Ghrelin Modulates Voltage-Gated Ca Channels through Voltage-Dependent and Voltage-Independent Pathways in Rat Gastric Vagal Afferent Neurons.

The orexigenic gut peptide ghrelin is an endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a (GHSR1a). Systemic ghrelin administration has previously been shown to increase gastric motility and emptying. While these effects are known to be mediated by the vagus nerve, the cellular mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear.

Paradoxical potentiation of the exercise pressor reflex by endomorphin 2 in the presence of naloxone.

When contracting muscles are freely perfused, the acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3) on group IV afferents plays a minor role in evoking the exercise pressor reflex. We recently showed in isolated dorsal root ganglion neurons innervating the gastrocnemius muscles that two mu opioid receptor agonists, namely endomorphin 2 and oxycodone, potentiated the sustained inward ASIC3 current evoked by acidic solutions. This in vitro finding prompted us to determine whether endomorphin 2 and oxycodone, when infused into the arterial supply of freely perfused contracting hindlimb muscles, potentiated the exercise pressor reflex.

Heterologous expression of the human wild-type and variant Na 1.8 (A1073V) in rat sensory neurons.

Background: Silent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition in which individuals with the active disease experience minor to no pain. Voltage-gated Na (Na ) channels expressed in sensory neurons play a major role in pain perception. Previously, we reported that a Na 1.

Principles and Validations of an Artificial Intelligence-Based Recommender System Suggesting Acceptable Food Changes.

Background: Along with the popularity of smartphones, artificial intelligence-based personalized suggestions can be seen as promising ways to change eating habits toward more desirable diets.

Objectives: Two issues raised by such technologies were addressed in this study. The first hypothesis tested is a recommender system based on automatically learning simple association rules between dishes of the same meal that would make it possible to identify plausible substitutions for the consumer.

Genetic analysis of lifetime productivity traits in goats.

As part of the development of a breeding programme for dairy goats to support sustainable production in organic farming, the overall aim of the present study was to identify traits that can be used as selection criteria for lifetime productivity. The breeding goal is high lifetime productivity with a good milk composition and a good level of robustness in the animals, especially within grazing systems. The lifetime productivity traits analysed in this study were the length of the animal's productive life (LPL), the lifetime efficiency (LEF), and the animal's milk yield efficiency with respect the total number of lactating days (EDM); the average fat and protein content over the animal's lifetime, the fat-to-protein ratio (FPR), and the urea content (UC) were also included as indirect health traits and potential indicators of robustness in dairy goats.

Implementation of advanced Optimum Contribution Selection in small-scale breeding schemes: prospects and challenges in Vorderwald cattle.

Vorderwald cattle are a regional cattle breed from the Black Forest in south western Germany. In recent decades, commercial breeds have been introgressed to upgrade the breed in performance traits. On one hand, native genetic diversity of the breed should be conserved.

Advanced optimum contribution selection as a tool to improve regional cattle breeds: a feasibility study for Vorderwald cattle.

In the middle of the 20th century, increasing inbreeding rates were identified as a threat to livestock breeding. Consequences include reduced fertility, fitness and phenotypic expression of lethal alleles. An important step in mitigating this inbreeding was the introduction of optimum contribution selection (OCS).

Endomorphins potentiate acid-sensing ion channel currents and enhance the lactic acid-mediated increase in arterial blood pressure: effects amplified in hindlimb ischaemia.

Key Points: Chronic limb ischaemia, characterized by inflammatory mediator release and a low extracellular pH, leads to acid-sensing ion channel (ASIC) activation and reflexively increases mean arterial pressure; endomorphin release is also increased under inflammatory conditions. We examined the modulation of ASIC currents by endomorphins in sensory neurons from rats with freely perfused and ligated femoral arteries: peripheral artery disease (PAD) model. Endomorphins potentiated sustained ASIC currents in both groups of dorsal root ganglion neurons, independent of mu opioid receptor stimulation or G protein activation.

Internal models direct dragonfly interception steering.

