Length matters: Effects of fishing gear and fishing behavior on the catch efficiency of demersal seines.

Raiding seals pose a big problem to gillnet fishers in areas with high seal abundances. As moving to active gears could be a potential solution for that problem, one gear of particular interest in areas with relatively flat sea bed structure is the so-called "MiniSeine" - a demersal seine that is reduced in size so it can be operated from small vessels. Besides its ability to catch most of the species targeted by gillnet fishers, it offers various advantages compared to other active gears.

Nkx2.5 Based Ventricular Programming of Murine ESC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

Background/aims: The availability of truly maturated cardiomyocytic subtypes is a major prerequisite for cardiovascular cell replacement therapies. Pluripotent stem cells provide a suitable source for the development of new strategies to overcome enormous hurdles such as yield, purity and safety of in vitro generated cells.

Methods: To address these issues, we have refined existing forward programming protocols by combining forced exogenous overexpression of the early cardiovascular transcription factor Nkx2.

Effects of ajmaline on contraction patterns of isolated rat gastric antrum and portal vein smooth muscle strips and on neurogenic relaxations of gastric fundus.

Class-I-antiarrhythmics like ajmaline are known to alter smooth muscle function, which may cause alterations in gastrointestinal motility. The effects of ajmaline on isolated gastric and portal vein smooth muscle and the underlying mechanisms are unknown. We studied the effects of ajmaline on the contractile patterns of isolated preparations of gastric antrum and portal vein from Wistar rats.

Multiple sclerosis and fatigue: A review on the contribution of inflammation and immune-mediated neurodegeneration.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune mediated disease of the central nervous system (CNS) and the leading cause of non-traumatic disability among young and middle-aged adults in the western world. One of its most prevalent and debilitating symptoms is fatigue. Despite the general acceptance of the idea of an immune pathogenesis of MS itself, the role of autoimmunity in the course of MS-fatigue is a matter of debate.

Proliferation of human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) is inhibited by blocking of voltage-gated calcium channels.

Calcium, as an integral part of a large number of cellular regulatory pathways, is selective in the control of specific cell functions like the start of G1 phase in cell cycle. Cell proliferation has been suggested to depend on increasing intracellular calcium levels. A major regulatory pathway for intracellular calcium is the calcium influx into the cell via voltage-gated calcium channels.

Induction of apoptosis by the calcium antagonist mibefradil correlates with depolarization of the membrane potential and decreased integrin expression in human lens epithelial cells.

Background: Posterior capsule opacification is still the major complication in cataract surgery and is caused by migration and proliferation of residual lens epithelial cells. The challenge of a suitable therapy to inhibit capsule opacification is to specifically interfere with cellular mechanisms. Our approach using the T-calcium channel antagonist mibefradil is based on the hypothesis that this drug inhibits the signaling pathways mediated by cell adhesion.

Expression and regulation of calpain in rat pancreatic acinar cells.

Introduction: Calpains, cytosolic Ca(2+)-dependent cysteine proteases, are expressed in a variety of mammalian cells and have been found to participate in stimulus-secretion coupling in platelets and alveolar cells.

Aims: In pancreatic acinar cells, expression of calpains and their role in the secretory process have not yet been elucidated. Both subjects, therefore, were examined in the current study.