Selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons by MPP(+) and its rescue by D2 autoreceptors in Drosophila primary culture.

Drosophila melanogaster is widely used to study genetic factors causing Parkinson's disease (PD) largely because of the use of sophisticated genetic approaches and the presence of a high conservation of gene sequence/function between Drosophila and mammals. However, in Drosophila, little has been done to study the environmental factors which cause over 90% of PD cases. We used Drosophila primary neuronal culture to study degenerative effects of a well-known PD toxin MPP(+) .

Integrated Oxygenator FX05.

In recent years, there has been a trend to incorporate arterial filters into cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) oxygenators. The FX oxygenators are the first examples of integrating a filter around the fibers of the oxygenator. To assess the efficacy of the FX05 oxygenator, in comparison with our existing CPB setup (RX05 oxygenator + arterial filter), we randomly assigned 40 patients undergoing CPB, with calculated flows <1.