Sensorimotor control in vertebrates relies on internal models. When extending an arm to reach for an object, the brain uses predictive models of both limb dynamics and target properties. Whether invertebrates use such models remains unclear.

Genetic and economic evaluation of a basic breeding programme for Kenya Boran cattle.

The objective of this study is to describe the present organisational structure of Boran cattle breeding and develop a model breeding programme using a deterministic approach under the current structure of the Boran Cattle Breeders Society. A breeding unit of 13,000 cows supplying bulls to a commercial population of 39,000 cows was assumed. Selection criteria used were growth and reproduction traits while breeding objective traits targeted were growth, carcass, reproduction, survival, milk yield and feed intake traits.

Aliskiren: the first renin inhibitor for clinical treatment.

The first evidence of the existence of renin was presented over 100 years ago. However, the importance of renin and the renin-angiotensin system in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease was only fully realized in the 1970s. It was another 20 years before the first inhibitors of renin were available for clinical research.

Structure-based design of aliskiren, a novel orally effective renin inhibitor.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction, and heart failure, the leading causes of death in the Western world. Inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) have proven to be successful treatments for hypertension. As renin specifically catalyses the rate-limiting step of the RAS, it represents the optimal target for RAS inhibition.

5-Methyl-6-phenyl-1,3,5,6-tetrahydro-3,6-methano-1,5-benzodiazocine-2,4-dione (BA 41899): representative of a novel class of purely calcium-sensitizing agents.

BA 41899 (5-methyl-6-phenyl-1,3,5,6-tetrahydro-3,6-methano-1,5- benzodiazocine-2,4-dione, 6) is a structurally novel 1,5-benzodiazocine derivative and represents the prototype of a hitherto unknown class of positive inotropic Ca(2+)-sensitizing agents. It is completely devoid of phosphodiesterase (PDE) III inhibitory activity or any other known inotropic mechanism. BA 41899 (6) exhibits a pharmacological in vitro profile comprising Ca(2+)-sensitizing, positive inotropic, and negative chronotropic effects.

Binding characteristics and vascular effects of various angiotensin II antagonists.

Subtypes of angiotensin II (Ang II) receptors have been recently identified using specific ligands (see Whitebread et al. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 1989; 163:284-291). The present study compares the binding characteristics of different structural classes of Ang II receptor ligands in rat aortic smooth muscle cells (Ang IIB subtype) and in human uterus (Ang IIA subtype) and their effects on the constrictor response to Ang II in isolated rabbit aortic rings.

Homes for the migrants: the pueblos jovenes of Lima--a study of socioeconomic determinants of child malnutrition.

The family ecology of 68 preschool children attending a health care center in a pueblo joven (low-income peripheral settlement) of Lima, Perú, was investigated to determine its bearing on their nutritional status. Some of the variables studied included family income, income available to mothers, household composition, migratory history of mothers, child feeding practices and housing conditions. Nutritional status of the children was assessed through anthropometric and dietary means.

Fish oil consumption and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease: a comparison of findings from animal and human feeding trials.

There is growing evidence that dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), abundant in marine organisms, may reduce the development of cardiovascular disease. Because of this, results of laboratory animal and human volunteer feeding trials (using fatty fish, fish oils, or purified n-3 PUFAs) that have examined similar biochemical and metabolic parameters are compared. The limited data reveal that laboratory animal and human volunteers show many similar responses in certain parameters (ie, serum lipids, lipoproteins, trigacylglycerides, cholesterol, etc), to the consumption of n-3 PUFAs.

Several variables of importance in the use of the cold pressor as a noxious stimulus in behavioral research.

To examine the effects of subject's sex, hand dominance, and spatial summation on cold pressor tolerance and discomfort, 80 subjects were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions using a 2 x 2 x 2 design. Analysis showed that females immersing the hand tolerated the stimulus significantly less time than males immersing the hand, females immersing the finger, or males immersing the finger. Female subjects reported significantly more pain than males, and subjects who immersed the hand reported significantly more pain than subjects who immersed the finger only.