Emanuel Edward Klein, a diligent and industrious plodder or the father of British microbiology.

Emanuel Edward Klein (Osijek, 1844 - Hove, 1925) was a British microbiologist of Croatian origin. He completed his medical studies in Vienna in 1869. In 1869 he was sent to England to determine terms for the translation of Samuel Stricker's manual Handbuch von den Geweben des Menchen und der Tiere.

Analysis of the elective curriculum in undergraduate medical education in Croatia.

Context: Elective courses are a significant part of undergraduate medical education throughout the world, but the value provided by these courses and the reasons for choosing particular elective courses have not been studied extensively.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate medical and dental students' experiences of elective courses in undergraduate medical education in Croatia and to gather students' recommendations for the improvement of elective courses.

Methods: Medical and dental students studying under the Bologna curriculum were given a questionnaire in which they were asked for their opinions of elective courses and their suggestions as to how they might be improved.

Restoration of cerebral vascular relaxation in renin congenic rats by introgression of the Dahl R renin gene.

Background: This study determined whether transfer of the renin gene from the Dahl salt-resistant (Dahl R) strain into the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) genetic background restores the relaxation of middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) to different vasodilator stimuli in S/renRR renin congenic (SS.SR-(D13N1 and Syt2)/Mcwi) (RGRR) rats maintained on low-salt (0.4% NaCl) diet.

Influence of hyperbaric oxygen on blood vessel reactivity: concept of changes in conducted vasomotor response.

The actions of oxygen in the body are extremely complex, and are also involved in various signalling pathways. Hyperbaric oxygen is known to contribute to the improvement of conditions where tissue circulation is suboptimal, and has considerable usage in different treatment protocols and experimental investigations. However, the precise mechanism by which hyperbaric oxygen changes the functioning of coordinated blood vessel systems and microcirculation is still unknown.

Different roles of sex steroid hormones in the pathogenesis of vascular dysfunction and the development of cardiovascular disease in men and women.

In this review an overview of current literature on the topic of the relation between sex steroid hormones and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is presented. The influence of the mentioned hormones on the three levels has been analyzed: their interaction with the blood vessel receptors, their modulation of the vascular function, and finally their role in the pathogenesis of CVDs. This review is focused not only on already known facts of the protective role of estrogens and the inceptive role of testosterone, but attempts to give examples of their opposite effects on vascular function and development of CVDs.

The effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on blood vessel function in diabetes mellitus.

Prolonged untreated diabetes mellitus leads to microangiopathy, tissue hypoxia and ischemic lesions; it increases the risk for stroke and exacerbates brain tissue damage following ischemia. Patients exhibit advanced atherosclerosis in coronary and cerebral arteries as well as enhanced vascular responsiveness to vasoconstrictors, an attenuated response to vasodilators and impaired autoregulation of cerebral blood flow. Altered endothelial function of arterioles and an impaired vasomotor function of resistance vessels could contribute to altered regulation of regional blood flow and insufficient tissue perfusion in diabetes mellitus.

Impact of glucocorticoids and chronic stress on progression of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease, a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder, has a mainly unknown multifactorial etiology. It is characterized by progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Chronic stress, a condition mediated by elevated concentrations of glucocorticoids over an extended period of time, has been shown to be unfavourable for neurons and to cause damage and neuronal loss in certain brain areas.

Scaling-up undergraduate medical education: enabling virtual mobility by online elective courses.

Aim: To evaluate online elective courses at Croatian medical schools with respect to the virtual mobility of national teachers and students and virtual team collaboration.

Methods: A student-centered virtual learning environment developed within the framework of the European Union Tempus Programme allowed national educational services to design and deliver online undergraduate elective courses. Three online elective courses were created for second-year medical students of four Croatian medical schools by using Moodle, an open-source learning management system.

Sex-specific differences in chromosome-dependent regulation of vascular reactivity in female consomic rat strains from a SSxBN cross.

High-throughput studies in the Medical College of Wisconsin Program for Genomic Applications (Physgen) were designed to link chromosomes with physiological function in consomic strains derived from a cross between Dahl salt-sensitive SS/JrHsdMcwi (SS) and Brown Norway normotensive BN/NHsdMcwi (BN) rats. The specific goal of the vascular protocol was to characterize the responses of aortic rings from these strains to vasoconstrictor and vasodilator stimuli (phenylephrine, acetylcholine, sodium nitroprusside, and bath hypoxia) to identify chromosomes that either increase or decrease vascular reactivity to these vasoactive stimuli. Because previous studies demonstrated sex-specific quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to regulation of cardiovascular phenotypes in an F2 cross between the parental strains, males and females of each consomic strain were included in all experiments.

The role of transferrin in atherosclerosis.

