Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Following Mid-Cervical Spinal Cord Injury Preserves Diaphragm Muscle Function.

Oxidative damage to the diaphragm as a result of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) promotes muscle atrophy and weakness. Respiratory insufficiency is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, emphasizing the need for strategies to maintain diaphragm function. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) increases the amount of oxygen dissolved into the blood, elevating the delivery of oxygen to skeletal muscle and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.

A geometric framework for ensemble average propagator reconstruction from diffusion MRI.

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a non-invasive technique to probe the complex micro-architecture of the tissue being imaged. The diffusional properties of the tissue at the imaged resolution are well captured by the ensemble average propagator (EAP), which is a probability density function characterizing the probability of water molecule diffusion. Many properties in the form of imaging 'stains' can then be computed from the EAP that can serve as bio-markers for a variety of diseases.

Angelman syndrome in an infant boy.

This article reviews the case of an infant with Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by a chromosomal mutation. The patient's mother was concerned about his flat head and preference for turning his head to the right, which led to a referral and eventual correct diagnosis.

Automated Gait Analysis Through Hues and Areas (AGATHA): A Method to Characterize the Spatiotemporal Pattern of Rat Gait.

While rodent gait analysis can quantify the behavioral consequences of disease, significant methodological differences exist between analysis platforms and little validation has been performed to understand or mitigate these sources of variance. By providing the algorithms used to quantify gait, open-source gait analysis software can be validated and used to explore methodological differences. Our group is introducing, for the first time, a fully-automated, open-source method for the characterization of rodent spatiotemporal gait patterns, termed Automated Gait Analysis Through Hues and Areas (AGATHA).

Neuropathology in respiratory-related motoneurons in young Pompe (Gaa(-/-)) mice.

Respiratory and/or lingual dysfunction are among the first motor symptoms in Pompe disease, a disorder resulting from absence or dysfunction of the lysosomal enzyme acid α-glucosidase (GAA). Here, we histologically evaluated the medulla, cervical and thoracic spinal cords in 6 weeks old asymptomatic Pompe (Gaa(-/-)) mice to determine if neuropathology in respiratory motor regions has an early onset. Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining indicated glycogen accumulation was exclusively occurring in Gaa(-/-) hypoglossal, mid-cervical and upper thoracic motoneurons.

Power spectral analysis of hypoglossal nerve activity during intermittent hypoxia-induced long-term facilitation in mice.

Power spectral analyses of electrical signals from respiratory nerves reveal prominent oscillations above the primary rate of breathing. Acute exposure to intermittent hypoxia can induce a form of neuroplasticity known as long-term facilitation (LTF), in which inspiratory burst amplitude is persistently elevated. Most evidence indicates that the mechanisms of LTF are postsynaptic and also that high-frequency oscillations within the power spectrum show coherence across different respiratory nerves.

Juvenile river herring habitat use and marine emigration trends: comparing populations.

Juvenile habitat use and early life migratory behaviors of successfully recruited adult fish provide unique insight into critical habitats for a population, and this information allows restoration plans to be tailored to maximize benefits. Retrospective analysis of adult otolith chemistry combined with fish-otolith growth models were used to assess juvenile nursery habitat selection and size at egress to adult habitats (marine waters) for anadromous alewife and blueback herring from 20 rivers throughout the eastern US. Between-species differences in the size of emigrants were small, with blueback herring found in freshwater nurseries ~ 8% more frequently than alewives, and alewives using a combination of freshwater and estuarine nurseries ~ 9% more than bluebacks.

Stimulation of Respiratory Motor Output and Ventilation in a Murine Model of Pompe Disease by Ampakines.

Pompe disease results from a mutation in the acid α-glucosidase gene leading to lysosomal glycogen accumulation. Respiratory insufficiency is common, and the current U.S.

Abrupt changes in pentobarbital sensitivity in preBötzinger complex region, hypoglossal motor nucleus, nucleus tractus solitarius, and cortex during rat transitional period (P10-P15).

On postnatal days P10-P15 in rat medulla, neurotransmitter receptor subunit composition shifts toward a more mature phenotype. Since medullary GABAARs regulate cardiorespiratory function, abrupt alterations in GABAergic synaptic inhibition could disrupt homeostasis. We hypothesized that GABAARs on medullary neurons become more resistant to positive allosteric modulation during P10-P15.

Protecting motor networks during perinatal ischemia: the case for delta-opioid receptors.

Perinatal ischemia is a common clinical problem with few successful therapies to prevent neuronal damage. Delta opioid receptor (DOR) activation is a versatile, evolutionarily conserved, endogenous neuroprotective mechanism that blocks several steps in the deleterious cascade of neurological events during ischemia. DOR activation prior to ischemia or severe hypoxia is neuroprotective in spinal motor networks, as well as cortical, cerebellar, and hippocampal neural networks.

Parental relatedness and major histocompatibility effects on early embryo survivorship in Atlantic salmon.

Salmon have provided key insights into the relative influence of natural and sexual selection on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) variation. Natural selection on salmon MHC genes has been demonstrated in pathogen studies, and there is evidence of MHC-based mate choice (sexual selection). We tested whether parental MHC genes affect survivorship of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) by quantifying the influence of parental genome-wide relatedness and MHC genotype on survivorship to the swim-up stage.

Haplotype inference from diploid sequence data: evaluating performance using non-neutral MHC sequences.

The direct sequencing of PCR products from diploid organisms is problematic because of ambiguities associated with phase inference in multi-site heterozygotes. Several molecular methods such as cloning, SSCP, and DGGE have been developed to empirically reduce diploid sequences to their constitutive haploid components, but in theory these empirical approaches can be supplanted by analytical treatment of diploid sequences. Analytical approaches are more desirable than molecular methods because of the added time and expense required to generate molecular data.