Publications by authors named "Andre L F Meireles"

Aim: This study investigated the impact of the World Cerebral Palsy Day (WCPD) campaign on the public interest using Google Trends Analysis data in Brazil.

Methods: Google Trends was used to collect Relative Search Volume (RSV) data for "cerebral palsy" from 2004 to 2011 (control years) and 2012 to 2022 (WCPD years). RSV during the 4 weeks around WCPD (period of interest) was compared with the rest of the year (control period) in each timeframe.

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The study aimed to examine the main characteristics of clinical trials of motor interventions in physical therapy in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) was used to collect information on clinical trials regarding motor outcomes in physical therapy in children with CP. Two reviewers independently screened, selected the studies, and extracted data.

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Objective: To describe the effects of strength exercise practice during pregnancy on the offspring's development parameters: growth and motor performance, hippocampal neuroplasticity, and stress levels.

Methods: Pregnant Wistar rats were divided into two groups: sedentary and exercised rats. Exercised pregnant rats were subjected to a strength training protocol (vertical ladder climbing) throughout the gestational period.

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Studies indicate that gestational exercise practice positively impacts the offspring's cognition. Nevertheless, the influence of maternal resistance exercise, different periods of exercise practice, and the inter- and transgenerational effects involved in these responses are not known. This study sought to report the influence of the maternal practice of resistance exercise on offspring's cognitive function, exploring behavior, and neuroplastic and epigenetic marks in the hippocampus.

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Intrauterine exposure to exercise is beneficial to cognition of the offspring. Although it is advisable to start practicing physical exercise during pregnancy, it is probable that practitioners or sedentary women keep their previous habits during gestation. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of maternal aerobic exercise initiated before and maintained during gestation, or performed in these isolated periods, on cognition and plasticity in the hippocampus of offspring.

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Maternal diabetes constitutes an unfavorable intrauterine environment for offspring development. Although it is known that diabetes can cause brain alterations and increased risk for neurologic disorders, the relationship between neuroimmune activation, brain changes, and neurodevelopment deficits in the offspring remains unclear. In order to elucidate the short- and long-term biological basis of the developmental outcomes caused by the severe uncontrolled maternal hyperglycemia, we studied apoptosis, neurogenesis, and neuroinflammation pathways in the hippocampus of neonates and young rats born to diabetic dams.

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It is widely known that maternal physical exercise is able to induce beneficial improvements in offspring cognition; however, the effects of paternal exercise have not been explored in detail. The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of paternal physical exercise on memory and learning, neuroplasticity and DNA methylation levels in the hippocampus of male offspring. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: sedentary or exercised fathers.

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Maternal exercise is known to have beneficial effects in progeny development, but the influence of paternal exercise on the offspring still unclear. Since spermatogenesis is a continuous process, the father's life experiences can reprogram epigenetic content of the sperm and somehow interfere on offspring phenotype. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of paternal physical exercise on cognitive and physical development and on hippocampal DNA methylation levels of the offspring.

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Several physiotherapy approaches are used with different aims in the treatment of cerebral palsy (CP), such as the early stimulation and the locomotor training, but their biological effects, isolated or combined, are not completely known. In animals models, these strategies can be compared, with due translational restrictions, to the environmental enrichment (EE), that involves the enhancement of animal's physical and social environment, and locomotor stimulation (LS), that can be performed using the treadmill adapted for rats. This study was designed to describe which biological and functional mechanisms underlying rehabilitative process in clinical practice.

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