Grip Strength Correlates with Mental Health and Quality of Life after Critical Care: A Retrospective Study in a Post-Intensive Care Syndrome Clinic.

Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is characterized by several prolonged symptoms after critical care, including physical and cognitive dysfunctions as well as mental illness. In clinical practice, the long-term follow-up of PICS is initiated after patients have been discharged from the intensive care unit, and one of the approaches used is a PICS clinic. Although physical dysfunction and mental illness often present in combination, they have not yet been examined in detail in PICS patients.

Distinct expression pattern of insulin-like growth factor family in rodent taste buds.

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system is an important regulator of growth and differentiation in a variety of tissues. In the present study, the expression of IGF family members in the taste buds of mice and rats was examined. By reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, mRNA of IGF-I and -II, IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR), insulin receptor (insulin R), and IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-2, -3, -4, -5, and -6 was detected in the taste bud-containing epithelium of the circumvallate papillae of mice.

Characterization of electro-olfactogram oscillations and their computational reconstruction.

Electro-olfactogram (EOG) oscillations induced by odorant stimulation have been often reported in various vertebrates from fishes to mammals. However, the mechanism of generation of EOG oscillations remains unclear. In the present study, we first characterized the properties of EOG oscillations induced by amino acid odorants in the rainbow trout and then performed a computer simulation based on the main assumption that olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) have intrinsic oscillatory properties due to two types of voltage-gated ion channels, which have not yet been reported in vertebrate ORNs.

Oscillatory current responses of olfactory receptor neurons to odorants and computer simulation based on a cyclic AMP transduction model.

Neural oscillatory activities triggered by odorant stimulation have been often reported at various levels of olfactory nervous systems in vertebrates. To elucidate the origin of neural oscillations, we studied first the oscillatory properties of current responses of isolated olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) of the rainbow trout to amino acid odorants, using a whole-cell voltage-clamp technique and found that the damped current oscillations were intrinsic in both ciliated and microvillous ORNs and occurred when ORNs were stimulated by odorants at high intensities. Continuous wavelet analysis using the Gabor function revealed that the dominant frequency of oscillations was 1.