Differential expression of sodium channel mRNAs in rat peripheral nervous system and innervated tissues.

RNA blot hybridization analyses using probes specific for sodium channels I, II and III revealed high levels of sodium channel I mRNA and low levels of sodium channel II and III mRNAs in peripheral nervous system (PNS) tissues. The developmental expression patterns of these mRNAs were generally similar to those described for the central nervous system. The small amounts of sodium channel I and III mRNAs present in tongue muscle were greatly reduced after partial denervation. Expression of the three sodium channels thus appears to be restricted to the nervous system. Putative novel additional mRNAs, specifically expressed in the PNS, were detected with a probe that recognizes nucleotide sequences common to sodium channels I, II and III

Assessing the performance of analytical methods for propolis – A collaborative trial by the international honey commission

Propolis is a resinous beehive product with extraordinary bioactivity and chemical richness, linked with the botanical sources of the resin. The potential of this product keeps captivating the scientific community, conducting to continuous and growing research on plant sources, composition, or applications in agriculture, cosmetics, pharmacy, odontology, etc. In all cases, the quality assessment is a requirement and relies on methods to extract the bioactive substances from the raw propolis and quantify different components. Unfortunately, besides the absence of international quality requirements, there is also a lack of standardized analytical procedures, despite the presence of several methodologies with unknown reliability, often not comparable. To overcome the current status, the International Honey Commission established an inter-laboratory study, with propolis samples from around the globe, to harmonize analytical methods and evaluate their accuracy. A common set of protocols was matched between twelve laboratories from nine countries, for quantification of ash, wax, and balsamic content in raw propolis, and spectrophotometric evaluation of total phenolics, flavone/flavonol, and flavanone/ dihydroflavonol in the extract. A total of 3428 results (97% valid data), were used to assess the methods’ accuracy following ISO-5725 guidelines. The within-laboratory precision, revealed good agreement levels for the majority of the methods, with relative variance below 5%. As expected, the between-laboratory variance increased, but, with exception of the flavanone method that revealed a clear lack of consistency, all the others maintained acceptable variability levels, below 30%. Because the performance of ultrasounds procedures was low, they cannot be recommended until further improvements are made.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). Thanks to the Programa Apíıcola Nacional 2020-2022 (National Beekeeping Program) for funding the project "Standardization of production procedures and quality parameters of bee products" and to Project PDR2020-1.0.1- FEADER-031734: “DivInA-Diversification and Innovation on Beekeeping Production”. National funding by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, through the institutional scientific employment program-contract with Soraia I. Falcão. A special thanks is given to Hartmut Scheiter and Allwex Food Trading GmbH, Bremen, Germany, for providing, handling and delivering the propolis blind samples.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chest sonography: a useful tool to differentiate acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema from acute respiratory distress syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Differential diagnosis between acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (APE) and acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) may often be difficult. We evaluated the ability of chest sonography in the identification of characteristic pleuropulmonary signs useful in the diagnosis of ALI/ARDS and APE.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Chest sonography was performed on admission to the intensive care unit in 58 consecutive patients affected by ALI/ARDS or by acute pulmonary edema (APE).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ultrasound examination was focalised on finding in the two groups the presence of: 1) alveolar-interstitial syndrome (AIS) 2) pleural lines abnormalities 3) absence or reduction of "gliding" sign 4) "spared areas" 5) consolidations 6) pleural effusion 7) "lung pulse".</p> <p>AIS was found in 100% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 100% of patients with APE (p = ns). Pleural line abnormalities were observed in 100% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 25% of patients with APE (p < 0.0001). Absence or reduction of the 'gliding sign' was observed in 100% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 0% of patients with APE. 'Spared areas' were observed in 100% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 0% of patients with APE (p < 0.0001). Consolidations were present in 83.3% of patients with ALI/ARDS in 0% of patients with APE (p < 0.0001). A pleural effusion was present in 66.6% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 95% of patients with APE (p < 0.004). 'Lung pulse' was observed in 50% of patients with ALI/ARDS and in 0% of patients with APE (p < 0.0001).</p> <p>All signs, except the presence of AIS, presented a statistically significant difference in presentation between the two syndromes resulting specific for the ultrasonographic characterization of ALI/ARDS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Pleuroparenchimal patterns in ALI/ARDS do find a characterization through ultrasonographic lung scan. In the critically ill the ultrasound demonstration of a dyshomogeneous AIS with spared areas, pleural line modifications and lung consolidations is strongly predictive, in an early phase, of non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema.</p

Neurotrophic factor for central neurons.

A serum-free culture of dissociated neurons from embryonic rat hippocampus has been established as a rapid and quantitative in vitro test system for neurotrophic signals in the mammalian brain. By means of this cell culture bioassay, a novel low molecular weight neurotrophic factor (NTF) could be identified. NTF is essential for in vitro brain neuron development, promoting survival and neurite outgrowth. The diffusible factor is synthesized and secreted into serum-free defined medium by cultured astrocytes from rat cerebral hemispheres. The number of viable neurons responding to NTF by neurite outgrowth is dependent on the concentration of the factor. Fractionation of astroglial conditioned medium by gel filtration on columns of Sephadex G-10 recovered biological activity of NTF in a single sharp peak corresponding to an apparent molecular weight of approximately equal to 500. NTF is stable to heat and cold and resistant to trypsin and pronase. Unlike nerve growth factor, NTF has no apparent effect on the neurite outgrowth of peripheral neurons. NTF-like activity is present in situ in the mammalian brain, in certain other nonneural tissues, and in C6 and B12 glioma cell conditioned media