We sought to determine whether the orexigenic hormone, ghrelin, is involved in the intrinsic regulation of food choice in rats. Ghrelin would seem suited to serve such a role given that it signals hunger information from the stomach to brain areas important for feeding control, including the hypothalamus and reward system (e.g. ventral tegmental area, VTA). Thus, in rats offered a choice of palatable foods (sucrose pellets and lard) superimposed on regular chow for 2 weeks, we explored whether acute central delivery of ghrelin (intracerebroventricular (ICV) or intra-VTA) is able to redirect their dietary choice. The major unexpected finding is that, in rats with high baseline lard intake, acute ICV ghrelin injection increased their chow intake over 3-fold, relative to vehicle-injected controls, measured at both 3 hr and 6 hr after injection. Similar effects were observed when ghrelin was delivered to the VTA, thereby identifying the VTA as a likely contributing neurobiological substrate for these effects. We also explored food choice after an overnight fast, when endogenous ghrelin levels are elevated, and found similar effects of dietary choice to those described for ghrelin. These effects of fasting on food choice were suppressed in models of suppressed ghrelin signaling (i.e. peripheral injection of a ghrelin receptor antagonist to rats and ghrelin receptor (GHSR) knock-out mice), implicating a role for endogenous ghrelin in the changes in food choice that occur after an overnight fast. Thus, in line with its role as a gut-brain hunger hormone, ghrelin appears to be able to acutely alter food choice, with notable effects to promote “healthy” chow intake, and identify the VTA as a likely contributing neurobiological substrate for these effects. 相似文献
Myocardial contractile dysfunction in sepsis is associated with the increased morbidity and mortality. Although the underlying mechanisms of the cardiac depression have not been fully elucidated, an exaggerated inflammatory response is believed to be responsible. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor containing pyrin domain 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is an intracellular platform that is involved in the maturation and release of interleukin (IL)-1β. The aim of the present study is to evaluate whether sepsis activates NLRP3 inflammasome/caspase-1/IL-1β pathway in cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) and whether this cytokine can subsequently impact the function of cardiomyocytes (cardiac fibroblast-myocyte cross-talk). We show that treatment of CFs with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces upregulation of NLRP3, activation of caspase-1, as well as the maturation (activation) and release of IL-1β. In addition, the genetic (small interfering ribonucleic acid [siRNA]) and pharmacological (glyburide) inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome in CFs can block this signaling pathway. Furthermore, the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome in cardiac fibroblasts ameliorated the ability of LPS-chalenged CFs to impact cardiomyocyte function as assessed by intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responses in cardiomyocytes. Salient features of this the NLP3 inflammasome/ caspase-1 pathway were confirmed in in vivo models of endotoxemia/sepsis. We found that inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome attenuated myocardial dysfunction in mice with LPS and increased the survival rate in mice with feces-induced peritonitis. Our results indicate that the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in cardiac fibroblasts is pivotal in the induction of myocardial dysfunction in sepsis. 相似文献
Sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) can provide critical information on cardiovascular regulation; however, in a typical laboratory setting, adequate recordings require assiduous effort, and otherwise high-quality recordings may be clouded by frequent baseline shifts, noise spikes, and muscle twitches. Visually analyzing this type of signal can be a tedious and subjective evaluation, whereas objective analysis through signal averaging is impossible. We propose a new automated technique to identify bursts through objective detection criteria, eliminating artifacts and preserving a beat-by-beat SNA signal for a variety of subsequent analyses. The technique was evaluated during both steady-state conditions (17 subjects) and dynamic changes with rapid vasoactive drug infusion (14 recordings from 5 subjects) on SNA signals of widely varied quality. Automated measures of SNA were highly correlated to visual measures of steady-state activity (r = 0.903, P < 0.001), dynamic relation measures (r = 0.987, P < 0.001), and measures of burst-by-burst variability (r = 0.929, P < 0.001). This automated sympathetic neurogram analysis provides a viable alternative to tedious and subjective visual analyses while maximizing the usability of noisy nerve tracings. 相似文献
Penicillium citrinum cultures have been germinated on an H2O-based medium, resuspended on a D2O-based medium and treated with [l,2-13C2] acetate. The resulting citrinin (1) has been analysed by2H and13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and information about the metabolism of hydrogen in citrinin biosynthesis has been deduced. 相似文献
Summary
Brassica napus cybrid plants which contain novel nucleus-mitochondria-chloroplast combinations have been constructed, via protoplast fusion. Such fusions resulted in mitochondrial DNA plasmids being lost (at a frequency of 12.5%) or, more surprisingly, being transferred from mitochondria of one protoplast population to mitochondria of the other population (at a frequency of 6.1%). Mitochondria containing their new DNA complement became the dominant organelle population in regenerated plants and were faithfully maternally inherited through successive sexnal generations. No concomitant alterations in mitochondrial chromosome organization or nuclear chromosome number occurred. Protoplast fusion can, therefore, cure plant mitochondria of extrachromosomal DNA and, more importantly, be used to transform plant mitochondria with naturally occurring mitochondrial plasmids. The potential for mitochondrial transformation with recombinant vectors is discussed. 相似文献
