Serum and tissue trace elements in Iranian camels (Camelus dromedarius)

There were 26 male and female (nonpregnant and nonlactating) apparently healthy adult (5 to 10 years) field camels (Camelus dromedarius) studied to provide data regarding the normal values of trace elements in serum and different tissues. Blood samples were collected by jugular venepuncture and serum was separated by centrifugation. Tissue samples (liver, heart, striated muscle, spleen, kidney, and hair) were collected during postmortem examinations. All the samples were digested and analyzed for copper, iron, cobalt, and molybdenum using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results showed that the highest concentration of iron was present in the spleen and that the concentrations of this element in the liver and kidney were higher than those in the heart, striated muscle, serum, and hair (p<0.05). The lowest mean iron concentration was observed in the serum (p<0.05). The mean copper concentration was highest in liver in comparison to other tissues (p<0.05). No significant differences in cobalt concentrations were detected among different compartments. The mean molybdenum concentration of striated muscle, heart, kidney, spleen, and liver were significantly higher than those of serum and hair (p<0.05). No difference due to sex was detected in different tissue and serum concentrations of trace elements.     

The influence of photobiomodulation on the temperature of the brachial biceps during muscle fatigue protocol

Lasers in Medical Science - Physical activity raises body temperature. However, the literature does not contain studies about whether the employment of hotobiomodulation (PMB) could significantly...     

Simultaneous intrastriatal and intranigral dopaminergic grafts in the parkinsonian rat model: role of the intranigral graft

The current transplantation strategy in experimental and clinical Parkinson's disease (PD) has been to place nigral dopaminergic grafts not in their ontogenic site (substantia nigra) but in their target area (striatum). Although intrastriatal dopaminergic grafts are capable of reinnervating the striatum, they fail to reinnervate the nigra, which may be an important factor limiting the efficacy of fetal tissue transplantation in parkinsonian patients. We have previously shown that simultaneous intrastriatal and intranigral dopaminergic grafts (double grafts) may provide a more complete restoration of the nigrostriatal circuitry (Mendez et al. [1996] J Neurosci 16:7216-7227; Mendez and Hong [1997] Brain Res 778:194-205). In the present study, we investigated the contribution of the intranigral graft to functional recovery in double-grafted hemiparkinsonian rats. Twenty Wistar rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway were divided into two groups and received either double grafts (n = 10) or intrastriatal grafts alone (n = 10). Following transplantation, both intrastriatally and double-grafted animals had a significant decrease in rotational behavior. However, only animals with double grafts exhibited a significant increase in contralateral adjusting step performance. The intranigral graft was subsequently lesioned by a second 6-OHDA injection. Following the second lesion, animals with double grafts exhibited a significant reversal of rotational behavior and a 51% reduction in contralateral adjusting step performance. The reversal in functional recovery correlated with a significant loss of intranigral grafted neurons. These results suggest that the intranigral graft has an important role in the functional recovery of double-grafted animals. Restoration of dopaminergic innervation to both the nigra and the striatum may be crucial for optimizing graft efficacy and may be a superior strategy in neural transplantation for PD.     

Congenital Horner’s Syndrome Associated with Unilateral Agenesis of the Internal Carotid Artery and Unusual Aortic Arch Anomaly

Unilateral congenital agenesis of the internal carotid artery (ICA) is a very rare vascular anomaly. Rarely, congenital Horners syndrome has been associated with agenesis of the ICA. This article describes a rare case of congenital Horners syndrome in a patient with ICA agenesis and very unusual aortic arch anomaly. This study was done at Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Faculty of Medicine, No financial support was required for this study.     

DoesHelicobacter pylori-induced gastritis enhance food-stimulated insulin release?

