[Support for patients with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers by gerontechnology].

The increasing number of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease raises the question of their caring at home, especially when the disease causes disability and negative consequences in daily life such as isolation, falls, wandering, errors in drug taking. Furthermore, caregivers bear a substantial burden that can have adverse effects on their physical and mental health. New technologies of information could play an additional role as care providers without substituting family or professional caregivers help.

Alteration of mitochondrial function in a model of chronic ischemia in vivo in rat heart.

The aim of this study was to investigate mitochondrial alterations in an animal model of chronic myocardial ischemia in rats obtained by surgical constriction of the left coronary artery. Resting coronary blood flow was measured using the fluorescent microsphere technique. Contractile function, defined by rate-pressure product, and myocardial oxygen consumption were measured in a Langendorff preparation.

Cardioprotection by ischemic preconditioning preserves mitochondrial function and functional coupling between adenine nucleotide translocase and creatine kinase.

M. N. Laclau, S.

Development of the model of rat isolated perfused heart for the evaluation of anthracycline cardiotoxicity and its circumvention.

1. In order to develop a predictive model for the preclinical evaluation of anthracycline cardiotoxicity and the means of preventing it, we have studied the functional parameters of perfused hearts isolated from rats receiving repeated doses of several anthracyclines. 2.

Evaluation of anthracycline cardiotoxicity with the model of isolated, perfused rat heart: comparison of new analogues versus doxorubicin.

We have compared the cardiotoxicity of 3 anthracyclines in a model of isolated perfused rat heart using the Langendorff technique. The contractile state and ventricular compliance were studied. Doxorubicin, epirubicin and pirarubicin were perfused at concentrations of 10(-6) and 10(-5) M during 70 min.

Effect of angiotensin II on calcium release phenomena in normal and hypertrophied single cardiac myocytes.

The effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) (10(-9) M to 10(-7) M) on calcium releases were established in ventricular myocytes from normal and renal hypertensive adult rats. From each peak systolic indo-1 ratio (405 nm/480 nm), amplitude variation, duration (rise time and fall time), and frequency of spontaneous calcium releases were investigated on freshly isolated cardiomyocytes at rest or under electrical stimulation. The following changes were observed: (1) in spontaneous contracting myocytes, an increase in frequency of calcium transients at 10(-7) M in normal cells (+157%, P < 0.

[Effects of angiotensin II on spontaneous cytosolic calcium releases in ventricular myocytes of adult normal and hypertensive rats].

This study investigated the effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) (10(-9)M to 10(-7)M) on calcium releases in ventricular myocytes from normal and renal hypertensive adult rats (Goldblatt 2K-1C). Newly, isolated myocytes were loaded with fluorescent indo-1/AM and studied at rest or under electrical stimulation. The variation of the ratio of indo-1 emission (405 nm/480 nm) was taken as a measure of cytosolic calcium variations.

[Metabolic aspects of hemodynamic behavior in left ventricular hypertrophy by 13C NMR].

During myocardial hypertrophy, histological modifications induce a partial ischemic state and hemodynamic perturbations are responsible for an increased myocardial oxygen demand. The purpose of this study is to better characterize the alterations of intermediary metabolism linked to hemodynamic perturbations by carbon 13 NMR using enriched substrates. Left ventricular hypertrophy was consecutive to a renal hypertension (Goldblatt 2K-1C, 9 weeks).

[Protease inhibitors and ectasia in coronary atherosclerosis].

The possibility of elastase contributing to degradation of the arterial wall in atherosclerosis and to the formation of ectasia has prompted us to assay the main protease inhibitors, alpha 1-antitrypsin and alpha 2-macroglobulin, in patients with angiographic coronary disease with and without coronary ectasia. Serum concentrations of these two proteins were measured by immunonephelometry in 203 patients admitted for coronary arteriography. The results obtained were analyzed according to the presence of atheromatous lesions and their severity and to the presence or absence of ectasia.

[Effects of ventricular hypertrophy following experimental renovascular hypertension on the elasticity of the papillary muscle].

A precise method was developed for detecting muscular stiffness changes in the left ventricular hypertrophy by chronic pressure overload in rats (2 kidney-1 clip renal hypertensive rats). The technique of Quick-Release allowed the measurement of the "stress-strain" relation (delta-epsilon), the elastic stiffness (d delta/d epsilon) and the stiffness constant (K) in isolated papillary muscle from normal and hypertrophied hearts at rest and at the maximal time course of activation during isometric contraction. (Table: see text).

Serum type III procollagen peptide levels in coronary artery disease (a marker of atherosclerosis).

The known shift in collagen synthesis from procollagen type I to type III in patients with atherosclerosis, suggested measurement of serum procollagen III peptide (PIIIP) levels in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Two groups of patients were studied: group I--thirty-six patients with CAD (male, mean age 56.9 +/- 7.