Bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) proteins, including BRD4, bind acetylated chromatin and co-activate gene transcription. A BET inhibitor, JQ1, prevents and reverses pathological cardiac remodeling in preclinical models of heart failure. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms by which JQ1 improves cardiac structure and function remain poorly defined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetinal stimulation (RS) allows restoring vision in blind patients, but it covers only a narrow region of the visual field. Optic nerve stimulation (ONS) has the potential to produce visual perceptions spanning the whole visual field, but it produces very irregular phosphenes. We introduced a geometrical model converting retinal and optic nerve firing rates into visual perceptions and vice versa and a method to estimate the best perceptions elicitable through an electrode configuration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Endocrine disruptors (EDs) interfere with the endocrine system leading to health consquences and reproductive derangements. Most EDs are environmental pollutants whose risk evaluation is hampered by the simultaneous exposure to a number of chemicals. Here we investigated the possible mechanistic involvement of Sertoli cells, the nurse cell population in the seminiferous tubule, in the reproductive toxicity of Bisphenol A (BPA) and perfluoro-octane sulphonate (PFOS), two acknowledged EDs, at recognized subacute toxic levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, several studies have analyzed the composition of the male genital tract microbiota and its changes in infertility or in different situations associated with infertility. The aim of this narrative review is to obtain more insight on this topic; in particular, to describe actual evidence about changes in the semen microbiota in patients with infertility, male tract infections, or HPV infections. In semen, an increase in semen spp.
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