Distribution of collagens and fibronectin in the subepicardium during avian cardiac development

Summary The development of the layer of connective tissue between ventricular epicardium and myocardium was studied during chick morphogenesis using electron microscopy, light microscopy and immunohistochemical techniques. This layer, called the subepicardium, increases rapidly in volume from embryonic day 6 to 11 (E6–E11) during mesenchymal cell invasion. Fibrous, matrix components are initially apparent at E11 to E16, and as fibrous connective tissue structures accumulate, subepicardial volume decreases. Antibody labeling shows that fibronectin is an early, prominent constituent of the subepicardium, and by E8, the subepicardium is the cardiac site most enriched in fibronectin. Collagen type III is present in circumferentially-oriented fibers at E8. During subsequent cardiac growth, collagen type III fibers become broadly distributed in the subepicardium, with some fibers appearing to attach myocardium to epicardium. Collagen type I fibers are not apparent until E10. At E12 collagen type I fibers are distributed circumferentially around the heart in bundles crimped into waves of low amplitude. Other collagen type I fibers are oriented radially in the subepicardium. During late cardiac morphogenesis and in fully-differentiated hearts, fibronectin and collagen types I and III are more concentrated in the subepicardium than within the myocardium. These observations suggest that the composition and organization of the subepicardial connective tissue may make important contributions to cardiac mechanics from the latter half of embryonic development through adulthood.     

Three-dimensional modeling of the anatomy of the heart and great vessels

Summary The anatomic constraints imposed on a total artificial heart (TAH) require specific anatomic studies. A thoracic anatomic study was performed with a scanning device equipped with three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction software on 15 male patients, between the ages of 41 to 63 years (52 ± 6 years). All were candidates for heart transplantation. The 3-D reconstructions of the cardiovascular structures obtained from surgical anatomy data specific to TAH implantation allowed a volumetric measurement of these structures. A modeling diagram of these structures permitted reproducible quantitative measurements of the 35 geometrical parameters which characterized shape, orientation, and position of these structures within the thorax. Most of the measured parameters were characterized by low variability (coefficient of variation from 10 to 25%).

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Modélisation tridimensionnelle de l'anatomie du cur et des gros vaisseaux

Résumé Les contraintes anatomiques imposées au cur artificiel total (CAT) nécessitent des études anatomiques spécifiques. Une étude anatomique thoracique a été réalisée avec un scanner doté d'un logiciel de reconstruction tridimensionnelle (3-D) chez 15 patients, tous de sexe masculin, agés de 41 à 63 ans (52 ± 6 ans), et candidats à une transplantation cardiaque. Les reconstructions 3-D des structures cardio-vasculaires réalisées selon les données de l'anatomie chirurgicale propre à l'implantation du CAT ont permis la mesure volumétrique de ces structures. Un schéma de modélisation de ces structures a permis des mesures quantitatives reproductibles de 35 paramètres géométriques caractéristiques de la forme, de l'orientation, de la position de ces structures dans le thorax. Les résultats de ces mesures ont pu être exprimés en termes statistiques. La plupart des paramètres mesurés étaient caractérisés par une faible variabilité (coefficients de variations de 10 à 25%).

     

Physiological Correlates of Mental Activity: Eye Movements, Alpha, and Heart Rate During Imagining, Suppression, Concentration, Search, and Choice

Rapid eye movements (REMs), EEG alpha, and tonic heart rate (HR) were measured during 6 types of cognitive tasks—imagining a liked person, suppressing thoughts of the person, searching one's mind for alternative solutions, arithmetic involving little concentration, problems involving high concentration, and choosing a preferred activity. The latter 3 required verbalization, the former 3 did not. Only suppression and search did not differ significantly from each other on at least one physiological variable. Imagining, suppression, and search yielded few REMs, high alpha, and low HR. High concentration yielded many REMs, low alpha, and high HR. Choice yielded many REMs, low alpha, and intermediate HR. Low concentration yielded few REMs, low alpha, and high HR. Suppression produced somewhat less alpha than imagining but did not differ significantly in REMs.     

