Vasopressin antagonist in nucleus tractus solitarius/vagal area reduces pressor and tachycardia responses to paraventricular nucleus stimulation in rats

In urethane-anesthetized rats, injections of 50 pmol of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) or thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) into a lateral cerebral ventricle (i.c.v.) elicit short-latency increases in blood pressure. i.c.v. injection of 50 pmol of the AVP antagonist, d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)AVP, but not of the vehicle (artificial cerebrospinal fluid; a CSF), abolished the pressor action of i.c.v. AVP. The AVP antagonist did not antagonize the TRH-induced pressor responses. In another group of rats, a monopolar stainless-steel electrode was positioned stereotaxically in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and pressor responses were elicited by electrical stimulation of the PVN. Micro-injection of 1 nmol of the AVP antagonist, but not of aCSF alone, into the nucleus tractus solitarius/vagal area (NTS/VA), reduced PVN-stimulated pressor responses to 26 +/- 6% of control and stimulation-induced tachycardia to 37.3 +/- 9.0% of control. These studies indicate that the pressor and heart-rate responses to PVN stimulation may be mediated, in part, via AVP receptors in the NTS/VA.     

Production of experimental ulcerative colitis in gnotobiotic guinea pigs with simplified microflora.

Conventional guinea pigs provided with a solution of 5% (wt/vol) degraded carrageenan as the sole source of oral fluids developed ulcerations of their ceca and large intestines within 30 days. Similar lesions were not detected in germfree guinea pigs treated in an identical manner, suggesting that an intestinal microflora was necessary for development of intestinal lesions. To simplify the bacterial flora required for production of cecal ulcerations, 10 pools consisting of 10 bacterial strains each were isolated from the cecal microflora of carrageenan-treated animals. Groups of germfree guinea pigs were associated with 2 of the 10 pools by orogastric intubation and observed for development of disease. One-half of each group was treated with carrageenan. The two bacterial pools were characterized by the presence of cytopathic effects for WI-38 and Vero cells, increased chemotactic activity, and increased concentrations of long-chain fatty acids. The results indicated that animals associated with those two pools developed cecal ulcerations during carrageenan treatment. Preliminary results also indicated that cecal ulcerations developed in germfree animals mono-associated with a strain of Bacteroides vulgatus isolated from one of the pools, regardless of whether carrageenan was administered, suggesting a bacterial involvement in disease development in the absence of carrageenan treatment.     

Inability to activate muscles maximally during cocontraction and the effect on joint stiffness

In order to determine the maximum joint stiffness that could be produced by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles, experiments were conducted in which healthy human subjects stabilized a wrist manipulandum that was made mechanically unstable by using positive position feedback to create a load with the characteristics of a negative spring. To determine a subject's limit of stability, the negative stiffness of the manipulandum was increased by increments until the subject could no longer reliably stabilize the manipulandum in a 1° target window. Static wrist stiffness was measured by applying a 3° rampand-hold displacement of the manipulandum, which stretched the wrist flexor muscles. As the load stiffness was made more and more negative, subjects responded by increasing the level of cocontraction of flexor and extensor muscles to increase the stiffness of the wrist. The stiffness measured at a subject's limit of stability was taken as the maximum stiffness that the subject could achieve by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles. In almost all cases, this value was as large or larger than that measured when the subject was asked to cocontract maximally to stiffen the wrist in the absence of any load. Static wrist stiffness was also measured when subjects reciprocally activated flexor or extensor muscles to hold the manipulandum in the target window against a load generated by a stretched spring. We found a strong linear correlation between wrist stiffness and flexor torque over the range of torques used in this study (20–80% maximal voluntary contraction). The maximum stiffness achieved by cocontraction of wrist flexor and extensor muscles was less than 50% of the maximum value predicted from the joint stiffness measured during matched reciprocal activation of flexor and extensor muscles. EMG recorded from either wrist flexor or extensor muscles during maximal cocontraction confirmed that this reduced stiffness was due to lower levels of activation during cocontraction of flexor and extensor muscles than during reciprocal contraction.     

Antibody and cytokine responses to the cilium-associated respiratory bacillus in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice

The cilium-associated respiratory (CAR) bacillus is a gram-negative, gliding bacterium that causes persistent respiratory tract infections in rodents despite histologic and serologic evidence of a marked immune response. To assess humoral immunity and cytokine responses in CAR bacillus disease, 6-week-old female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were inoculated intratracheally with 10(5) CAR bacillus organisms. CAR bacillus-specific serum immunoglobulins (immunoglobulin M [IgM], IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, IgG3, and IgA) and local pulmonary cytokines (tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-alpha], gamma interferon [IFN-gamma], and interleukin-4 [IL-4]) were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay every 7 days for 49 days. BALB/c mice developed CAR bacillus-induced lesions early in the course of disease that became more severe with time. Correlating with increasing disease severity, BALB/c mice had elevations in all antibody isotypes tested, and elevations in pulmonary TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, and IL-4. C57BL/6 mice developed mild lesions with mild increases in serum IgM, IgG1, IgG2b, and IgG3 levels and minimally detectable IgG2a and IgA. Cytokine perturbations were not detected in C57BL/6 mice. The persistence of infection in BALB/c mice with vigorous serum antibody responses and increased IFN-gamma and IL-4 responses suggests that humoral immunity and T-cell responses are ineffective at preventing CAR bacillus disease. Furthermore, the lackluster antibody responses and undetectable cytokine responses in C57BL/6 mice suggest that humoral immunity and T-cell responses are not critical in resistance to CAR bacillus-induced disease.     

