Microalgae as a safe food source for animals: nutritional characteristics of the acidophilic microalga .

Background: Edible microalgae are marine or fresh water mesophilic species. Although the harvesting of microalgae offers an abundance of opportunities to the food and pharmaceutical industries, the possibility to use extremophilic microalgae as a food source for animals is not well-documented.

Objective: We studied the effects of dietary supplementation of a powdered form of the acidophilic microalga on growth and health parameters of laboratory rats.

Cholinergic and nitrergic neuronal networks in the goldfish telencephalon.

The general organization of cholinergic and nitrergic elements in the central nervous system seems to be highly conserved among vertebrates, with the involvement of these neurotransmitter systems now well established in sensory, motor and cognitive processing. The goldfish is a widely used animal model in neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral research. The purpose of this study was to examine pallial and subpallial cholinoceptive, cholinergic and nitrergic populations in the goldfish telencephalon by means of histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques in order to identify neurons containing acetylcholinesterase (AChE), choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), NADPH-diaphorase (NADPHd), and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), and to relate their distribution to their putative functional significance.

Interactions between postnatal sustained hypoxia and intermittent hypoxia in the adulthood to alter brainstem structures and respiratory function.

Neural plasticity is defined as a persistent change in the morphology and/or function based on prior experiences. Plasticity is well evident when the triggering experience occurs early in life, but in the case of respiratory control plasticity, it also can be triggered in adult life. We have combined a 10 days postnatal hypoxic (PH) (0-10 days of age;11% O(2)) and a 15 days intermittent hypoxia (IH) exposures in the adulthood (90-105 days of age; 5% O(2), 40 s/20% O(2), 80 s; 8 h/day) to test if early PH interacts with IH of the adulthood to generate detrimental plastic changes.

Neonatal caffeine treatment up-regulates adenosine receptors in brainstem and hypothalamic cardio-respiratory related nuclei of rat pups.

While neonatal caffeine treatment is commonly used to alleviate apnea of prematurity in neonates and to improve neurological outcomes, its effects on adenosine A₁ and A(2A) receptors (A₁-R and A(2A)-R) are poorly known. We hypothesized that the central pharmacological action of caffeine is mediated by modification of the postnatal development of the adenosinergic system during a critical period. On postnatal days 2-6 (P2-P6) two groups of newborn rats were orally administered water plus glucose and/or caffeine at therapeutic doses to mimic the clinical use of caffeine in human neonates.

Systemic inhibition of the Na(+)/H (+) exchanger type 3 in intact rats activates brainstem respiratory regions.

Selective inhibition of the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger type 3 (NHE3) increases the firing rate of brainstem ventrolateral CO(2)/H(+) sensitive neurons, resembling the responses evoked by hypercapnic stimuli. In anesthetized animals, NHE3 inhibition has also been shown to stimulate the central chemosensitive drive. We aimed to analyze the respiratory-related brainstem regions affected by NHE3 inhibition in anaesthetized spontaneously-breathing rats with intact peripheral afferents.