Month: September 2020

RV insertion points and anterolateral wall of the left ventricle. Importantly, prognosis and cardiac function are poorer in DMD patients who have late gadolinium enhancement. In the mdx mouse, standard measures of left ventricular function, including ejection fraction, end systolic volume and wall thickening, do not become abnormal until 9 to 11 months of age. However, MRI has identified early abnormalities in cardiac wall strain and torsion, as well as right ventricular dysfunction at 6–8 months. Imaging studies of cardiac function in the mdx mouse have focused on mice at one specific age, or imaged different groups of mice at different ages, the earliest time point being,5- months. Here we serially imaged the same group of male mdx mice and littermate male wild type controls using MRI at 1 month after birth and at four further timepoints up to 1 year. We assessed left and right ventricular systolic function, diastolic function and response to dobutamine stress. Further, we report the first use of late gadolinium enhancement to identify regions of myocardial fibrosis in mdx mice. In vivo measures of fibrosis correlated with cardiac function, and may offer a sensitive and clinically relevant in vivo method for assessing the efficacy of experimental treatments for muscular dystrophy. In vivo MRI of mouse models of human cardiac disease can give valuable insights into pathology and therapy. Although the mdx mouse model of muscular dystrophy has been studied using ultrasound and haemodynamic measurements, there are limited data from MRI studies and no reports of serial MR imaging of disease progression in the same mdx mice over time. Clinically and experimentally, cardiac MRI is more sensitive to small alterations in cardiac function than other imaging modalities, including ultrasound. Hence, we anticipated that the application of MRI to the mdx mouse, known to have only mild cardiomyopathy when young, may identify subtle changes previously missed by other techniques. In agreement with previous reports, standard cine-MRI did not show altered resting LV function in mdx mice until 9 months of age. However, high temporal resolution cine-MRI indicated that peak LV filling and ejection rates were lower at 3 and 6 months of age, suggesting impaired systolic and diastolic function even in young animals, as has been observed ex vivo in isolated, Nutlin-3 working 3-month-old mdx mouse hearts and in vivo in 8-month-old mice. Interestingly, differences in LV filling and ejection rates were not detected at 12 months, suggesting that progressive remodeling and hypertrophy may compensate for dysfunction and mask the original abnormalities at later time points. This is supported by the study of Li et al, which reported increased regional strain and torsion in the 2-month-old mdx mouse heart and reduced torsion by 10 months. All mice used in this study were male; female mice may have given different results. We have reported RV dysfunction in mdx mice at 8 months that precedes LV dysfunction, probably owing to pulmonary hypertension and dysfunction of the diaphragm muscle. Here, by performing serial imaging, we were able to determine that resting RV function was unaltered at 1 month, but abnormal as early as three months, with RV-ESV increased and RV-EF reduced.

Iterative expert panel meetings with review of the relevant evidence were used to generate a set of indicators to assess the quality of the process of care, rather than outcomes. RAND researchers postulate that these QIs represent minimal care rather than optimal care for the vulnerable elderly population, and are meant to assess and ultimately improve the quality of care. The resulting set consists of explicitly phrased IF-THEN clinical rules with comprehensive coverage of general medical and geriatric conditions, including comorbidities. These rules are intended to evaluate, by means of gauging adherence to the rules, the extent to which the care being delivered meets minimal standards of quality. The following is an example of an ACOVE indicator : “IF a vulnerable elder reports a history of two or more falls in the previous year, THEN there should be documentation of a basic fall history within three months of the report. ACOVE-1 represents the first original set of QIs. The second phase of ACOVE aimed at evaluating various interventions in primary care practices in order to improve care, but the QI set was not changed. The ACOVE-3 QI set is an updated and expanded set of QIs including five new conditions: COPD, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, sleep disorders, and benign prostatic hypertrophy. Because ACOVE QIs or adaptations thereof have been used for over a decade for the assessment of quality of care. This paper reviews the PR-171 studies that assessed the quality of care for elderly patients using ACOVE QIs in order to evaluate the state of the quality of care for the reported conditions. In this systematic review we described the results of 17 research papers using the ACOVE quality indicators to assess the quality of care. The assessment of care was performed in a variety of care settings, in several different elderly patient populations and for multiple conditions. Due to this heterogeneity and the fact that the studies used different subsets of the ACOVE QIs or adaptations thereof, the results of the studies cannot be directly compared and hence a quantitative meta-analysis is not justified. However, considering that many studies assessed the quality of care for multiple conditions simultaneously and 50% of the QIs had a pass rate below 50%; some general conclusions can be drawn about areas to which improvement initiatives should be focused. An overall conclusion is that there is much room for care improvement for the elderly population. Individual studies have already shown the need for greater focus on elderly care. This finding is supported by our review. Based on the included studies the overall quality scores for dementia, depression, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis were notably low. In addition to the conditions above, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, pressure ulcer, pain management, falls and urinary incontinence scored below 50% at the QI level. In the interest of maintaining a good quality of life for elderly patients it is very important to treat geriatric conditions, and it may even be unethical to ignore this need. Although care for many conditions showed deficiencies, geriatric conditions like dementia and falls seem to show greater deficiencies than others.

