The widespread adoption of high-calorie, high-fat, high-sucrose diets (HFHSD) has become a global health concern, particularly due to their association with cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders. These comorbidities increase susceptibility to severe outcomes from viral infections and trauma, with trauma-related incidents significantly contributing to global mortality rates. This context underscores the critical need for a reliable blood supply.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) is defined as a forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) <80% predicted and FEV/forced vital capacity ≥0.70. PRISm is associated with respiratory symptoms and comorbidities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThyroid hormones play a critical role in regulation of multiple physiological functions and thyroid dysfunction is associated with substantial morbidity. Here, we use electronic health records to undertake a genome-wide association study of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels, with a total sample size of 247,107. We identify 158 novel genetic associations, more than doubling the number of known associations with TSH, and implicate 112 putative causal genes, of which 76 are not previously implicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerebral malaria (CM) is a severe manifestation of malaria that commonly occurs in children and is hallmarked by neurologic symptoms and significant Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia. It is currently hypothesized that cerebral hypoperfusion from impaired microvascular oxygen transport secondary to parasitic occlusion of the microvasculature is responsible for cerebral ischemia and thus disease severity. Animal models to study CM, are known as experimental cerebral malaria (ECM), and include the C57BL/6J infected with Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA), which is ECM-susceptible, and BALB/c infected with PbA, which is ECM-resistant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDirect measurement of cardiac pressure-volume (PV) relationships is the gold standard for assessment of ventricular hemodynamics, but few innovations have been made to "multi-beat" PV analysis beyond traditional signal processing. The Prony method solves the signal recovery problem with a series of dampened exponentials or sinusoids. It achieves this by extracting the amplitude, frequency, dampening, and phase of each component.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe pathophysiologic mechanism of sickle cell disease (SCD) involves polymerization of deoxygenated haemoglobin S (HbS), leading to red blood cell (RBC) sickling, decreased RBC deformability, microvascular obstruction, haemolysis, anaemia and downstream clinical complications. Pharmacological increase in the concentration of oxygenated HbS in RBCs has been shown to be a novel approach to inhibit HbS polymerization and reduce RBC sickling and haemolysis. We report that GBT021601, a small molecule that increases HbS-oxygen affinity, inhibits HbS polymerization and prevents RBC sickling in blood from patients with SCD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor the past thirty years, hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) have been under development as a red blood cell substitute. Side-effects such as vasoconstriction, oxidative injury, and cardiac toxicity have prevented clinical approval of HBOCs. Recently, high molecular weight (MW) polymerized human hemoglobin (PolyhHb) has shown positive results in rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection with COVID-19 has resulted in over 276,000 deaths in the United States and over 1.5 million deaths globally, with upwards of 15% of patients requiring hospitalization. Severe COVID-19 infection is, in essence, a microvascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Appl Physiol (1985)
February 2022
Ischemia-reperfusion injury increased vascular permeability, resulting in fluid extravasation from the intravascular compartment into the tissue space. Fluid and small protein extravasation lead to increased interstitial fluid pressure and capillary collapse, impairing capillary exchange. Polymerized human serum albumin (PolyHSA) has an increased molecular weight (MW) compared with unpolymerized human serum albumin (HSA) and can improve intravascular fluid retention and recovery from ischemia-reperfusion injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew data collection in established longitudinal population studies provides an opportunity for studying the risk factors and sequelae of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), plus the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing. The Extended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA (EXCEED) cohort is a population-based cohort (N>11,000), recruited from 2013 in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. EXCEED includes consent for electronic healthcare record (EHR) linkage, spirometry, genomic data, and questionnaire data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
August 2021
Therapeutic agents that increase the Hb affinity for oxygen (O) could, in theory, lead to decreased O release from Hb and impose a hypoxic risk to tissues. In this study, GBT1118, an allosteric modifier of Hb affinity for O, was used to assess the impact of increasing Hb affinity for O on brain tissue oxygenation, blood pressure, heart rate, O delivery, and tolerance to hypoxia in Townes transgenic sickle cell disease (SCD) mice. Brain oxygenation and O delivery were studied during normoxia and severe hypoxic challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFluid resuscitation following severe inflammation-induced hypoperfusion is critical for the restoration of hemodynamics and the prevention of multiorgan dysfunction syndrome during septic shock. Fluid resuscitation with commercially available crystalloid and colloid solutions only provides transient benefits, followed by fluid extravasation and tissue edema through the inflamed endothelium. The increased molecular weight (M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a major contributor to the disability caused by major depressive disorder (MDD). Primary care electronic health records provide an easily accessible approach to investigate TRD clinical and genetic characteristics. MDD defined from primary care records in UK Biobank (UKB) and EXCEED studies was compared with other measures of depression and tested for association with MDD polygenic risk score (PRS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEasy access to high-calorie and fat-dense fast food has resulted in unhealthy dietary and lifestyle changes worldwide, which affects both developed and developing economies. This predisposes populations to a considerable number of metabolic and inflammatory conditions, such as diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Guinea pigs have been proposed as a model to study high-fat diet-induced metabolic disease due to their similar antioxidant metabolism and lipid profile to humans, and their susceptibility to atherosclerosis and endothelial disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrovascular fluid exchange is primarily dependent on Starling forces and both the active and passive myogenic response of arterioles and post-capillary venules. Arterioles are classically considered resistance vessels, while venules are considered capacitance vessels with high distensibility and low tonic sympathetic stimulation at rest. However, few studies have investigated the effects of modulating interstitial hydrostatic pressure, particularly in the context of hemorrhagic shock.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is often accompanied by hemorrhage, and treatment of hemorrhagic shock (HS) after TBI is particularly challenging because the two therapeutic treatment strategies for TBI and HS often conflict. Ischemia/reperfusion injury from HS resuscitation can be exaggerated by TBI-induced loss of autoregulation. In HS resuscitation, the goal is to restore lost blood volume, while in the treatment of TBI the priority is focused on maintenance of adequate cerebral perfusion pressure and avoidance of secondary bleeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemorrhagic shock (HS) is a severe life-threatening condition characterized by loss of blood volume and a lack of oxygen (O) delivery to tissues. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of manipulating Starling forces in the microcirculation during HS to increase microvascular perfusion without restoring blood volume or increasing O carrying capacity. To decrease interstitial tissue pressure, we developed a non-contact system to locally apply negative pressure and manipulate the pressure balance in capillaries, while allowing for visualization of the microcirculation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCisplatin is a promising therapeutic for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Unfortunately, a significant portion of NSCLC patients relapse due to cisplatin chemoresistance. This chemoresistance is thought to be primarily associated with hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hemoglobin (Hb)-based oxygen (O ) carriers (HBOCs) are being developed as alternatives to red blood cells and blood when these products are unavailable. Clinical trials of previous HBOC generations revealed side effects, including hypertension and vasoconstriction, that were not observed in preclinical studies. Large molecular weight (MW) polymerized bovine Hb (PolybHb) represents a new class of HBOC with promising results.
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