Prenatal hormones alter antioxidant enzymes and lung histology in rats with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

Prenatal administration of dexamethasone (Dex) and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) synergistically enhances lung maturity, but TRH suppresses the antioxidant enzyme activity. Prenatal hormonal therapy improves alveolar surfactant content and lung compliance in rats with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). In full term neonatal rats with CDH we studied the effects of prenatal Dex or Dex+TRH on antioxidant enzyme activity at birth, on survival, and on lung morphometry after 4 h of ventilation with 100% O2. CDH was induced by administration of 2,4-dichlorophenyl-p-nitro-phenylether (Nitrofen) on gestational day 10. Dex+TRH-treated CDH rats had lower activity of glutathione reductase after birth than did sham-treated CDH pups. Dex-treated and sham-treated pups had similar antioxidant enzyme activity. Hormonal treatment did not change survival during ventilation. The average airspace volume increased in Dex-treated CDH pups after ventilation, with a small synergistic effect after addition of TRH. On the basis of our findings, we speculate that prenatal administration of Dex is the best choice to improve lung maturity and airspace volume in CDH patients

A standard protocol for liana censuses

A recent increase in published studies of lianas has been paralleled by a proliferation of protocols for censusing lianas. This article seeks to increase uniformity in liana inventories by providing specific recommendations for the determination of which taxa to include, the location of diameter measurement points on individual stems, the setting of minimum stem diameter cutoffs, the treatment of multiple-stemmed and rooted clonal groups, and the measurement of noncylindrical stems. Use of more uniform liana censusing protocols may facilitate comparison of independently collected data sets and further our understanding of global patterns in liana abundance, diversity, biomass, and dynamics