Genetic regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis: A Systems genetics approach using BXD recombinant inbred mouse strains

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is regulated at various levels and by various factors. Genetic influence is an important key determinant of adult neurogenesis and exerts its effects at all levels. In vivo studies have suggested that adult hippocampal neurogenesis is highly variable and heritable among different laboratory strains of mice. To dissect the genetic effect from other contributing factors, it is necessary to study adult neurogenesis under highly controlled environment conditions. We extracted adult hippocampal precursor cells (AHPCs) from 20 strains of the BXD set of recombinant inbred mice, cultured them and studied the effect of genetic background on neurogenesis. The BXD panel consists of mouse lines derived from an intercross between inbred parentals C57BL/6J and DBA/2J. Both of the parentals are fully sequenced and all the strains are well characterized in terms of genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. This allows us to use advanced genetic techniques to identify novel genomic loci and gene-gene interactions important in adult neurogenesis. Comparison of the AHPCs from 20 BXD strains, with respect to cell proliferation and neuronal and astrocytic differentiation in vitro, revealed a large variation for these traits across the strains. Proliferation, as measured by BrdU incorporation, showed over two- fold differences between the extremes. Similar differences were observed for neurogenic (4-fold) and astrogenic differentiation (2-fold). These three traits all showed strong heritability values indicating that the differences were mainly attributed to the genetic component. QTL mapping, with these phenotypic data, revealed that there was no major contribution from single loci controlling these traits. Instead, we found many loci with smaller effects associated with these traits. Gene expression profiling using RNA samples from proliferating cultures of the 20 BXD mice strains yielded two cis eQTL candidates that directly regulated proliferation, LRP6 and Chchd8. LRP6 is well known as a co-receptor of Wnt signaling, but the function of Chchd8 is not known. Further experimentation, using over expression and gene silencing demonstrated that LRP6 negatively regulates AHPCs proliferation. Thus, from this study using a system genetics approach, we were able to identify, LRP6 as a novel regulator of adult hippocampal neurogenesis

Creatine Phosphokinase and Visual Analogue Scale as Indicators for Muscle Injury in Untrained Bodybuilders

Background: Skeletal muscle is a vital tissue in the human body to enable breathing, walking and performing several sports activities. However, this muscle is persistently injured throughout every sports session. Some exercises demand a muscle injury occurrence in order to build a stronger muscle through an adaptation process namely bodybuilding exercise. Importantly, every muscle injury should occur within a physiological range which can be identified by several biomarkers as well as pain scale. The aim of this study was toidentify changes on the level of Creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and Visual analogue scale (VAS) between pre and post training sessions and the correlation between these two indicators.Methods: This was an observational analytical cross sectional comparison study which was conducted in October 2012 and the subjects were adult untrained bodybuilders at the Jatinangor fitness center. The data was obtained by measuring serum CPK and marked VAS. The data were analyzed by t-test, Wilcoxon’s test and Spearman’s correlation.Results: Both CPK and VAS increased significantly by 296 U/L and 19.9 mm respectively. There was a strong positive significant correlation between VAS and CPK (p=0.01, r = 0.711).Conclusion: The healthy untrained bodybuilders chosen in this study experienced a mild (<2000 U/L) muscle injury throughout the training sessions with general increased CPK levels and VAS measurement. [AMJ.2015;2(1):147–52

Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and thyroid dysfunction (TD) are the two most common endocrine disorders in clinical practice. Various studies have found that diabetes and thyroid disorders mutually influence each other and both disorders tend to coexist. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods: This is a prospective descriptive study which was conducted on 186 patients of diabetes mellitus who attended the outpatient diabetic clinic of Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu from January 2015 to June 2015. All patients underwent a clinical and laboratory evaluation. The correlation of prevalence of thyroid disorder with gender distribution, age distribution, HbA1C, duration of diabetes, hypertension, family history of thyroid disorder, and dyslipidemia was then done. The observations and interpretations were recorded and results obtained were statistically analyzed.Results: The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in diabetic patients was found to be 21.5%, in which the most common thyroid disorder being the subclinical hypothyroidism(12.4%) followed by subclinical hyperthyroidism (6.5%) which was followed by primary hyperthyroidism (2.7%) and primary hypothyroidism (0%).Prevalence of thyroid disorders was found to be more in males(n=95) than in females(n=91), highest in the age group of <50 years, more in patients with HbA1c values ≥7, i.e. in uncontrolled diabetes.Conclusions: The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients is very high (21.5 %) with subclinical hypothyroidism is being most common. Screening of thyroid dysfunction should be done in all diabetic patients especially in patients with poor diabetic control.

Creatine Phosphokinase and Visual Analogue Scale as Indicators for Muscle Injury in Untrained Bodybuilders

Background: Skeletal muscle is a vital tissue in the human body to enable breathing, walking and performing several sports activities. However, this muscle is persistently injured throughout every sports session. Some exercises demand a muscle injury occurrence in order to build a stronger muscle through an adaptation process namely bodybuilding exercise. Importantly, every muscle injury should occur within a physiological range which can be identified by several biomarkers as well as pain scale. The aim of this study was toidentify changes on the level of Creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and Visual analogue scale (VAS) between pre and post training sessions and the correlation between these two indicators.Methods: This was an observational analytical cross sectional comparison study which was conducted in October 2012 and the subjects were adult untrained bodybuilders at the Jatinangor fitness center. The data was obtained by measuring serum CPK and marked VAS. The data were analyzed by t-test, Wilcoxon’s test and Spearman’s correlation.Results: Both CPK and VAS increased significantly by 296 U/L and 19.9 mm respectively. There was a strong positive significant correlation between VAS and CPK (p=0.01, r = 0.711).Conclusion: The healthy untrained bodybuilders chosen in this study experienced a mild (<2000 U/L) muscle injury throughout the training sessions with general increased CPK levels and VAS measurement. [AMJ.2015;2(1):147–52

Comparison between the effects of high sevoflurane concentration during induction of anasesthesia using vital capacity breath and tidal breathing techniques in adults

Introduction: The aims of this randomised study were to compare the induction characteristics of sevoflurane using vital capacity breath technique to that of tidal breathing technique in adults undergoing day-care surgery, and to compare patients’ acceptance of these two techniques. Methods: Sixty ASA I and II adult patient undergoing day-care surgery were randomly allocated to receive either the vital capacity breath or tidal breathing technique for induction of anaesthesia with 7.5% sevoflurane in nitrous oxide and oxygen. Haemodynamic changes, induction characteristics and patients acceptance were compared. Results: The mean time for induction was significantly faster with the vital capacity breath technique. There were no significant differences in haemodynamic changes and oxygenation during induction between these two groups. There was significant increase in incidence of excitatory movement in patient receiving the tidal breathing technique. Either technique was found to be acceptable by most of the patients studied. Conclusion: The vital capacity breath technique appears to be better tolerated with shorter onset time and less movement during induction of anaesthesia. As it is well accepted by the patients and has a stable haemodynamic profile, its use should be encouraged

Boons amidst the banes- during COVID-19 pandemic

India recorded its first Covid-19 positive case in Kerala on January 30, 2020. This was followed by nationwide lockdown in 4 different phases from 25th March to 31st May 2020 and an unlock period thereafter. This pandemic brought many unseen challenges to the world. On one side human lives were put at risk, on the other side nature was recreating itself. Many diseases other than covid dropped down in massive percentage. The public understood the importance of handwashing, vaccination, covering mouth and nose while coughing and sneezing during this pandemic. Children facing this Covid pandemic had understood the importance of the role played by hygiene and social distancing in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Every coin has two faces, likewise, this pandemic has both positive and negative effects and we focus on positive effects in this article

Design and implementation of solar power fed permanent magnet synchronous motor with improved DC-DC converter and power quality improvement using shunt active filter for reducing vibration in drive for industrial applications

The research work proposes, Design and implementation of Solar power fed permanent magnet synchronous motor using improved DC-DC Converter and modified p-q theory based shunt active filter for reducing vibrations in drive for Industrial Applications. The Proposed research consists of both buck and boost converter, linking dc voltage unit and works in discontinuous conduction for boosting the battery life time. The improved converter provides multiple output capability using B4-inverter which reduces the cost of a proposed system considerably. In addition, for the reduction of harmonics in three phase system modified p-q module is enhanced. Comparing with the existing module, modified p-q module act as a triggering module for inverter to reduce harmonics in three phase systems and vibration across the motor, moreover the structured circuit would result in reduction of total harmonic distortion (THD), torque ripples, compact power switches, DC source reckoning and reduced starting current. The simulation of buck boost converter is considered, and its performance parameters were analyzed for different operating conditions. Thus, for industrial applications, the bidirectional converter and inverter fed permanent magnet synchronous motor drive is employed with the reduction in vibration, which is more efficient than conventional method. Here both simulation and experimental setup has been employed with a satisfying closed loop performance