慢性乙肝患者NK,ADCC活性及其对IFN—α,IFN—γ的反应

本文用Hela细胞乳酸脱氢酶释放法测定了42例慢性乙肝病人外周血NK、ADCC活性及其对IFN-α100U/ml、500U/ml及IFN-γ500U/ml预处理4小时后的反应。结果显示,病人PBL NK,ADCC活性与正常对照有显著差别,经IFNs处理后,其NK或/和ADCC活性均有不同程度的升高反应,从而提示了IFNs在慢性肝病治疗中的重要作用。     

The rhythm of the heart in the blink of an eye: emotion-modulated startle magnitude covaries with heart rate variability

Emotion-modulated startle is a robust phenomenon that has been demonstrated in a wide range of experimental situations. Similarly, heart rate variability (HRV) has been associated with a diverse range of processes including affective and attentional regulation. The present study sought to examine the relationship between these two important measures of affective behavior. Ninety female participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures while exposed to acoustic startle stimuli. The eyeblink startle was recorded both during the affective foregrounds and during intertrial intervals. HRV was assessed during a resting baseline and relationships between HRV and startle magnitudes examined. Results indicated that resting HRV was inversely related to startle magnitude during both intertrial intervals and affective foregrounds. In addition, the participants with the highest HRV showed the most differentiated emotion-modulated startle effects, whereas those with the lowest HRV, compared to those with the highest HRV, showed significantly potentiated startle to neutral foregrounds and marginally potentiated startle to pleasant foregrounds. The findings are consistent with models that posit that prefrontal cortical activity modulates subcortical motivation circuits. These results have important implications for the use of startle probe methodology and for HRV in the study of emotional regulation and dysregulation.     

Hostility and sex differences in the magnitude, duration, and determinants of heart rate response to forehead cold pressor: Parasympathetic aspects of risk

Recent models hypothesize that hostility confers increased risk of CHD through weaker parasympathetic dampening of cardiovascular reactivity (CVR). We tested this possibility using the forehead cold pressor task, a common maneuver which elicits the “dive reflex” characterized by a reflexive decrease in HR presumably through cardiac-parasympathetic stimulation. Participants were initially chosen from the outer quartiles of a sample of 670 undergraduates screened using the hostility subscale of the Aggression Questionnaire ([Buss, A.H., Perry, M., 1992. The Aggression Questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452-459.]). The final sample of 80 participants was evenly divided between men and women and high and low hostility. Following a 10-min baseline, participants underwent a 3-min forehead cold pressor task. The task evoked a significant HR deceleration that was mediated by PNS activation, as assessed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Replicating prior research, men displayed greater decrease in HR. More important, low hostiles maintained larger HR deceleration over time compared to high hostiles although the autonomic basis for this effect was unclear. The findings broaden understanding of hostility and sex-related cardiovascular functioning and support the task as a method for evoking PNS-cardiac stimulation.     

Successive infection of coxsackievirus B3 and encephalomyocarditis virus: an animal model of chronic myocarditis.

Successive infection of coxsackievirus B3 and encephalomyocarditis virus was investigated as a disease model of chronic myocarditis. Four-week-old C3H/He mice were inoculated with coxsackievirus B3 and then inoculated with encephalomyocarditis virus at 8 weeks old. The hearts were evaluated on histopathological changes compared with those of non-infected mice and mice infected with either virus alone. At 10 weeks old, the hearts of the mice infected successively with both viruses showed co-existence of fibrosis surrounding calcified lesions and marked cellular infiltration with myocardial necrosis. These findings resembled chronic active myocarditis in humans, unlike the lesions due to either virus alone. At 12 weeks old, the hearts of all the infected mice showed fibrosis with scarce cellular infiltration. The successively infected hearts also showed a significantly higher heart weight to body weight ratio than that of the non-infected control mice, and localized wall thinning in the damaged regions. Thus, we conclude that successive infection additively causes myocardial damage that resembles chronic myocarditis and may produce a heart condition similar to dilated cardiomyopathy.     

Autonomic Nervous System Function and Essential Hypertension: Individual Response Specificity With and Without Beta-Adrenergic Blockade

The aim of the present research was to study individual response specificity in 22 male patients having essential hypertension (HT) and to compare these patients with age-matched male normotensive controls (NT). Four stimuli, letter identification, mental arithmetic, cold pressor and isometric exercise, were administered while recordings were made of: systolic and diastolic blood pressures, heart rate, respiration, forearm and hand blood flows, and skin conductance level and fluctuations. After each session urine samples were collected and epinephrine and norepinephrine levels were analyzed. Twelve subjects in the HT group were given beta-adrenergic blocking agents and retested 1 to 21 months (X?= 12 months) after the first session. Each response was standardized, using NT as the reference group. Intraclass correlations were computed to evaluate whether HT males reacted with a more consistent hierarchy of responses than did NT. Intraclass correlations were significantly higher among the patients than in the control group, regardless of whether the blood pressure response was included or excluded in the computation of the intraclass correlations. Thus, we conclude that male HT patients show more individual response specificity than NT controls. Beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists reduced levels of cardiovascular activity and attenuated reactivity but did not affect amount of specificity. Thus, intraclass correlations provide unique and useful information, since they are not related to blood pressure reactivity or to urinary catecholamine levels, nor affected by beta-adrenergic blockade.