Surgical therapy attenuates abdominal and extra-abdominal inflammation in experimental peritonitis.

Background: This study examines the influence of surgical management (elimination of the infectious focus and abdominal lavage) on survival and the inflammatory response in the various compartments of the body: local (abdomen), systemic (blood) and distant organ (lungs).

Materials And Methods: Peritonitis was established in mice by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). After 24 h, a group was made in which the infected cecum was resected and the abdominal cavity was lavaged (RES), and another group that received no surgical resection (NoRES).

Rapid stress reduction and anxiolysis among distressed women as a consequence of a three-month intensive yoga program.

Background: Emotional distress is an increasing public health problem and Hatha yoga has been claimed to induce stress reduction and empowerment in practicing subjects. We aimed to evaluate potential effects of Iyengar Hatha yoga on perceived stress and associated psychological outcomes in mentally distressed women.

Material/methods: A controlled prospective non-randomized study was conducted in 24 self-referred female subjects (mean age 37.

Tyrosine and tyramine increase endogenous ganglionic morphine and dopamine levels in vitro and in vivo: cyp2d6 and tyrosine hydroxylase modulation demonstrates a dopamine coupling.

Background: The ability of animals to make morphine has been in question for the last 30 years. Studies have demonstrated that animals do contain morphine precursors and metabolites, as well as the ability to use some morphine precursors to make morphine.

Material/methods: The present study uses excised ganglia from the marine invertebrate Mytilus edulis as well as whole animals.

Integrative medical therapy: examination of meditation's therapeutic and global medicinal outcomes via nitric oxide (review).

Relaxation techniques are part of the integrative medicine movement that is of growing importance for mainstream medicine. Complementary medical therapies have the potential to affect many physiological systems. Repeatedly studies show the benefits of the placebo response and relaxation techniques in the treatment of hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety and mild and moderate depression, premenstrual syndrome, and infertility.

Endocannabinoid signaling in stress, medicine and wellness.

Based on self-care and stress research, it is reasonable to propose that our bodies contain naturally occurring properties, that is, tools that serve to maintain our health and integrity for a passable period of time, even in times of stress: These processes, including endocannabinoid autoregulation, might in part determine our well-being and life span. Such properties would also manifest themselves during times of stress, i.e, stress reduction.

Love promotes health.

Love has consequences for health and well-being. Engaging in joyful activities such as love may activate areas in the brain responsible for emotion, attention, motivation and memory (i.e.

The Neurobiology of Love.

Love is a complex neurobiological phenomenon, relying on trust, belief, pleasure and reward activities within the brain, i.e., limbic processes.

Pain, immunity, opiate and opioid compounds and health.

We surmise that opioid peptides, i.e., methionine enkephalin, first arose during evolution as modulators of cellular immune function given their immune actions and the presence of enkelytin, a potent antibacterial peptide, and its precursor proenkephalin in animals 500 million years divergent in evolution.

Morphine 6beta glucuronide: fortuitous morphine metabolite or preferred peripheral regulatory opiate?

Morphine-6beta-glucuronide (M6G), a metabolite of morphine that the brain can produce, is an opiate agonist that appears to have a greater analgesic potency than morphine. M6G has a 1-octanol/water partition coefficient 187 times lower than that of morphine and M6G has a blood brain barrier permeability 57 times lower than morphine. The brain uptake rate however is only 32 times lower, suggesting that an active transport mechanism might be present.

Role of amygdala in mediating sexual and emotional behavior via coupled nitric oxide release.

Although the anatomical configuration of the amygdala has been studied a great deal, very little research has been conducted on understanding the precise mechanism by which this emotional regulatory center exerts its control on emotional and sexual behavior. By applying research methodology from the Neuroscience Research Institute, State University of New York, College at Old Westbury, we intended to demonstrate that much of the mediated effects of the amygdala, specifically the regulation of the male and female sexual response cycles, as well as related emotional considerations, exert their effects coupled to nitric oxide (NO) release. Furthermore, by using current anatomical and histological data, we demonstrated that amygdalar tissue rich in endocannabinoid and opiate, as well as catecholamine, receptors could exert its neurochemical effects within an NO-mediated paradigm.

Presence of morphine in rat amygdala: evidence for the mu3 opiate receptor subtype via nitric oxide release in limbic structures.

Background: We have identified a novel mu opiate receptor, p3, which is expressed in several human tissues, is selective for opiate alkaloids, insensitive to opioid peptides, and also is coupled to constitutive nitric oxide release. We, and others, have also demonstrated the presence of opiate alkaloids as endogenous substances in various nerve tissues taken from mammals, man and invertebrates.

Material/methods: Morphine isolation and identification was achieved by high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection.

The neurobiology of pleasure, reward processes, addiction and their health implications.

