Publications by authors named "Rodrigo A R Fernandez"

Stress is associated with orofacial pain sensitivity and is qualified as a temporomandibular disorder risk factor. During stressful periods, painful thresholds of masticatory muscles in individuals suffering muscle facial pain are significantly lower than in controls, but the exact physiologic mechanism underlying this relation remains unclear. Our hypothesis is that chronic unpredictable stress and masticatory hypofunction induce morphologic and metabolic masseter muscle changes in rats.

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Psychological stress is an important perpetuating, worsening and risk factor for temporomandibular disorders of muscular or articular origin. Occlusion instability, by the way, is considered a risk factor of this pathology and can be reproduced in some experimental animal models. The exact physiologic mechanism underlying these relations however, remains unclear.

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Serotonin (5-HT) is a neuromodulator involved in several central-mediated mechanisms, such as endocrine processes, behavior, and sleep. Dysfunction of the serotonergic system is mainly linked to psychiatric disorders, but emerging evidence suggests that immune system activation may also alter brain 5-HT signaling. However, whether central 5-HT modulates systemic inflammation (SI) remains unknown.

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We tested the hypothesis that the neuromodulator hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the preoptic area (POA) of the hypothalamus modulates the febrigenic signaling differently in sedentary and trained rats. Besides H2S production rate and protein expressions of H2S-related synthases cystathionine β-synthase (CBS), 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (3-MPST) and cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) in the POA, we also measured deep body temperature (Tb), circulating plasma levels of cytokines and corticosterone in an animal model of systemic inflammation. Rats run on a treadmill before receiving an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 μg/kg) or saline.

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Thermoregulatory responses to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are affected by modulators that increase (propyretic) or decrease (cryogenic) body temperature (Tb). We tested the hypothesis that central hydrogen sulfide (HS) acts as a thermoregulatory modulator and that HS production in the anteroventral preoptic region of the hypothalamus (AVPO) is increased during hypothermia and decreased during fever induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 2.5mg/kg i.

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Temporomandibular disorder (TMD) has a high prevalence in our society, characterized by a severe pain condition of the masticatory muscles and temporomandibular joint. Despite the indication of multiple factor initiators of TMD, there is still controversy about its etiology and its pathophysiology is poorly understood. Using rats as experimental animals we investigated the effect of unpredictable chronic stress with or without unilateral molar extraction on the contralateral medial pterygoid muscle.

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Clinical evidence has shown that stress may be associated with alterations in masticatory muscle functions. Morphological changes in masticatory muscles induced by occlusal alterations and associated with emotional stress are still lacking in the literature. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of acute stress on metabolic activity and oxidative stress of masseter muscles of rats subjected to occlusal modification through morphological and histochemical analyses.

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