Low-level laser irradiation promotes the recovery of atrophied gastrocnemius skeletal muscle in rats.

Low-level laser (LLL) irradiation promotes proliferation of muscle satellite cells, angiogenesis and expression of growth factors. Satellite cells, angiogenesis and growth factors play important roles in the regeneration of muscle. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of LLL irradiation on rat gastrocnemius muscle recovering from disuse muscle atrophy. Eight-week-old rats were subjected to hindlimb suspension for 2 weeks, after which they were released and recovered. During the recovery period, rats underwent daily LLL irradiation (Ga-Al-As laser; 830 nm; 60 mW; total, 180 s) to the right gastrocnemius muscle through the skin. The untreated left gastrocnemius muscle served as the control. In conjunction with LLL irradiation, 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was injected subcutaneously to label the nuclei of proliferating cells. After 2 weeks, myofibre diameters of irradiated muscle increased in comparison with those of untreated muscle, but did not recover back to normal levels. Additionally, in the superficial region of the irradiated muscle, the number of capillaries and fibroblast growth factor levels exhibited significant elevation relative to those of untreated muscle. In the deep region of irradiated muscle, BrdU-positive nuclei of satellite cells and/or myofibres increased significantly relative to those of the untreated muscle. The results of this study suggest that LLL irradiation can promote recovery from disuse muscle atrophy in association with proliferation of satellite cells and angiogenesis.The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com and www.expphysiol.org

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Food groups and fatty acids associated with self-reported depression: an analysis from the Australian National Nutrition and Health Surveys

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the associations between incidence of depression and dietary intakes of foods and fatty acids in adult Australians. Methods: Data from the 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey (NNS), the 1995 Australian National Health Survey (NHS) and an updated fatty acid database were merged and the 24-h fatty acid intakes were calculated for the 10 986 adult participants ages 18 to 79 y in the 1995 NNS. The merged data set was used to run a logistic regression with depression as the response variable and the food groups and calculated fatty acid values, age, and sex as predictors. Results: The regression model indicated that increased intakes per kilojoule of meat, poultry, and game; vegetables; and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are associated with lower odds of having depression, whereas increased intakes of non-alcoholic beverages, milk products and dishes, and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) are associated with an increase in the odds of having depression. The results confirm a collective effect of diet on mood. Although other studies have shown that fish consumption is associated with lower odds of depression, this study showed lower odds of depression with high meat consumption, possibly reflecting the fact that Australians consume six times more meat than fish. Conclusion: Significant associations between food and mood identified in this study warrant further research to determine causality

The association between neurodegeneration and local complement activation in the thalamus to progressive multiple sclerosis outcome

The extent of grey matter demyelination and neurodegeneration in the progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) brains at post-mortem associates with more severe disease. Regional tissue atrophy, especially affecting the cortical and deep grey matter, including the thalamus, is prognostic for poor outcomes. Microglial and complement activation are important in the pathogenesis and contribute to damaging processes that underlie tissue atrophy in PMS. We investigated the extent of pathology and innate immune activation in the thalamus in comparison to cortical grey and white matter in blocks from 21 cases of PMS and 10 matched controls. Using a digital pathology workflow, we show that the thalamus is invariably affected by demyelination and had a far higher proportion of active inflammatory lesions than forebrain cortical tissue blocks from the same cases. Lesions were larger and more frequent in the medial nuclei near the ventricular margin, whilst neuronal loss was greatest in the lateral thalamic nuclei. The extent of thalamic neuron loss was not associated with thalamic demyelination but correlated with the burden of white matter pathology in other forebrain areas (Spearman r = 0.79, p < 0.0001). Only thalamic neuronal loss, and not that seen in other forebrain cortical areas, correlated with disease duration (Spearman r = -0.58, p = 0.009) and age of death (Spearman r = -0.47, p = 0.045). Immunoreactivity for the complement pattern recognition molecule C1q, and products of complement activation (C4d, Bb and C3b) were elevated in thalamic lesions with an active inflammatory pathology. Complement regulatory protein, C1 inhibitor, was unchanged in expression. We conclude that active inflammatory demyelination, neuronal loss and local complement synthesis and activation in the thalamus, are important to the pathological and clinical disease outcomes of PMS