Glossiness disrupts predator localisation of moving prey.

Movement is the "enemy of camouflage", but most animals must move to find resources, such as mates, food and shelter. Therefore, strategies that disrupt predator localization or speed perception of moving prey can play a crucial role in prey survival. Shiny or glossy appearances, which are characterised by having a high degree of specular (mirror-like) reflection of incident light, can disrupt predator hunting behaviours towards moving prey.

Small Brains: Body Shape Constrains Tissue Allocation to the Central Nervous System in Ant-Mimicking Spiders.

In Batesian mimicry, mimetic traits are not always as convincing as predicted by theory-in fact, inaccurate mimicry with only a superficial model resemblance is common and taxonomically widespread. The "selection trade-offs hypothesis" proposes a life-history trade-off between accurate mimetic traits and one or more vital biological functions. Here, using an accurate myrmecomorphic (ant-mimicking) jumping spider species, Myrmarachne smaragdina, we investigate how myrmecomorphic modifications to the body shape impact the internal anatomy in a way that could be functionally limiting.

The effects of artificial light at night on spider brains.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an increasingly pervasive pollutant that alters animal behaviour and physiology, with cascading impacts on development and survival. Recent evidence links exposure to ALAN with neural damage, potentially due to its action on melatonin synthesis, a powerful antioxidant. However, these data are scarce and taxonomically limited.

Light pollution: a landscape-scale issue requiring cross-realm consideration.

Terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide range of organisms and habitats and impact multiple realms.

Artificial light at night alters life history in a nocturnal orb-web spider.

The prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing rapidly around the world. The potential physiological costs of this night lighting are often evident in life history shifts. We investigated the effects of chronic night-time exposure to ecologically relevant levels of LED lighting on the life history traits of the nocturnal Australian garden orb-web spider ().

An evaluation of the effect of non-setting calcium hydroxide on human dentine: a pilot study.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of non-setting calcium hydroxide (NSCH) on the hardness and elastic modulus of dentine from extracted permanent premolar human teeth.

Methods: 30 freshly extracted single rooted human premolar teeth were decoronated and the roots then sectioned longitudinally into equal halves. In the experimental group a thin layer of NSCH was applied whilst the control group had no medicament.

UK National Clinical Guidelines in Paediatric Dentistry: stainless steel preformed crowns for primary molars.

This revised Clinical Guideline in Paediatric Dentistry replaces the previously published sixth guideline (Fayle SA. Int J Paediatr Dent 1999; 9: 311-314). The process of guideline production began in 1994, resulting in first publication in 1997.

Molar-incisor-hypomineralisation: a literature review.

Background: Molar-Incisor-Hypomineralisation (MIH) is a qualitative defect of 1-4 first permanent molars with or without the maxillary and mandibular permanent incisors. It seems to have been recognised first in the 1970s and prevalence varies between 2.8% and 25%, dependent upon the study.

Case report: scurvy in an epileptic child on a ketogenic diet with oral complications.

Background: Epilepsy is a symptom of cerebral dysfunction, where there is a sudden and disorganised discharge of electrical activity from a group of neurones, producing symptoms that range from sensory absences to convulsive movements and unconsciousness. Fasting is recognised as reducing the frequency of epileptic seizures in difficult to control patients. The ketogenic diet is a high fat, low carbohydrate and adequate protein diet that mimics the biochemical effects of fasting.

An X-ray microtomography study on the mineral concentration of carious dentine removed during cavity preparation in deciduous molars.

Dentists use a number of criteria in order to assess when a cavity is caries free, amongst which hardness is probably the most widely used. However, the judgement is subjective. X-ray microtomography (XMT) is a non-destructive microscopic technique that allows in vitro specimens to be scanned, manipulated and then rescanned.

Dentinal carious lesion in three dimensions.

Aim: The aim of this study was to show the morphology of the carious lesion in dentine in three dimensions (3D).

Design: A novel high-definition X-ray microtomography (XMT) scanner was used to scan 10 carious primary molars at a resolution of 15 x 15 x 15 microm3. A stack of approximately 640 XMT slices were recorded for each tooth.

