Females exhibit a more robust immune response to both self-antigens and non-self-antigens than males, resulting in a higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases but more effective responses against infection. Increased expression of X-linked immune genes in female T cells is thought to underlie this enhanced response. Here we isolate thymocytes from pediatric thymi of healthy males (46, XY), females (46, XX), a female with completely skewed X-chromosome inactivation (46, XX, cXCI) and a female with Turner syndrome (45, X0).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors are a novel class of antihyperglycaemic drugs used in the management of type 2 diabetes, that improve glycaemic control, cardiovascular outcomes and promote weight loss. They are also approved for the treatment of heart failure and chronic kidney disease in patients with or without diabetes. This narrative review discusses the peri-operative effects and implications of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors and gives an overview of current evidence and existing peri-operative guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDomest Anim Endocrinol
October 2024
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria induces an immune response and impairs reproduction through suppression of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), subsequently luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. While there is evidence that acute inflammation inhibits kisspeptin, little is known about the impact of chronic inflammation on this key reproductive neuropeptide in livestock species. Thus, we sought to examine a central mechanism whereby LPS suppresses LH secretion in sheep.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People's decisions to engage in protective health behaviors, such as mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, are influenced by environmental and social contexts. Previous research on mask wearing used a single question about general mask usage in public, which may not reflect actual behavior in every setting. The likelihood of wearing a mask during one activity is also related to the likelihood of wearing a mask in another or avoiding an activity entirely.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe timing of puberty onset is reliant on increased gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This elicits a corresponding increase in luteinizing hormone (LH) due to a lessening of sensitivity to the inhibitory actions of estradiol (E2). The mechanisms underlying the increase in GnRH release likely involve a subset of neurons within the arcuate (ARC) nucleus of the hypothalamus that contain kisspeptin, neurokinin B (NKB), and dynorphin (KNDy neurons).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe amount of aerosol generation associated with the use of positive pressure ventilation via a supraglottic airway device has not been quantified. We conducted a two-group, two-centre, prospective cohort study in which we recruited 21 low-risk adult patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia with second-generation supraglottic airway devices. An optical particle sizer and an isokinetic sampling probe were used to record particle concentrations per second at different size distributions (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While previous studies have identified a range of factors associated with mask wearing in the US, little is known about drivers of mask-wearing among racial and ethnic minority groups. This analysis assessed whether factors positively associated with wearing a mask early in the pandemic differed between participants grouped by race/ethnicity (Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian, and non-Hispanic White).
Method: Data were obtained from a US internet panel survey of 3217 respondents during May-November 2020 (weighted by race/ethnicity, age, gender, and education to the US national population).
Background: Early identification of developmental delays may have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Parental engagement in developmental monitoring is a key component to successfully identifying developmental concerns.
Objective: The purpose of this project was to understand whether parental engagement in developmental monitoring changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, from Spring 2019 to Fall 2021.
This review considers three aspects of recent work on the role of KNDy neurons in GnRH pulse generation in ruminants. First, work on basic mechanisms of pulse generation includes several tests of this hypothesis, all of which support it, and evidence that Kiss1r-containing neurons form a positive feedback circuit with the KNDy neural network that strengthen the activity of this network. The second section on pathways mediating external inputs focuses on the influence of nutrition and photoperiod, and describes the evidence supporting roles for proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and agouti-related peptide (AgRP) afferents to KNDy cells in each of these.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPropfol-remifentanil-based total intravenous anaesthesia has dominated recent clinical practice due to its favourable pharmacokinetic profile. Interruption in remifentanil supply has presented an opportunity to diversify or even avoid the use of opioids and consider adjuncts to propofol-based total intravenous anaesthesia. Propofol, while a potent hypnotic, is not an effective analgesic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProfiling of mRNA expression is an important method to identify biomarkers but complicated by limited correlations between mRNA expression and protein abundance. We hypothesised that these correlations could be improved by mathematical models based on measuring splice variants and time delay in protein translation. We characterised time-series of primary human naïve CD4 T cells during early T helper type 1 differentiation with RNA-sequencing and mass-spectrometry proteomics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUndernutrition limits reproduction through inhibition of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)/luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. Because KNDy neurons coexpress neuropeptides that play stimulatory (kisspeptin and neurokinin B [NKB]) and inhibitory (dynorphin) roles in pulsatile GnRH/LH release, we hypothesized that undernutrition would inhibit kisspeptin and NKB expression at the same time as increasing dynorphin expression. Fifteen ovariectomized lambs were either fed to maintain pre-study body weight (controls) or feed-restricted to lose 20% of pre-study body weight (FR) over 13 weeks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFT1-mediated diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) improve during pregnancy, coinciding with increasing levels of the pregnancy hormone progesterone (P4), highlighting P4 as a potential mediator of this immunomodulation. Here, we performed detailed characterization of how P4 affects the chromatin and transcriptomic landscape during early human T1 differentiation, utilizing both ATAC-seq and RNA-seq. Time series analysis of the earlier events (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVarious techniques have been explored to prolong the duration and improve the efficacy of local anaesthetic nerve blocks. Some of these involve mixing local anaesthetics or adding adjuncts. We did a literature review of studies published between 01 May 2011 and 01 May 2021 that studied specific combinations of local anaesthetics and adjuncts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe neural mechanisms underlying increases in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion that drive puberty onset are unknown. Neurons coexpressing kisspeptin, neurokinin B (NKB), and dynorphin, i.e.
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