Transferrin is a plasma protein with the primary role of transporting iron through the body and delivering it to the cells that utilize it. Because free ionic iron is very toxic by creating free radicals, the importance of transferrin lies in its antioxidant properties. Atherosclerosis, a pathological process affecting arterial walls, is a chronic inflammatory response in which oxidative stress caused by free radicals is a key factor in its pathogenesis.

Consomic strategies to localize genomic regions related to vascular reactivity in the Dahl salt-sensitive rat.

Chromosomal substitution strains afford the opportunity to discover regions of the rat genome that contain genes related to cardiovascular traits with the long-range goal of linking these genes to physiological function. PhysGen (Programs for Genomic Applications) created a consomic panel of rats derived from the introgression of a single chromosome (> or =95% of the BN chromosome, one at a time) of the Brown Norway (BN/NHsdMcwi) rat onto the homogeneous genetic background of the Dahl salt-sensitive rat (SS/JrHsdMcwi). For 3 wk before the experiment, the rats were maintained on a low-salt diet (0.

Role of superoxide and angiotensin II suppression in salt-induced changes in endothelial Ca2+ signaling and NO production in rat aorta.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained on a low-salt (LS) diet (0.4% NaCl) or changed to a high-salt (HS) diet (4% NaCl) for 3 days. Increases in intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) in response to methacholine (10 microM) and histamine (10 microM) were significantly attenuated in aortic endothelial cells from rats fed a HS diet, whereas thapsigargin (10 microM)-induced increases in [Ca2+]i were unaffected.

Restoration of normal vascular relaxation mechanisms in cerebral arteries by chromosomal substitution in consomic SS.13BN rats.

This study sought to identify the mechanisms of vascular relaxation that are rescued in middle cerebral arteries (MCA) of SS.13BN consomic rats by substituting chromosome 13 containing the renin gene from Brown Norway (BN) rats into the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) genetic background. Isolated MCA from SS rats exhibited an indomethacin-sensitive constriction in response to acetylcholine (ACh) and hypoxia.

Arteriolar responses to vasodilator stimuli and elevated P(O2) in renin congenic and Dahl salt-sensitive rats.

Objectives: Angiotensin II suppression leads to impaired vascular relaxation in normotensive animals on a high-salt diet. The goal of this study was to determine whether normal vascular reactivity could be restored by transferring the chromosomal region carrying the Dahl salt-resistant (R) renin gene into the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) genetic background in a strain of renin congenic rats (RGRR).

Methods: Male RGRR and SS rats were fed low-salt (0.

Reduced angiotensin II and oxidative stress contribute to impaired vasodilation in Dahl salt-sensitive rats on low-salt diet.

This study investigated the role of impaired angiotensin II (Ang II) modulation in contributing to reduced vascular relaxation in isolated middle cerebral arteries (MCA) (100 to 200 microm in diameter) of normotensive Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rats maintained on low salt (LS) diet (0.4% NaCl) for 9 to 10 weeks. MCA from SS rats on LS diet (n=6 to 9) constricted in response to reduction of perfusate and superfusate PO2 to 35 to 40 mm Hg or acetylcholine (ACh).

Chronic AT(1) receptor blockade alters mechanisms mediating responses to hypoxia in rat skeletal muscle resistance arteries.

The goal of this study was to determine the effect of angiotensin type 1 (AT(1)) receptor antagonism on vasodilator responses in isolated skeletal muscle resistance arteries. Normotensive Sprague-Dawley rats were fed normal rat chow with the AT(1) receptor antagonist losartan (1mg/ml) in the drinking water for 7 days and compared with untreated control rats. Changes in the diameter of isolated resistance arteries supplying the gracilis muscle were assessed with a video micrometer.

Introgression of chromosome 13 in Dahl salt-sensitive genetic background restores cerebral vascular relaxation.

To evaluate the potential role of impaired renin-angiotensin system (RAS) function in contributing to reduced vascular relaxation in Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rats, responses to ACh (10(-6) mol/l) and hypoxia (Po(2) reduction to 40-45 mmHg) were determined in isolated middle cerebral arteries of Dahl S rats, Brown Norway (BN) rats, and consomic rats having chromosome 13 (containing the renin gene) or chromosome 16 of the BN rat substituted into the Dahl S genetic background (SS-13(BN) and SS-16(BN), respectively). Arteries of BN rats on a low-salt (LS) diet (0.4% NaCl) dilated in response to ACh and hypoxia, whereas dilation in response to these stimuli was absent in Dahl S rats on LS diet.

Skeletal muscle arteriolar reactivity in SS.BN13 consomic rats and Dahl salt-sensitive rats.

Previous studies have demonstrated that angiotensin II is a crucial factor in maintaining normal vascular reactivity. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that altered reactivity to vasoactive stimuli in Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rats on a high salt diet could be prevented by introgression of chromosome 13 from the normotensive Brown Norway strain, which carries a normally functioning renin gene. Dahl S and consomic SS.