Publications by authors named "Michael Deogracias"
Objectives: Hypothermia has a well-established neuroprotective effect and offers a foundation for combination therapy for brain ischemia. The authors evaluated the effect of combination therapy with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and hypothermia on brain structure and function in the setting of global brain ischemia and reperfusion in rats.
Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to groups by a registrar.
Background: Physical and molecular mechanisms for the neuroprotective effect of therapeutic hypothermia are not completely understood, and new therapeutic applications incorporating hypothermia remain to be developed and tested. Clinically relevant animal models of therapeutic hypothermia are not well established or consistent.
Objectives: The objective was to develop and test an inexpensive small animal therapeutic hypothermia system that models those in widespread clinical use and verify that such a system confers neuroprotection in a rat model of global brain ischemia.
Article Synopsis
- Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG) is an autoimmune condition that mainly impacts small blood vessels, leading to kidney and lung issues.
- The study aimed to create an antibody array to analyze protein expression in the serum of WG patients compared to healthy individuals, focusing on those that are age and sex matched.
- The results showed significant increases in 24 proteins related to vascular injury in WG patients, suggesting potential biomarkers for better understanding and diagnosing the disease.
Article Synopsis
- Scientists wanted to find out how a substance called interleukin-6 (IL-6) affects a type of disease called granulomatous vasculitis.
- They used two groups of mice: one group that had IL-6 and one that didn’t, and they injected them with a substance from yeast to see how their bodies reacted.
- The results showed that both groups had similar numbers of immune cells and problems in their lungs, suggesting that IL-6 might help a little but isn't super important for the development of this disease.
Article Synopsis
- Previous research indicated that Interleukin-6 (IL-6) might be a marker for vasculitis, prompting further investigation into its role in immune complex-induced vascular injury models with both IL-6 deficient and sufficient mice.
- Elevated IL-6 levels were found in the plasma of injured IL-6 sufficient mice with acute conditions, while IL-6 deficient mice displayed low or undetectable levels.
- Despite the differences in IL-6 levels, histological analyses showed no significant variation in vascular injury, permeability, or immune cell influx between the IL-6 deficient and sufficient groups, suggesting that IL-6 is not critical for the vascular inflammatory response.
Article Synopsis
- A partial hepatectomy, which means removing part of the liver, starts a healing process in the liver that involves cell growth and changes in the liver's structure.
- Researchers studied the role of a protein called MMP-9 in helping the liver heal after this surgery using special mice.
- They found that mice without MMP-9 healed more slowly and had less important molecules for healing, like VEGF, than normal mice.
Antibody microarrays are a high-throughput proteomic technology used to examine the expression of multiple proteins in complex solutions. Antibody microarrays can be manufactured on a variety of commercially available activated glass or coated slides. The goal of this study was to compare Hydrogeltrade mark, nitrocellulose, aldehyde-silane and epoxy-silane slides to determine the amount of antibody bound.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neutrophils may be an important source of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), two matrix-degrading enzymes thought to be critical in the formation of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The purpose of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that neutrophil depletion would limit experimental AAA formation by altering one or both of these enzymes.
Methods And Results: Control, rabbit serum-treated (RS; n=27) or anti-neutrophil-antibody-treated (anti-PMN; n=25) C57BL/6 mice underwent aortic elastase perfusion to induce experimental aneurysms.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the significance of membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) activation of MMP-2 in experimental abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Methods: Rat aortas were perfused with either saline as a control or elastase, and harvested on 2, 4, or 7 days after perfusion (n = 5 per treatment group/day). Aortic MT1-MMP and MMP-2 expression and protein were determined by real time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively.
Objective: To determine the mechanism underlying increased expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) by rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RA-SMC) after inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS).
Methods And Results: Treatment of interleukin-1beta-stimulated RA-SMC with aminoguanidine led to an increase of 96% in MMP-9 activity (P = 0.003) by gelatin zymography, a 40% increase in pro-MMP-9 protein (P = 0.