An experimental model of alcohol-induced anxiety and depressive behaviour in rats

Behavioural symptoms of alcohol abuse often mimic various psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression.PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to create a model of alcohol-induced of anxiety- and depressive-like behaviour in female Wistar rats using a subchronic (14 days) daily alcohol exposure.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ethanol was applied at a daily dose of 8 g/kg. The following behavioural tests were used: open field test (OFT) for investigation of locomotor activity, elevated plus maze test (EPM) and social interaction test (SIT) for measurement of anxiety and forced swim test (FST) for estimation of depression-like behaviour.RESULTS: Ethanol induced a significant reduction (p<0.01) in both horizontal and vertical locomotor activity of rats. In the ethanol group, the decreased time spent in the open arms of the EPM (p<0.05) and the decreased social interaction time (p<0.05) were consistent with anxiety-like effect of alcohol. The increased immobility time in the FST (p<0.01) showed that ethanol induced depression-like behaviour in rats.CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study demonstrated that subchronic daily treatment of female Wistar rats with a relatively high dose of alcohol induced anxiogenic and depression-like behaviour. This animal model could be used for testing the anxiolytics and antidepressants for the treatment of alcohol-induced behavioural changes.Scripta Scientifica Medica 2013; 45(3): 48-52

THORACIC TRAUMA COMBINED WITH TRAUMAS OF UPPER AND LOWER EXTREMITIES

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Custom architecture for multicore audio Beamforming systems

The audio Beamforming (BF) technique utilizes microphone arrays to extract acoustic sources recorded in a noisy environment. In this article, we propose a new approach for rapid development of multicore BF systems. Research on literature reveals that the majority of such experimental and commercial audio systems are based on desktop PCs, due to their high-level programming support and potential of rapid system development. However, these approaches introduce performance bottlenecks, excessive power consumption, and increased overall cost. Systems based on DSPs require very low power, but their performance is still limited. Custom hardware solutions alleviate the aforementioned drawbacks, however, designers primarily focus on performance optimization without providing a high-level interface for system control and test. In order to address the aforementioned problems, we propose a custom platform-independent architecture for reconfigurable audio BF systems. To evaluate our proposal, we implement our architecture as a heterogeneous multicore reconfigurable processor and map it onto FPGAs. Our approach combines the software flexibility of General-Purpose Processors (GPPs) with the computational power of multicore platforms. In order to evaluate our system we compare it against a BF software application implemented to a low-power Atom 330, amiddle-ranged Core2 Duo, and a high-end Core i3. Experimental results suggest that our proposed solution can extract up to 16 audio sources in real time under a 16-microphone setup. In contrast, under the same setup, the Atom 330 cannot extract any audio sources in real time, while the Core2 Duo and the Core i3 can process in real time only up to 4 and 6 sources respectively. Furthermore, a Virtex4-based BF system consumes more than an order less energy compared to the aforementioned GPP-based approaches. © 2013 ACM

Evaluation of oxidative stress in rats treated subchronically with ethanol

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the oxidative stress in male Wistar rats treated subchronically with ethanol.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ethanol was applied orally for 45 days. The daily dose of 7.9 g/kg as a 20% solution was divided in two equal treatments. Oxidative stress was evaluated by the concentration of thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS), markers of lipid peroxidation. TBARS were determined in rat serum, liver, kidneys, brain and testes.RESULTS: Ethanol-induced toxicity was evidenced by a significantly lower (p<0.001) weight gain of ethanoltreated rats in comparison with distilled water-treated controls. TBARS in ethanol-treated rats were significantly increased (p<0.05) in serum (59.33±7.5 nmol/mL vs the control value of 41.55±3.9 nmol/mL) and in testes (123.98±13.5 nmol/g vs the control value of 89.25±7.5 nmol/g). They were, however, not significantly elevated in the liver, kidneys and brain. This effect in the liver was consistent with the insignificant elevation of liver enzymes in the serum of ethanol-treated rats.CONCLUSION: The results from this study showed that in ethanol-treated rats, lipid peroxidation products were mostly increased in serum and testes as well the latter being more exposed to oxidative stress than other organs examined such as liver, kidneys and brain.Scripta Scientifica Medica 2013; 45(1): 35-39

Basal cell subpopulation as putative human prostate carcinoma stem cells.

The present study examines the expression of p63, glutathione S-transferase-pi (GSTP1) and alpha-methylacyl-CoAracemase (AMACR) in serial slices in proliferative inflammatory atrophy (PIA) in order to implicate that some of the basal cells are probably the putative human prostate carcinoma stem cells (PHPCSC). Archived tissue sections obtained after radical prostatectomy from cases (n=30) comprising of PIA were tested using immunohistochemistry with antibodies against AMACR (Dako), p63 and GSTP1 (Labvision) and visualized by biotin-streptavidin-peroxidase kit (DAKO LSAB 2 kit). Quantitative immunohistochemistry analysis (QIHC) of the studied antigen expression levels revealed that there are two populations of p63 basal cells. Type I basal cells had high AMACR, low GSTP1 and p63 expression. Type II basal cells had low AMACR, high GSTP1 and p63 expression. Therefore, we propose that the putative human prostate carcinoma stem cells probably reside within the population of type I basal cells

THORACOSCOPY - DIAGNOSTIC AND THERAPEUTIC OPPORTUNITIES IN SURGICAL CHEST DISEASES

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Effect of Aronia melanocarpa fruit juice on carrageenan-induced paw edema in metabolic syndrome rats

INTRODUCTION: Chronic, low-grade inflammation plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome (MS). Aronia melanocarpa fruits are rich in biologically active compounds—polyphenols, which possess a variety of health benefits including an anti-inflammatory effect.AIM: The aim of this article is to evaluate the effect of polyphenol-rich Aronia melanocarpa fruit juice (AMFJ) on carrageenan-induced acute inflammation in rats with diet-induced MS.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty male Wistar rats were included in the experiment. They were allocated into 4 groups: MS, MS+AMFJ2.5, MS+AMFJ5, and MS+AMFJ10, all receiving high-fat high-fructose diet and 10% fructose in the drinking water for 10 weeks. The MS group served as a control and was treated daily with distilled water orally, while the other groups received AMFJ at doses of 2.5 mL/kg, 5 mL/kg, and 10 mL/kg, respectively. At the end of the experiment, carrageenan was injected in the left hind paw in order to induce acute inflammation. Paw edema was evaluated with plethysmometer on the 30th min and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th hour after the injection.RESULTS: In the MS group, the carrageenan-induced paw edema increased gradually with time reaching the highest value on the 5th hour. A decrease throughout the whole 5-hour period was observed in groups treated with AMFJ, the effect being most pronounced and statistically significant in MS+AMFJ5 group on the 2nd and 3rd hour.CONCLUSION: Aronia melanocarpa fruit juice treatment in rats with MS resulted in a decrease in the carrageenan-induced paw inflammation. The anti-inflammatory effect might be attributed to the polyphenols in AMFJ