Ventromedial hypothalamic lesions enhance small intestinal cell proliferation in mice.

Background: We have found previously that ventromedial hypothalamic lesions (VMH) enhance cell proliferation in the visceral organs through vagal hyperactivity in rats. The goal of the current study was to determine the characteristics and nature of cell proliferation in the small intestine in VMH-lesioned mice.

Methods: The weight and length of the small intestine, thickness of the mucosal and muscle layers, number of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-positive cells, and mitotic cell count in the mucosal layer in VMH-lesioned and Sham VMH-lesioned mice were determined at 7 days after the operation.

Cell proliferation in ventromedial hypothalamic lesioned rats inhibits acute gastric mucosal lesions.

Aim: The role of mucosal layer thickness on prevention of acute gastric mucosal lesions (AGMLs) was examined in ventromedial hypothalamic (VMH)-lesioned rats.

Materials And Methods: The incidence of AGMLs after 48-h fasting and 60% ethanol injection into the stomach after 24-h fasting, aggressive factors (gastric acid and serum gastrin) and defensive factors [hexosamine, gastric mucosal blood flow (GMBF), serum thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS), and thickness of the gastric mucosal layer] were evaluated in VMH-lesioned rats. The effects of cell proliferation on the gastric mucosal layer of these rats were evaluated by H-E staining and immunostaining with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA).

Masked function of amino acid sensors on pancreatic hormone secretion in ventromedial hypothalamic (VMH) lesioned rats with marked hyperinsulinemia.

In neural regulation of the endocrine pancreas, there is much evidence to suggest that vagal efferents alter insulin and glucagon secretion, but less information on the effects of vagal afferents. In this study, we investigated the role and function of afferent fibers of the vagus nerve in normal and ventromedial hypothalamic (VMH) lesioned rats with marked hyperinsulinemia. In normal rats, hepatic vagotomy was associated with intraperitoneal (ip) arginine-induced enhancement of insulin and glucagon secretion without an accompanying change in blood glucose levels, ip leucine induced enhancement of insulin secretion accompanied by a decrease in blood glucose levels, and ip alanine-induced enhancement of glucagon secretion accompanied by an increase in blood glucose levels.

Enhanced exercise-induced muscle damage and muscle protein degradation in streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetic rats.

Unlabelled: Aims/Introduction:  The effects of 5-day voluntary exercise on muscle damage and muscle protein degradation were investigated in a streptozotocin-induced rat model of moderately glycemic, uncontrolled, type 2 diabetes.

Materials And Methods:   In the preliminary experiment, an oral glucose tolerance (1.0 g/kg) test was carried out to confirm the development of diabetes 3 days after streptozotocin treatment (30 mg/kg).

Beneficial effects of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) lesioning on function and morphology of the liver after hepatectomy in rats.

Liver has a high regenerative capacity and restores its mass and function shortly after partial hepatectomy through increased proliferation and metabolic modification of hepatocytes. The proliferation of hepatocytes can be triggered by its mass reduction after hepatectomy or by the neural factors including lesioning of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH). In the present study, we examined the effect of VMH lesioning on liver regeneration in hepatectomized rats by evaluating liver function and morphology.