The evidence for the existence of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain, including humans is now widely accepted. Despite the fact that adult neural stem cells appear to be very promising, a wide range of their unrevealed properties, abilities but also limitations under physiological and especially pathological conditions still need to be investigated and explained. Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by successive degeneration of relatively well-defined neuronal population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough Huntington's disease (HD) occurs only in humans, the use of animal models is crucial for HD research. New genetic models may provide novel insights into HD pathogenesis, but their relevance to human HD is problematic, particularly owing to a lower number of typically degenerated and dying striatal neurons and consequent insignificant reactive gliosis. Hence, neurotoxin-induced animal models are widely used for histopathological studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnthracycline cardiotoxicity ranks among the most severe complications of cancer chemotherapy. Although its pathogenesis is only incompletely understood, "reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron" hypothesis has gained the widest acceptance. Besides dexrazoxane, novel oral iron chelator deferiprone has been recently reported to afford significant cardioprotection in both in vitro and ex vivo conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Medica (Hradec Kralove)
February 2008
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), activated by oxidative stress, play a key role during cardiac remodeling. In the present study we aimed to assess the role of MMPs in experimental cardiomyopathy induced by repeated 10-week administration of daunorubicin (3 mg/kg i.v.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPyridoxal-derived aroylhydrazone iron chelators have been previously shown as effective cardioprotectants against chronic anthracycline cardiotoxicity. In this study we focused on a novel salicylaldehyde analogue (salicylaldehyde isonicotinoyl hydrazone, SIH), which has been recently demonstrated to possess marked and dose-dependent protective effects against oxidative injury of cardiomyocytes. Therefore, in the present study the cardioprotective potential of SIH against daunorubicin (DAU) cardiotoxicity was assessed in vitro (isolated rat ventricular cardiomyocytes; DAU 10 microM, 48 h exposure) as well as in vivo (chronic DAU-induced cardiomyopathy in rabbits; DAU 3mg/kg, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF1. Neural transplantation in Huntington's diseased patients is currently the only approach in the treatment of this neurodegenerative disorder. The clinical trial, unfortunately, includes only a small number of patients until now, since many important questions have not been answered yet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF