Background Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the cardiac remodeling triggered by type 2 diabetes (T2D). Mitochondrial Ca concentration ([Ca]) modulates the oxidative state and cytosolic Ca regulation. Thus, we investigated how T2D affects mitochondrial Ca fluxes, the downstream consequences on myocyte function, and the effects of normalizing mitochondrial Ca transport.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe previously demonstrated that brain-resident cells produce IFN-γ in response to reactivation of cerebral infection with . To obtain an overall landscape view of the effects of IFN-γ from brain-resident cells on the cerebral protective immunity, in the present study we employed NanoString nCounter assay and quantified mRNA levels for 734 genes in myeloid immunity in the brains of T and B cell-deficient, bone marrow chimeric mice with and without IFN-γ production by brain-resident cells in response to reactivation of cerebral infection. Our study revealed that IFN-γ produced by brain-resident cells amplified mRNA expression for the molecules to activate the protective innate immunity including 1) chemokines for recruitment of microglia and macrophages (CCL8 and CXCL12) and 2) the molecules for activating those phagocytes (IL-18, TLRs, NOD1, and CD40) for killing tachyzoites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnvironmental stress during early life is an important factor that affects the postnatal renal development. We have previously shown that male rats exposed to maternal separation (MatSep), a model of early life stress, are normotensive but display a sex-specific reduced renal function and exacerbated angiotensin II (AngII)-mediated vascular responses as adults. Since optimal AngII levels during postnatal life are required for normal maturation of the kidney, this study was designed to investigate both short- and long-term effect of MatSep on (1) the renal vascular architecture and function, (2) the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) components status, and (3) the genome-wide expression of genes in isolated renal vasculature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManufactured nanoparticles (MNPs) undergo transformation immediately after they enter wastewater treatment streams and during their partitioning to sewage sludge, which is applied to agricultural soils in form of biosolids. We examined toxicogenomic responses of the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to pristine and transformed ZnO-MNPs (phosphatized pZnO- and sulfidized sZnO-MNPs). To account for the toxicity due to dissolved Zn, a ZnSO treatment was included Transformation of ZnO-MNPs reduced their toxicity by nearly ten-fold, while there was almost no difference in the toxicity of pristine ZnO-MNPs and ZnSO.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypoxia (i.e. oxygen deprivation) activates the hypoxia-signalling pathway, primarily via hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIF) for numerous target genes, which mediate angiogenesis, metabolism and coagulation, among other processes to try to replenish tissues with blood and oxygen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Arsenic (As) exposure is a significant worldwide environmental health concern. Low dose, chronic arsenic exposure has been associated with a higher than normal risk of skin, lung, and bladder cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. While arsenic-induced biological changes play a role in disease pathology, little is known about the dynamic cellular changes resulting from arsenic exposure and withdrawal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many aging changes seem similar to those elicited by sleep-deprivation and psychosocial stress. Further, sleep architecture changes with age suggest an age-related loss of sleep. Here, we hypothesized that sleep deprivation in young subjects would elicit both stress and aging-like transcriptional responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple hippocampal processes and cognitive functions change with aging or Alzheimer's disease, but the potential triggers of these aging cascades are not well understood. Here, we quantified hippocampal expression profiles and behavior across the adult lifespan to identify early aging changes and changes that coincide with subsequent onset of cognitive impairment. Well powered microarray analyses (N = 49 arrays), immunohistochemistry, and Morris spatial maze learning were used to study male F344 rats at five age points.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection continues to rise in drug-abusing populations and causes a dementing illness in a subset of individuals. Factors contributing to the development of dementia in this population remain unknown. We found that HIV-infected individuals with the E4 allele of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) or history of intravenous drug abuse had increased oxidative stress in the CNS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterleukin-4 (IL-4)-mediated pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory vascular environments have been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The cellular and molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying this process, however, are not fully understood. In the present study, we employed GeneChip microarray analysis to investigate global gene expression patterns in human vascular endothelial cells after treatment with IL-4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe pathogenesis of incipient Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been resistant to analysis because of the complexity of AD and the overlap of its early-stage markers with normal aging. Gene microarrays provide new tools for addressing complexity because they allow overviews of the simultaneous activity of multiple cellular pathways. However, microarray data interpretation is often hindered by low statistical power, high false positives or false negatives, and by uncertain relevance to functional endpoints.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Microarray technology has become a very important tool for studying gene expression profiles under various conditions. Biologists often pool RNA samples extracted from different subjects onto a single microarray chip to help defray the cost of microarray experiments as well as to correct for the technical difficulty in getting sufficient RNA from a single subject. However, the statistical, technical and financial implications of pooling have not been explicitly investigated.
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