Ethanol's disruptive effects upon early breathing plasticity and blood parameters associated with hypoxia and hypercapnia.

Early ethanol exposure affects respiratory neuroplasticity; a risk factor associated with the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. High and chronic ethanol doses exert long-lasting effects upon respiratory rates, apneic episodes and ventilatory processes triggered by hypoxia. The present study was performed in 3-9-day-old rat pups.

Association between cardiovascular disease risk scores and subclinical atherosclerosis prevalence in non-elderly adult patients from Argentina.

The goal of our study was to use statistical analysis to try to associate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk scores and the observed prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis (SA) in a non-elderly adult local population. An observational cross-sectional study was carried out (143 male and 131 female) on non-elderly adults (20-59 years). CVD risk scores included Framingham Risk Scores for 10-year hard (FRS 10 H), 30-year lipid hard or CVD (FRS 30 L H or FRS 30 L CVD), 30 year-body mass index hard or CVD (FRS 30 BMI H or FRS 30 BMI CVD) and Pooled Cohort Risk Equations for either 10 years (PCE 10) or lifetime (PCE LT).

Standardized flow cytometry assay for identification of human monocytic heterogeneity and LRP1 expression in monocyte subpopulations: decreased expression of this receptor in nonclassical monocytes.

In this article, we present a flow cytometry assay by which human blood monocyte subpopulations-classical (CD14(++) CD16(-)), intermediate (CD14(++) CD16(+)), and nonclassical (CD14(+) CD16(++)) monocytes-can be determined. Monocytic cells were selected from CD45(+) leukocyte subsets by differential staining of the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), which allows reducing the spill-over of natural killer cells and granulocytes into the CD16(+) monocyte gate. Percentages of monocyte subpopulations established by this procedure were significantly comparable with those obtained by a well-standardized flow cytometry assay based on the HLA-DR monocyte-gating strategy.

Serotonergic system involvement in the inhibitory action of estrogen on induced sodium appetite in female rats.

This study of the participation of the serotonergic system in the inhibitory effect of estrogen on induced sodium appetite in female rats explores sodium appetite induced by Furosemide and low sodium diet treatment (DEP) in normally cycling rats and in ovariectomized rats with and without estradiol replacement (OVX, OVX+E(2)). We also analyzed the neural activity of serotonergic neurons of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) as well as the activity of other brain nuclei previously found to be involved in sodium and water balance in sodium depleted animals without access to the intake test. For this purpose, we examined the brain Fos, Fos-serotonin and Fos-vasopressin immunoreactivity patterns in diestrus (D), estrus (E), OVX and OVX+E(2) rats subjected to DEP.