Administration of drug directly into the vitreous is also associated with a lot of problems; clearance of the drug being one of the main drawbacks. In light of this fact, nanotechnology has come to the forefront of ocular drug delivery and as such, understanding ocular tissue response to implanted nano-biomaterials is of paramount significance. Our selection of materials to synthesize various nanoparticles was based on the SP600125 following facts. First, a vast majority of drug releasing nanodevices are made out of FDA approved polymers like PLLA and PLGA and are usually in the range of 10 nm to 1000 nm. In fact, previous studies have shown that particles in the range of 20 nm to 200 nm have the highest affinity to tissue. Second, hydrogels like PNIPAM have been extensively researched for drug delivery applications. Thirdly, HA is a major component of the vitreous and as such, their presence in the eye should be tolerable. HA makes up a sizeable proportion in the retinal pigment epithelium and interphotoreceptor matrix. Considering this information, we selected nanoparticles made out of PLLA, PS, HA and PNIPAM in the size range of 100 to 200 nm. It is well established that material properties trigger different extent of soft tissue responses. We thus assumed that material properties would exert some influence on ocular tissue reactions. Very few studies have been done to assess the effect of material properties on ocular compatibility of particles. Nevertheless, studies have found that PLLA and PLGA nanoparticles can be used for delivery of high molecular weight drugs to the retina, and poly is well tolerated by retinal tissue for at least 4 weeks. Non-toxic chitosan and hyaluronic acid have been found to be good drug carriers, and carbodiimide crosslinked hyaluronic acid has been shown to have good ocular compatibility in the anterior chamber. PNIPAM hydrogel grafted with chitosan has also been applied as a thermally responsive ophthalmic drug delivery device. Also most of the studies until now have mainly focused on visual signs of inflammation to suggest lack of biocompatibility. To determine the ocular tissue responses to particle implants, we first measured the IOP changes following intravitreous implantation of particle. The fluctuation of IOP indicates the balance between production and drainage of aqueous humor and hence it was measured to determine the impact of various nanoparticle injections on aqueous humor drainage. In addition, it has been documented that ocular inflammation strongly influences the IOP. Diseases like glaucoma have been shown to increase IOP while inflammatory conditions produced by anterior uveitis and iritis were found to reduce IOP. Substantial studies in glaucoma research have focused on using various pharmacological approaches to reduce IOP for prolonged period of time. Interestingly, our studies have found that the intravitreous implantation of particles prompted different extent of IOP reduction. Specifically, we found that PNIPAM and PS particles triggered the maximum reduction in IOP, while PLLA particles caused a rather mild reduction in IOP. Most interestingly, our results show that the implantation of HA particles trigger minimal or no IOP reduction.

