Therapeutic effects of hypoxia-preconditioned bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells and their extracellular vesicles in experimental pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Aims: To evaluate BM-MSCs and their extracellular vesicles (EVs) preconditioned with hypoxia or normoxia in experimental pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Main Methods: BM-MSCs were isolated and cultured under normoxia (MSC-N, 21%O) or hypoxia (MSC-H, 1%O) for 48 h. EVs were then isolated from MSCs under normoxia (EV-N) or hypoxia (EV-H).

Mild hypothermia combined with dexmedetomidine reduced brain, lung, and kidney damage in experimental acute focal ischemic stroke.

Background: Sedatives and mild hypothermia alone may yield neuroprotective effects in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, the impact of this combination is still under investigation. We compared the effects of the combination of mild hypothermia or normothermia with propofol or dexmedetomidine on brain, lung, and kidney in experimental AIS.

Testosterone Therapy and Diaphragm Performance in a Male Patient with COVID-19: A Case Report.

Low levels of testosterone may lead to reduced diaphragm excursion and inspiratory time during COVID-19 infection. We report the case of a 38-year-old man with a positive result on a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test for SARS-CoV-2, admitted to the intensive care unit with acute respiratory failure. After several days on mechanical ventilation and use of rescue therapies, during the weaning phase, the patient presented dyspnea associated with low diaphragm performance (diaphragm thickness fraction, amplitude, and the excursion-time index during inspiration were 37%, 1.

Leptin administration during lactation leads to different nutritional, biometric, hemodynamic, and cardiac outcomes in prepubertal and adult female Wistar rats.

Literature reports that insults, such as hormonal disturbances, during critical periods of development may modulate organism physiology and metabolism favoring cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) later in life. Studies show that leptin administration during lactation leads to cardiovascular dysfunction in young and adult male Wistar rats. However, there are sex differences regarding CVD.

Acute effects of continuous positive air way pressure on pulse pressure in chronic heart failure.

Background: Patients with heart failure (HF) have left ventricular dysfunction and reduced mean arterial pressure (MAP). Increased adrenergic drive causes vasoconstriction and vessel resistance maintaining MAP, while increasing peripheral vascular resistance and conduit vessel stiffness. Increased pulse pressure (PP) reflects a complex interaction of the heart with the arterial and venous systems.

Functional and transcriptomic recovery of infarcted mouse myocardium treated with bone marrow mononuclear cells.

Although bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMNC) have been extensively used in cell therapy for cardiac diseases, little mechanistic information is available to support reports of their efficacy. To address this shortcoming, we compared structural and functional recovery and associated global gene expression profiles in post-ischaemic myocardium treated with BMNC transplantation. BMNC suspensions were injected into cardiac scar tissue 10 days after experimental myocardial infarction.

Reduced hemodynamic responses to physical and mental stress under low-dose rilmenidine in healthy subjects.

Activation of the sympathetic nervous system plays a major role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Rilmenidine is an I(1)-imidazoline receptor agonist that reduces blood pressure by modulation of central sympathetic activity, but the effects of low-dose rilmenidine on the hemodynamic responses to physiological maneuvers that increase adrenergic drive is not known. To assess the effects of low-dose rilmenidine on the hemodynamic responses to stress, 32 healthy subjects (20-56 years old) underwent acute physical exercise (n = 15, individualized ramp protocol on treadmill) and mental stress (n = 17, word color Stroop and mental arithmetics tests) two hours after the oral administration of 0.