The fact thatH. pylori gastritis results in an increased secretion of basal and meal-stimulated gastrin, which is also a physiologic amplifier of insulin release directed us to investigate whetherH. pylori gastritis may lead to an enhancement of nutrient-stimulated insulin secretion. For this purpose, we have investigated the insulin responses to both oral glucose and a mixed meal in 15 patients withH. pylori gastritis before and one month after the eradication therapy and also in 15H. pylori-negative control subjects. The areas under the curve (AUC) for serum insulin following both oral glucose and a mixed meal in the patients withH. pylori gastritis before the eradication were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those in theH. pylori-negative controls. After the eradication ofH. pylori, the AUC for serum insulin following oral glucose and mixed meal decreased by 9.4% and 13.1%, respectively (P<0.001 in both), and serum basal and meal-stimulated gastrin levels decreased significantly (P<0.001). These results suggest thatH. pylori gastritis enhances glucose and meal-stimulated insulin release probably by increasing gastrin secretion.Presented in part as an abstract at the 8th Balkan Congress of Endocrinology, Bursa, Turkey, May 3–5, 1995.     

Anti-inflammatory effects of insulin regular and flunixin meglumine on endotoxemia experimentally induced by Escherichia coli serotype O55:B5 in an ovine model

Background

Endotoxemia is a major cause of mortality in large animals and there are several therapeutic regimens for the treatment of endotoxemia. Recent studies have suggested the anti-inflammatory effects of insulin in endotoxemic human and laboratory animal models but to the best of our knowledge there is no report on the possible therapeutic effect of insulin in large animal endotoxemia.

Objective

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of insulin regular compared with flunixin meglumine on the treatment of endotoxemia in sheep.

Methods

Lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli was administered intravenously to ewes. Anti-inflammatory effects of flunixin meglumine (at 2.2 mg/kg) and insulin regular (at 1.5 and 3 IU/kg) were evaluated by determination of serum concentrations of acute phase proteins, inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress biomarkers.

Results

Insulin regular at 3 IU/kg controlled the acute phase response following endotoxemia induction. The anti-inflammatory potency of insulin regular at 3 IU/kg was significantly higher than at 1.5 IU/kg and of flunixin meglumine at 2.2 mg/kg (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Insulin regular induces its anti-inflammatory effects in a dose-dependent manner. Intravenous use of insulin regular can be a potential new therapeutic regimen for endotoxemia in large animal medicine.     

