Possible Involvement of Endothelin Peptides and L-Arginine-Nitric Oxide Pathway on the Effect of Endotoxin in the Rabbit Isolated Perfused Kidney

Escherichia coli endotoxin (LPS) when infused through the renal artery of the rabbit isolated perfused kidney prepared as constant pressure mode, caused a decrease in flow rate and kidney weight indicating its primary vasoconstrictor effect. This effect was predominant in kidneys from rabbits pretreated with LPS. Endothelin-1 at a concentration of 10−10 M and big endothelin-1 at a concentration of 10−8 M produced equal vasoconstrictor effects in kidney. Addition of endotheHn converting enzyme inhibitor, phosphoramidon, to the perfusion medium at a concentration of 10−6 M caused a reduction in the effects of both LPS and big ET-1 without altering the vasoconstrictor effect of ETol. However, addition of methylene blue (10−5 M), a soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor and NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (10−6 M) to the perfusion medium caused a potentiation in the vasoconstrictor effect of LPS. Indomethacin at a concentration of 10−6 M did not alter the effect of LPS. These results were taken as evidence for the participation of endothelin peptides and the L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway in the effect ofLPS in rabbit isolated perfused kidney

Türk toplumunda gözlenen ilk hemoglobin g-waimanalo ve hemoglobin fontainebleau olguları]

[No abstract available

Allelopathic potential of macrofungi on germinating maize (Zea mays L.) grain

The effect of methanol extracts of 10 macrofungi was evaluated on grain germination of maize (Zea mays L.). Germination percentage, radicle and plumule length and the level of carbohydrates and fatty acids were measured. Fungal metabolites inhibited germination up to 90.96%, plumule (97.77%) and radicle (92.83%) development. Plumule and radicle lengths were stimulated 35.26 and 10.60% in some assays, respectively. The fungal metabolites decreased the glucose (97.60%), sucrose (90.34%), fructose (96.85%), maltose (95.64%), oleic acid (97.50%) and linoleic acid (98.25%) levels, whereas increasing levels of the glucose (165.14%), sucrose (166.53%), fructose (83.18%), maltose (124.73%), oleic acid (6975.00%) and linoleic acid (5233.33%) were detected in some assays. It is concluded that macrofungi metabolites have commonly inhibitory effects on physiological and morphological processes of germinating maize grain except for considerable increases in the some parameters investigated

Musculoskeletal sonography in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus

PubMedWo

Palmitoylation of xanthan polysaccharide for self-assembly microcapsule formation and encapsulation of cells in physiological conditions

Hydrophobized polysaccharides have emerged as a promising strategy in the biomedical field due to the versatility to design functional structures through the spontaneous self-assembly in cell-friendly conditions. Based on this concept, xanthan, a bacterial extracellular polysaccharide with potential as encapsulating matrix, was conjugated with hydrophobic palmitoyl groups to obtain an amphiphilic system able to form capsules by self-assembly processes. The conjugation of xanthan was performed at different xanthan/palmitoyl chloride ratios and Fourier transformed infrared, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, as well as wide angle X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry were performed to characterize the obtained conjugates. The results showed that the increase in the hydrophobic reactant promoted higher hydrophobic interaction and consequently higher molecular organization. At certain palmitoyl concentrations and through a proper balance between charge repulsion and hydrophobic interaction, the amphiphilic molecules self-assembled into stable capsular hollow structures in the presence of physiological ion concentration and pH. Poly-L-lysine coated microcapsules with an average diameter of 576.6 _ 74 mm and homogenous size distribution were obtained. The morphology revealed by scanning electron microscopy showed microcapsules with two distinct layers. The ability of palmitoyl-xanthan microcapsules to sustain viability and proliferation of encapsulated cells was confirmed by AlamarBlue and DNA assays. These findings suggest the application of palmitoyl-xanthan microcapsules as a potential material for cell encapsulation in cellbased therapies.This work was supported by the European Union funded project "Find and Bind" (NMP4-SL-2009-229292) under FP7. A. C. Mendes thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science Technology for a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/42161/2007). We thank Emanuel Fernandes of the 3B's Research Group at the University of Minho for his assistance with DSC analysis

Mimicking human neuronal pathways in silico: an emergent model on the effective connectivity

International audienceWe present a novel computational model that detects temporal configurations of a given human neuronal pathway and constructs its artificial replication. This poses a great challenge since direct recordings from individual neurons are impossible in the human central nervous system and therefore the underlying neuronal pathway has to be considered as a black box. For tackling this challenge, we used a branch of complex systems modeling called artificial self-organization in which large sets of software entities interacting locally give rise to bottom-up collective behaviors. The result is an emergent model where each software entity represents an integrate-and-fire neuron. We then applied the model to the reflex responses of single motor units obtained from conscious human subjects. Experimental results show that the model recovers functionality of real human neuronal pathways by comparing it to appropriate surrogate data. What makes the model promising is the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first realistic model to self-wire an artificial neuronal network by efficiently combining neuroscience with artificial self-organization. Although there is no evidence yet of the model's connectivity mapping onto the human connectivity, we anticipate this model will help neuroscientists to learn much more about human neuronal networks, and could also be used for predicting hypotheses to lead future experiments