Modern science begins to understand pleasure as a potential component of salutogenesis. Thereby, pleasure is described as a state or feeling of happiness and satisfaction resulting from an experience that one enjoys. We examine the neurobiological factors underlying reward processes and pleasure phenomena.

Commonalities in the central nervous system's involvement with complementary medical therapies: limbic morphinergic processes.

Background: Currently, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are experiencing growing popularity, especially in former industrialized countries. However, most of the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms as well as participating biological structures are still speculative. Specific and non-specific effects may play a role in CAM.

[Stress, adaptation, and self-organization: balancing processes facilitate health and survival].

Background: Stress is of growing significance not only in established industrial countries. Preventive medical aspects are becoming important in association with the stress phenomenon.

Objective: Discussing the correlation between stress and health (or disease).

Endocannabinoids as autoregulatory signaling molecules: coupling to nitric oxide and a possible association with the relaxation response.

Endocannabinoid signaling processes are present in diverse organisms and in organisms 500 million years divergent in evolution. Cannabinoid receptor-1 expression (CB1), anandamide, and anandamide amidase have been found in invertebrates. Furthermore, this signaling system is coupled to constitutive nitric oxide synthase (cNOS)-derived nitric oxide (NO) release in both vertebrates and invertebrates, thereby regulating neural, immune, and vascular-like functions in these divergent organisms.

The therapeutic use of the relaxation response in stress-related diseases.

The objective of this work was to investigate a possible (therapeutic) connection between the relaxation response (RR) and stress-related diseases. Further, common underlying molecular mechanisms and autoregulatory pathways were examined. For the question of (patho)physiology and significance of RR techniques in the treatment of stress-related diseases, we analyzed peer-reviewed references only.

Evidence for sequential decision making in the medicinal leech.

Decision making can be a complex task involving a sequence of subdecisions. For example, we decide to pursue a goal (e.g.

Leech therapy for symptomatic treatment of knee osteoarthritis: results and implications of a pilot study.

Context: Leech therapy was a mainstay in conventional treatment for pain from antiquity until the mid-19th century. Its use is still widespread in traditional healing procedures in Asia, Africa, and Arabic countries. There is renewed interest in leech therapy in the field of complementary medicine and empirical evidence for specific benefit in knee osteoarthritis.

Decision-making in the leech nervous system.

Previous models of behavioral choice have described two types of hierarchy, a decision hierarchy, in which different classes of decisions are made at each level (Tinbergen, 1951), and a behavioral hierarchy, in which one behavior will take precedence over others (Davis, 1985). Most experimental work on the neuronal basis of decision-making has focussed on the latter of these: a behavioral hierarchy is described for an animal, and the neuronal basis for this hierarchy, hypothesized to depend on inhibitory interactions, is investigated. Although the concept of "dedicated command neurons" has been useful for guiding these studies, it appears that such neurons are rare.

The role of stress in neurodegenerative diseases and mental disorders.

Objective: Evidence for a connection between stress and selected neurodegenerative diseases as well as mental disorders is analyzed. Does stress cause or exacerbate related pathophysiological disease processes?

Method: The stress phenomenon is illustrated and the impact of stress on the nervous system, neurodegenerative diseases, and mental disorders is examined. The connection between stress and the hippocampus - and its association with memory functions - is described.

Stress-related diseases -- a potential role for nitric oxide.

Unlabelled: Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in stress physiology and stress-related disease processes. Like stress, NO seems to be capable of principally exerting either beneficial or deleterious effects. The actual distinction depends on a multitude of factors.

Stress in cardiovascular diseases.

Objective: Evidence for a connection between stress and selected cardiovascular diseases is analyzed. Does stress cause or exacerbate cardiovascular diseases?

Method: The stress phenomenon is illustrated and the impact of stress on the circulatory system is examined. In particular, the pathophysiological significance of stress in hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction (and others) is described.

Proinflammation: a common denominator or initiator of different pathophysiological disease processes.

Proinflammation is a widespread phenomenon. It has an association with the stress (patho)physiology and is connected with various diseases. Recently, it has been discussed if proinflammation may represent a common (pre)condition in different disease states.

A novel lacrimal gland autoantigen in the NOD mouse model of Sjögren's syndrome.

Recent research has demonstrated a crucial role for autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of Sjögren's syndrome (SS)-like disease in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse, but it remains to be determined which antibody species among all those present are directly related to the various aspects of pathology. To identify autoantigens in the NOD mouse system, we have taken the approach of using immunoglobulin (Ig)G purified from sera of NOD mice exhibiting SS-like symptoms to screen cDNA expression libraries derived from exocrine gland mRNA. Here we report the identification of a novel autoantigen, designated LGP10, expressed in lacrimal and submandibular glands.