Salivary Cortisol,Salivary Alpha Amylase,and the Dental Anxiety Scale

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between dental anxiety, salivary cortisol, and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) levels. Furthermore, the aim was to look into individual differences such as age, race, gender, any existing pain, or traumatic dental experience and their effect on dental anxiety. This study followed a cross-sectional design and included a convenience sample of 46. Every patient was asked to complete the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and a basic demographic/dental history questionnaire. A saliva sample, utilizing the method of passive drooling, was then collected in 2-mL cryovials. Samples were analyzed for salivary cortisol and sAA levels by Salimetrics. Significant associations were observed between DAS scores and presence of pain and history of traumatic dental experience. However, no significant correlations were observed between DAS, cortisol, and sAA levels. Our study reconfirms that dental anxiety is associated with presence of pain and a history of traumatic dental experience. On the other hand, our study was the first to our knowledge to test the correlation between the DAS and sAA; nevertheless, our results failed to show any significant correlation between dental anxiety, cortisol, and sAA levels.Key Words: Stress, Dental anxiety, Salivary cortisol, Salivary alpha amylase, Dental Anxiety ScaleDental anxiety is a very common phenomenon and remains an obstacle for many patients to seeking proper dental care despite all the technological advances in dentistry. Multiple etiologies have been proposed in the past. Thomson et al¹ suggested that even though endogenous factors (personality traits) play a role in its development, it develops mainly from exogenous (conditioning) factors. Van Wijk and Hoogstraten² revealed that a single early traumatic experience can be the main cause of dental anxiety. Oosterink et al³ showed that a previous traumatic experience may involve pain, negative dentist remarks (NDR), and strong negative emotional responses. As a consequence, these variables act as predictors for cancelled/missed appointments, a decrease in pain threshold with increase in patient discomfort, poor compliance, increased number of emergency appointments, jeopardized patient/dentist relationship, high Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) index, poor oral health perception, decreased self-esteem, and decreased oral health–related quality of life.^4–11 Women were found to be more affected than men, and there is a tendency for the younger age groups to have more anxiety.¹²Dental anxiety was found to have a direct relationship with pain perception.¹³ Rhudy and Meagher¹⁴ suggested that the pain reactivity is modulated by emotional stress. In addition, Loggia et al¹⁵ revealed changes in pain pathways on neuroimaging techniques with a negative emotional state. Furthermore, Klages et al¹⁶ revealed that anxiety increases expected or experienced pain where patients with higher anxiety levels predicted a higher pain experience.Anxiety is regarded as a form of stress and, thus, has a physiological impact on the body. Stressors can cause the activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which prepares the body for the fight-or-flight reaction, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.When the autonomic nervous system (ANS) gets activated, it causes the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine from the adrenal medulla.¹⁷ Norepinephrine was shown to increase the secretion of salivary alpha amylase (sAA) from the acinar cells of the parotid and submandibular salivary glands.¹⁸ It was suggested that the level of alpha amylase in the saliva reflects the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and that measuring it presents an easy, noninvasive measure of ANS activity compared to measuring the actual catecholamines in serum.¹⁸ sAA levels were shown to increase in response to various stressors like exercise, cold exposure, and hypertension, in addition to psychological stress.¹⁸ Nator et al¹⁹ also demonstrated that sAA has a definite circadian rhythm wherein its levels fluctuate during the day in a definite pattern. Because the ANS is considered a rapid response, it was suggested that it may be a better measure of stress compared to measuring the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response.^17–20Upon activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol gets secreted from the adrenal cortex to all body fluids, including saliva. It was demonstrated in the past that salivary cortisol increases in response to stress and anxiety, and that it also presents an easy, noninvasive way of measuring stress.²⁰ Cortisol levels in the saliva have been shown to be higher in patients with oral lichen planus.²¹ In addition, they were higher in patients undergoing wisdom teeth extractions and prior to urgent dental care.²² Similar to alpha amylase, cortisol has a definite circadian rhythm.The Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS), devised by Norman Corah in 1969, is the most commonly used scale to measure dental anxiety.²³ It was found to have high validity and is easy to administer; therefore, it was adopted as a measure of dental anxiety in this study.Stress and sAA associations have been well documented and studied in the literature^24–28; however, to our knowledge, no literature exists on the correlation between dental anxiety and sAA. Therefore, the aim of this study was to see if there is any correlation between dental anxiety, sAA, and salivary cortisol levels. In addition, the aim was to see if individual variations such as age, gender, race, presence of pain, or history of traumatic dental experience exhibit associations with dental anxiety. We hypothesized that dental anxiety is correlated with an increase in both alpha amylase and cortisol levels; furthermore, that presence of pain and a history of traumatic dental experience are associated with higher dental anxiety levels.     

Circulating endothelial cells in pediatric renal transplant recipients

Background

An increase in the number of circulating endothelial cells (CEC) indicates endothelial damage and the risk of cardiovascular disease. The aim of our study was to investigate the association of CEC with various clinical parameters in pediatric renal transplant recipients.

Methods

CEC, defined as CD45^?CD146⁺, were enumerated by flow cytometry from the peripheral blood of 50 pediatric renal transplant recipients and 20 healthy controls. Clinical parameters, including renal function tests, fasting blood glucose, serum cholesterol and triglyceride, cyclosporine A (CsA) (trough and 2nd-hour) and tacrolimus (tac) trough blood levels and their association with CEC numbers were analyzed.

Results

CEC numbers of patients were higher than those of controls (respectively, 128?±?89 cells/ml (42–468 cells/ml), 82?±?33 cells/ml (32–137 cells/ml), p?=?0.024). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between CEC numbers and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (r?=??0.300, p?=?0.012). There was also a statistically positive association between CEC numbers and transplant duration as well as cyclosporine trough level (respectively, r?=?0.397, p?=?0.004, r?=?0.714, p?=?0.004). CEC numbers in patients on tac and CsA were similar (p?=?0.716).

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that renal transplant recipients with high CsA trough blood level, longer transplant duration, and lower GFR, are at greater risk of developing endothelial damage.