The Impact of Chronic Magnesium Deficiency on Excitable Tissues-Translational Aspects.

Neuromuscular excitability is a vital body function, and Mg is an essential regulatory cation for the function of excitable membranes. Loss of Mg homeostasis disturbs fluxes of other cations across cell membranes, leading to pathophysiological electrogenesis, which can eventually cause vital threat to the patient. Chronic subclinical Mg deficiency is an increasingly prevalent condition in the general population.

The simultaneous action of acute paradoxical sleep deprivation and hypothyroidism modulates synaptosomal ATPases and acetylcholinesterase activities in rat brain.

Background: Thyroid dysfunctions as well as sleep abnormalities are usually followed by neurological, psychiatric and/or behavioral disorders. On the other hand, changes in the brain adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities show significant importance in pathogenetic pathways in the evolution of numerous neuropsychiatric diseases.

Methods: This study aimed to evaluate the in vivo simultaneous effects of hypothyroidism and paradoxical sleep deprivation for 72 h on synaptosomalATPases and AChE activities of whole rat brains.

Environmental Neurotoxin β--Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) as a Widely Occurring Putative Pathogenic Factor in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

In the present review we have discussed the occurrence of β--methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) and its natural isomers, and the organisms and sample types in which the toxin(s) have been detected. Further, the review discusses general pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, and how modes of action of BMAA fit in those mechanisms. The biogeography of BMAA occurrence presented here contributes to the planning of epidemiological research based on the geographical distribution of BMAA and human exposure.

Cadmium significantly changes major morphometrical points and cardiovascular functional parameters during early development of zebrafish.

Living organisms are commonly exposed to cadmium and other toxic metals. A vast body of research has shown the significant effects of these toxic metals on developmental processes. In order to study the role of toxic metals on early developmental stages of eukaryotes, we explored the effect of cadmium (Cd) contaminant on zebrafish.

The Fractal and GLCM Textural Parameters of Chromatin May Be Potential Biomarkers of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Specimens.

Occasionally, Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) share similar nuclear features. The current study aims to quantify the differences between the investigated specimens of HT-associated PTC versus the HT alone, to reduce the subjective experience of an observer, by the use of fractal parameters as well as gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) textural parameters. We have analyzed 250 segmented nuclei per group (nn = 25 per patient and np = 10 patients per group) using the ImageJ software (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) as well as an in-house written code for the GLCM analysis.