55 research outputs found
X-Ray Phase-Contrast Tomography of Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Damage
Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate microstructural changes occurring in unilateral renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in a murine animal model using synchrotron radiation. Material and Methods: The effects of renal ischemia-reperfusion were investigated in a murine animal model of unilateral ischemia. Kidney samples were harvested on day 18. Grating-Based Phase-Contrast Imaging (GB-PCI) of the paraffin-embedded kidney samples was performed at a Synchrotron Radiation Facility (beam energy of 19 keV). To obtain phase information, a two-grating Talbot interferometer was used applying the phase stepping technique. The imaging system provided an effective pixel size of 7.5 mu m. The resulting attenuation and differential phase projections were tomographically reconstructed using filtered back-projection. Semi-automated segmentation and volumetry and correlation to histopathology were performed. Results: GB-PCI provided good discrimination of the cortex, outer and inner medulla in non-ischemic control kidneys. Post-ischemic kidneys showed a reduced compartmental differentiation, particularly of the outer stripe of the outer medulla, which could not be differentiated from the inner stripe. Compared to the contralateral kidney, after ischemia a volume loss was detected, while the inner medulla mainly retained its volume (ratio 0.94). Post-ischemic kidneys exhibited severe tissue damage as evidenced by tubular atrophy and dilatation, moderate inflammatory infiltration, loss of brush borders and tubular protein cylinders. Conclusion: In conclusion GB-PCI with synchrotron radiation allows for non-destructive microstructural assessment of parenchymal kidney disease and vessel architecture. If translation to lab-based approaches generates sufficient density resolution, and with a time-optimized image analysis protocol, GB-PCI may ultimately serve as a non-invasive, non-enhanced alternative for imaging of pathological changes of the kidney
Painful and painless mutations of SCN9A and SCN11A voltage-gated sodium channels
Chronic pain is a global problem affecting up to 20% of the world’s population and has a significant economic, social and personal cost to society. Sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) detect noxious stimuli and transmit this sensory information to regions of the central nervous system (CNS) where activity is perceived as pain. DRG neurons express multiple voltage-gated sodium channels that underlie their excitability. Research over the last 20 years has provided valuable insights into the critical roles that two channels, NaV1.7 and NaV1.9, play in pain signalling in man. Gain of function mutations in NaV1.7 cause painful conditions while loss of function mutations cause complete insensitivity to pain. Only gain of function mutations have been reported for NaV1.9. However, while most NaV1.9 mutations lead to painful conditions, a few are reported to cause insensitivity to pain. The critical roles these channels play in pain along with their low expression in the CNS and heart muscle suggest they are valid targets for novel analgesic drugs
Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of
aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs)
can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves
excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological
concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can
lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl
radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic
inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the
involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a
large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and
inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation
of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many
similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e.
iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The
studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic
and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and
lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and
longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is
thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As
systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have
multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent
patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of
multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the
decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference
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