Experience of an EE or social housing decreases play fighting behavior and social interactions. Many factors could contribute to the modification of emotional or social behavior by rearing environment. Midbrain serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter systems have been implicated in emotionality. 5-HT neurons located in the raphe nuclei project to many brain areas, including the limbic system, and have been shown to be involved in the modulation of anxiety. On the other hand, the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system has been mainly related to reward and motivation. Furthermore, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is an important modulator of stress-related behavior. HPA activity is reflected peripherally by plasma concentrations of corticosterone. In a study of the physiological effects of EE on stress responses, Beltz et al., reported that EE decreased corticosterone concentrations in isolated rats. Although recent studies have led to a better understanding of the effects of rearing environment on emotional and social behavior via neuronal and hormonal regulator systems, the influence of EE rearing on sexual behavior, one of the most important social behaviors, remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the consequences to male rats of being reared in an EE from early adolescence to puberty on adult sexual behavior, in comparison to rats reared in a SE. Furthermore, to reveal the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of EE rearing, we focused on the neurotransmitter 5-HT and DA and the hormone corticosterone and testosterone, which have been implicated in the neural regulation of sexual and emotional behavior In th.e present study, we examined the effects of EE rearing on: 1) sexual and emotional behavior, 2) serotonergic and dopaminergic activity following female exposure, and 3) corticosterone and testosterone responses following female exposure. In the present study, rearing in an EE led to notably decreased AB1010 copulatory behavior, a lower number of ejaculations, prolonged ejaculation latencies, longer postejaculatory intervals and other changes. There have only been a few reports of the effects of EE rearing on male copulatory activity. In agreement with the present results, Swanson et al., reported that males reared in an EE showed prolonged latencies to ejaculation compared with control males, and only a few EE males managed to achieve an ejaculation in their study. To date, there is no direct evidence for the neurobiological regulation of changes in copulatory behavior in EE male rats. Although several possible explanations could account for our present results, we hypothesize that the decreased copulatory behavior in EE rats is related to lower emotional responsiveness and central regulation of 5-HT and hormonal responses during mating. First, the nature of our behavioral assessments may explain the emotional responsiveness to copulatory activity. The present behavioral results indicated that EE males decreased their emotional responsiveness in the same open field used in the sexual behavior test.

Hypoxic stress has been shown to induce NDRG1 expression in a variety of cells, but NDRG1’s roles during hypoxia are not fully understood. We identified a similar expression pattern of only seven genes, including NDRG1, when comparing the global gene expression profile in ZR-75-1 cells grown under hypoxia with cells ectopically over-expressing NDRG1. Thus, NDRG1 does not act as a sensor of intracellular oxygen tension. The elevated NDRG1 expression is rather a secondary effect of hypoxic stress. NDRG1 is induced both by ectopically expressed and endogenously increased TP53, the NDRG1 promoter contains a putative TP53 binding site. In line with this, we detected decreased apoptosis in doxorubicin-treated breast epithelial cells expressing NDRG1 shRNAs under normoxia. Other studies show no correlation between NDRG1 expression and apoptosis despite the up-regulation of TP53, suggesting different responses depending on the cell types and conditions studied. Jung et al. demonstrated that hypoxia-induced NDRG1 expression can mediate doxorubicin resistance, suggesting that NDRG1 might increase cellular survival under hypoxia. We observed strongly elevated NDRG1 levels under hypoxia and in cells subjected to acute DNA-damage by doxorubicin treatment. Under hypoxia we detected an even cytoplasmic NDRG1 signal, whereas doxorubicin treatment resulted in a granulated signal. NDRG1 did not co-localize with ER or early endosomes under the conditions tested. Our results are consistent with the report by Shi et al., who detected NDRG1 at the cell membrane and the cytoplasmic network closely associated with the ER in trophoblasts under hypoxia. Our observations are in agreement with NDRG1 exerting its functions through different stress-signalling pathways, resulting in increased cell survival under hypoxia, while being permissive for doxorubicin-induced apoptosis under normoxic conditions. In cells over-expressing NDRG1, the levels of CDC42EP, DOCK11 and ARHGEF1 detected on the micro arrays are shifted in a direction that is in agreement with an induction of increased CDC42 activity, conceivably resulting in increased vesicle trafficking. Thus, NDRG1 may indirectly play a role in vesicle trafficking and in maintenance of cellular polarity, by stimulating CDC42. Interestingly, hyperactivation of CDC42 can contribute to cellular transformation and tumor invasion and metastasis, through generation of plasma membrane protrusions, so-called invadopodia. Further investigations are needed to clarify the putative interplay between NDRG1 and CDC42 signalling pathways. In humans, Alaskan ICI 182780 Estrogen Receptor inhibitor Malamute and Greyhound, germline NDRG1 mutations cause the demyelinating disorder CMT4D and Ndrg1 deficient mice show defects connected to myelin sheath maintenance. Generally, many genes affected in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease include proteins involved in regulation of endocytosis and vesicle transport. In a study of an early onset demyelinating disease, classified as CMT4H in one Lebanese and one Algerian family, Delague and colleagues identified novel mutations in a protein directly influencing the activity of CDC.