Increased sample asymmetry and memory of cardiac time-series following endotoxin administration in cirrhotic rats.

Sepsis, and other causes of acute systemic inflammation, can reduce heart rate variability (HRV) and increase cardiac cycle regularity in mammals. Thus, HRV monitoring has been used for early detection of sepsis in adults and neonates. Liver cirrhosis is associated with reduced basal HRV and the development of tolerance to the cardiac chronotropic effects of bacterial endotoxin.

Preparation and characterization of silk fibroin/oligochitosan nanoparticles for siRNA delivery.

siRNA therapy offers hope treating diseases caused by genetic defects as well as viral infections and cancers, although it has been limited by the low stability of siRNA and its rapid degradation in the presence of nucleases as well as its low cellular uptake. In this study, oligochitosan (OC) combined with silk fibroin (SF) was formulated and proposed as a novel carrier for siRNA. The obtained SF/OC/siRNA nanoparticles (NPs) were characterized according to their physicochemical properties, such as their size, zeta potential, loading efficiency, stability, cytotoxicity, cellular uptake and transfection efficiency, and their properties were compared with those of OC polyplexes.