Summary Primary mycolardial cell cultures and freshly isolated cardiac cells in suspension resprensent two isolated, whole cell models
for investigating cellular transsarcolemmal45Ca++ exchange in response to a receptor-coupled stimulus. Studies were performed to characterize beta-adrenergic receptor binding,
beta-adrenergic receptor mediated cellular calcium (45Ca++) exchange, and viability in purified primary myocardial cell cultures and freshly isolated cardiac cells in suspension obtained
from 3-to 3-d-old Sprague-Dawley rats. In addition, beta-adrenergic receptor binding was characterized in whole-heart crude
membrane preparations. All three preparations had saturable beta-adrenergic binding sites with the antagonist [125I]iodopindolol ([125I]IPIN). The suspensions had a significantly lower Bmax (42±6 fmol/mg protein) than the membranes and cultures (77±8 and 95±10 fmol/mg protein, respectively). The KD of the cultures (218±2.0 pM) was significantly higher than that for the suspensions (107 ±1.3 pM) and membranes (93±1.3 pM). Viability was significantly lower in the suspensions (57%) when compared to 94% viability in myocardial cell cultures after
3 h of incubation in Kreb's Henseleit buffer. Incubation of the cultures with 5.0×10−7M isoproterenol resulted in a significant increase in45Ca++ exchange as early as 15 s. In contrast,45Ca++ exchange into the suspensions was not increased. Although both primary cell cultures and cardiac cells in suspension possess
saturable beta-adrenergic receptors, only the monolayer cultures exhibited functional beta-adrenergic receptor-mediated45Ca++ exchange. Of the two intact cell models investigated, these data suggest that primary myocardial cell cultures are more suitable
than cell suspensions for investigating beta-adrenergic receptor binding and functions in the postnatal rat heart.
This research was supported by The University of Texas Research Institute, a grant from the Texas Advanced Research Technology
Program awarded to S. W. Leslie and R. E. Wilcox, and contract 223-86-2109 from the Food and Drug Administration. 相似文献
We here report an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a scintillation proximity assay (SPA) for detection of the ganglioside FucGM1 in sera from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The SPA was more sensitive and reproducible than the ELISA. In this assay, monoclonal antibodies specific for FucGM1 were bound to SPA particles and incubated with labelled FucGM1 and 100 µl test-serum overnight, and counted in a -counter. The sensitivity was 0.2 ng. Seven out of twenty sera from SCLC patients were positive, whereas none of twenty sera from healthy individuals were positive for FucGM1. The SPA was more sensitive than the previously reported HPTLC as well as a direct ELISA.Abbreviations MAb
monoclonal antibody
- SPA
scintillation proximity assay
- HPTLC
high performance thin layer chromatography
- SCLC
small cell lung cancer
- FucGM1
Fuc1-2Gal1-3GalNAc1-4(NeuAc2-3)-Gal1-4Glc1-1Cer
- ELISA
enzyme linked immunosorbent assay
- FCS
foetal calf serum
- PBS
phosphate buffered saline 相似文献
Different strains of H-2 congenic mice have different susceptibilities to corticosteroid-induced fetal loss and cleft palate. Applying this knowledge, we tested the null hypothesis, which assumes that there are no statistically significant differences in the frequency of abnormality among various types of treated backcross offspring and, thus, no evidence of a cytoplasmic effect. In the present study this null hypothesis was frequently, but not consistently, rejected. Therefore, there was some evidence of a cytoplasmic effect. One possible explanation of these results is seen when one considers the phenotypic effects of “gene-gene interaction” between variant H-2 genotypes and an invariant mitochondrial genotype. 相似文献
The inhibitory effect of light interruptions given during the photophobe phases of a 72-hour cycle was studied with Biloxi soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. The basic 72-hour cycle consisted of 8 hours of light followed by 64 hours of darkness and was repeated 7 times. Supplementary white light treatments given at the twenty-fourth and/or forty-eighth hour of the cycle (photophil phases) promoted the flowering levels of the controls and kept light treatments given at the most inhibitory points from inhibiting flowering completely. Such supplementary light treatments did not affect the time of maximum sensitivity to light interruptions. When 30-minute light breaks were used, maximum inhibition occurred at the 16-, 43-, and 63-hour points. The duration of the light breaks affected the time of maximum inhibition when given during the second photophobe phase. The time of maximum inhibition occurred earlier with 4-hour light breaks than with either 3-minute or 2-hour light interruptions.
Three-minute red light interruptions produced essentially the same effect as 3-minute white light interruptions. Such treatments inhibited flowering completely in the first photophobe phase, inhibited flowering to only a small degree in the second photophobe phase, and inhibited flowering to an intermediate degree in the third photophobe phase. Far-red light interruptions strongly inhibited flowering in the first photophobe phase, especially when given early in the dark period. Three minutes of supplementary white light given at the twenty-fourth or forty-eighth hour of the cycle partially overcame the inhibitory effect of far-red light. Four hours of supplementary white light at these times completely overcame the far-red inhibition.