over the course of 1 week, 4,275 respondents (mean age 43, SD = 14 years) assessed their sleep, and 811 reported their dream content. Overall, respondents slept substantially more (54.2%) but reported an average increase of awakenings (28.6%) and nightmares (26%) from the pre-pandemic situation. We transcribed the content of the dreams into word lists and performed unsupervised computational network and cluster analysis of word associations, which suggested 33 dream clusters including 20 bad dream clusters, of which 55% were pandemic-specific (e.g., Disease Management, Disregard of Distancing, Elderly in Trouble). The dream-association networks were more accentuated for those who reported an increase in perceived stress. This CS survey on dream-association networks and pandemic stress introduces novel, collectively shared COVID-19 bad dream contentsPeer reviewe

Selvitys akkuklusterin tutkimusinfrastruktuureista

Kansallisessa akkustrategiassa 2025 todetaan, että alan julkiset ja yksityiset tutkimus­infrastruktuurit tulisi verkottaa ja tunnistaa näissä olevat puutteet. Kehittämistyön pohjaksi työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö on tilannut teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT:ltä selvityksen nykyisistä akkuklusterin julkisista ja yksityisistä tutkimusinfrastruktuureista. Selvityksessä kartoitettiin akkuklusterin nykyiset tutkimusinfrastruktuurit. Infrastruktuurit on koottu raportin liitteeksi sisältäen yleisluontoiset ja teknisemmät kuvaukset. Raportti sisältää kuvauksen nykytilasta. Lisäksi tunnistettiin aukkoja ja kehityskohteita. Selvityksen pohjalta esitetään useita toimenpiteitä, joiden avulla varmistetaan hyvät tutkimuksen perusedellytykset akkuklusterilla. Toimenpiteet sisältävät ehdotuksia laitteistoihin, kuten akkujen turvallisuustestaukseen, akkujen mekaaniseen kierrätykseen ja materiaalitutkimuksen analytiikkaan. Lisäksi toimenpiteinä ehdotetaan datan hyödyntämisen parantamista laatimalla pelisäännöt ja toteuttamalla akkuklusterin data-alusta. Lisäksi erilaiset testiympäristöt, kuten laajat sähköajoneuvojen latauksen testiympäristöt tulisi toteuttaa. Kansallisesti on tärkeää yhteistyön lisääminen ja osaamisen kehittäminen. Tutkimusinfrastruktuureja on mahdollista hyödyntää houkuttelemaan kansainvälisiä hankkeita ja invest-in -toimintaa, siksi ehdotetaan akkuklusterin infrastruktuurien verkottamista ja esittelyä kansainvälisille toimijoille

Kaksisuuntainen mielialahäiriö. Päivitystiivistelmä

Koko suositus luettavissa: www.kaypahoito.f

Serum Lipidomics Meets Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Profiling of Subjects at Risk of Dilated Cardiomyopathy

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