Medial preoptic/anterior hypothalamic lesions induce a female-typical profile of sexual partner preference in male ferrets.

In T-maze tests given to gonadectomized ferrets treated daily with estradiol benzoate (EB), females consistently prefer to approach and interact sexually with a stud male whereas male subjects, on average, prefer an estrous female. In the present experiment this sexually allomorphic pattern of partner preference was changed in males given lesions of the medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (mPOA/AH). Electrolytic lesions, which caused extensive bilateral damage to the mPOA/AH, including the sexually dimorphic male nucleus (MN) of the POA/AH, led males to shift their mean preference away from the estrous female to the stud male.

Trefoil peptide protection of intestinal epithelial barrier function: cooperative interaction with mucin glycoprotein.

Background & Aims: Goblet cells secrete a combination of trefoil peptides and mucin glycoproteins to form a continuous gel on the mucosal surface. The functional effects of these products remain uncertain.

Methods: Trefoil peptides and/or mucin glycoproteins were added to Transwell monolayers of the human colonic cancer-derived T84 cell line.

Trefoil peptides promote epithelial migration through a transforming growth factor beta-independent pathway.

The trefoil peptides, a recently recognized family of protease-resistant peptides, expressed in a regional specific pattern throughout the normal gastrointestinal tract. Although these peptides have been hypothesized to act as growth factors, their functional properties are largely unknown. Addition of recombinant trefoil peptides human spasmolytic polypeptide (HSP), rat and human intestinal trefoil factor (RITF and HITF) to subconfluent nontransformed rat intestinal epithelial cell lines (IEC-6 and IEC-17), human colon cancer-derived cell lines (HT-29 and CaCO2) or nontransformed fibroblasts (NRK and BHK) had no significant effect on proliferation.