Maudsley reactive (MR/Har) and nonreactive (MNRA/Har) rats: performance in an operant conflict paradigm.

The present studies were designed to characterize the behavior of Maudsley reactive (MR/Har) and nonreactive (MNRA/Har) rats in a modification of the Geller-Seifter operant conflict paradigm. Food-restricted (85% of free-feeding weights) female MR/Har and MNRA/Har rats were trained to lever press for food reinforcement in a multiple-schedule operant conflict paradigm. In the absence of a tone, a fixed ratio-30 (FR-30) schedule for reinforcement only was in effect (i.e., every 30th lever press resulted in the delivery of a 45-mg food pellet). During the presence of a tone, a fixed ratio-1 (FR-1) schedule of both reinforcement (food) and punishment (0.20 mA footshock applied for 500 ms) was in effect (i.e., each lever press resulted in both food and shock delivery). The tone periods were 27 s in duration and were presented on a variable interval (VI)-120-s schedule (approximately 20 tones/40-min session). Behavioral testing was conducted 5 days/week for 35 weeks. Initially, punished responding between the MR/Har and MNRA/Har rat strains did not differ dramatically. However, over the course of many weeks of conflict testing, rats of the MNRA/Har strain came to accept significantly more shocks than did subjects of the MR/Har strain. A direct examination of footshock sensitivity in these rats revealed that this difference in conflict behavior over time was not due to strain differences in shock sensitivity. The mechanism for this time-dependent difference in conflict behavior between the MR/Har and MNRA/Har rats remains undetermined.     

Clotrimazole induction of cytochrome P-450: dose-differentiated isozyme induction

Treatment of male rats for 3 days with the N-substituted imidazole, clotrimazole, produced up to a 4-fold induction of hepatic microsomal cytochrome P-450. The monooxygenase activities induced varied with the dose administered. At low doses (less than 25 mg/kg), p-nitroanisole demethylase and aniline hydroxylase activities were induced. Only at higher doses were other monooxygenase activities (erythromycin and ethylmorphine demethylases and cytochrome P-450 metabolic-intermediate complex formation from troleandomycin) induced. Microsomal UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity toward morphine was induced at low doses in a manner similar to that of p-nitroanisole demethylase. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of microsomes indicated that low doses of clotrimazole caused the intensification of a 48,000 molecular weight protein band, whereas at high doses, there was a marked intensification of an additional 50,500 molecular weight protein, the same molecular weight band as was intensified in phenobarbital- and dexamethasone-induced microsomes. The observations suggest a phenomenon of "dose-differentiated" isozyme induction for cytochrome P-450.     

High Case-Fatality Rate for Human Anthrax,Northern Ghana, 2005–2016

The human cutaneous anthrax case-fatality rate is ≈1% when treated, 5%–20% when untreated. We report high case-fatality rates (median 35.0%; 95% CI 21.1%–66.7%) during 2005–2016 linked to livestock handling in northern Ghana, where veterinary resources are limited. Livestock vaccination and access to human treatment should be evaluated.     

Elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is associated with poor long-term survival and graft failure after lung transplantation

PurposeWe aimed to assess the prognostic value of Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) on long-term outcomes and graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed all patients receiving a lung transplant at our institution from 2011 to 2014. The primary exposure was elevated NLR at the time of transplant, defined by NLR>4. The primary outcomes were graft failure and three-year all-cause mortality. Multivariate logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were used to analyze outcomes.Results95 patients were included. 40 patients (42%) had an elevated NLR. Elevated NLR was associated with graft failure (OR: 4.7 [1.2–18.8], p = 0.02), and three-year mortality (OR: 5.4 [1.3–23.2], p = 0.03) on multivariate logistic regression. Patients with elevated NLR demonstrated significantly lower survival on Kaplan-Meier analysis (50% versus 74%, p = 0.02). The c-statistic for our multivariate model was 0.91.ConclusionElevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is associated with poor long-term survival and graft failure after lung transplantation.     

Translating clinical and patient-reported data to tailored shared decision reports with predictive analytics for knee and hip arthritis

Quality of Life Research - New informatics tools can transform evidence-based information to individualized predictive reports to serve shared decisions in clinic. We developed a web-based system...