Differential pH and capsaicin responses of Griffonia simplicifolia IB4 (IB4)-positive and IB4-negative small sensory neurons.

Protons play a key role in nociception caused by inflammation and ischaemia, but little is known about the relative sensitivities of different dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. We have therefore examined the responses in vitro of rat DRG cells classified according to whether or not they bind Griffonia simplicifolia IB4 (IB4), a lectin which is widely used to distinguish between two major populations of small diameter neurons. Under voltage-clamp conditions, proton-activated inward currents were found in approximately 90% of small DRG neurons and showed one of three waveforms: transient, sustained or mixed.

Versatile regulation of cytosolic Ca2+ by vanilloid receptor I in rat dorsal root ganglion neurons.

Analysis of small dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons revealed novel functions for vanilloid receptor 1 (VR1) in the regulation of cytosolic Ca(2+). The VR1 agonist capsaicin induced Ca(2+) mobilization from intracellular stores in the absence of extracellular Ca(2+), and this release was inhibited by the VR1 antagonist capsazepine but was unaffected by the phospholipase C inhibitor xestospongins, indicating that Ca(2+) mobilization was dependent on capsaicin receptor binding and was not due to intracellular inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate generation. Confocal microscopy revealed extensive expression of VR1 on endoplasmic reticulum, consistent with VR1 operating as a Ca(2+) release receptor.

Regulation of nociceptive neurons by nerve growth factor and glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor.

Nociceptive dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells can be divided into three main populations, namely (1) small diameter non-peptide-expressing cells, (2) small-diameter peptide-expressing (calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP), substance P) cells, and (3) medium-diameter peptide-expressing (CGRP) cells. The properties of these cell populations will be reviewed, with a special emphasis on the expression of the vanilloid (capsaicin) receptor VR1 and its regulation by growth factors. Cells in populations 1 and 2 express VR1, a nonselective channel that transduces certain nociceptive stimuli and that is crucial to the functioning of polymodal nociceptors.

Intercellular Ca(2+) waves in rat hippocampal slice and dissociated glial-neuron cultures mediated by nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide (NO) may participate in cell-cell communication in the brain by generating intercellular Ca(2+) waves. In hippocampal organotypic and dissociated glial-neuron (>80% glia) cultures local applications of aqueous NO induced slowly propagating intercellular Ca(2+) waves. In glial cultures, Ca(2+) waves and Mn(2+) quench of cytosolic fura-2 fluorescence mediated by NO were inhibited by nicardipine, indicating that NO induces Ca(2+) influx in glia which is dihydropyridine-sensitive.

A fundamental role for the nitric oxide-G-kinase signaling pathway in mediating intercellular Ca(2+) waves in glia.

In this study, we highlight a role for the nitric oxide-cGMP-dependent protein kinase (NO-G-kinase) signaling pathway in glial intercellular Ca(2+) wave initiation and propagation. Addition of the NO donor molsidomine (100-500 microM) or puffing aqueous NO onto primary glial cell cultures evoked an increase in [Ca(2+)](i) in individual cells and also local intercellular Ca(2+) waves, which persisted after removal of extracellular Ca(2+). High concentrations of ryanodine (100-200 microM) and antagonists of the NO-G-kinase signaling pathway essentially abrogated the NO-induced increase in [Ca(2+)](i), indicating that NO mobilizes Ca(2+) from a ryanodine receptor-linked store, via the NO-G-kinase signaling pathway.

Effects of dexamethasone and phorbol ester on P2 receptor-coupled Ca2+ signalling and lipocortin 1 presentation in U937 cells.

1. Cell surface bound lipocortin 1 (LC1) is a putative mediator of the antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids. This study assessed the hypothesis that the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone-phosphate (dex-p), might exert the above effects via an LC1-mediated downregulation of receptor-coupled Ca2+ signalling, using P2-receptor mediated intracellular Ca2+ accumulation in U937 cells as an appropriate model.

Conversion of highly malignant colon cancer from an aggressive to a controlled disease by oral administration of a metalloproteinase inhibitor.

In this study, we describe the activity of CT1746, an orally-active synthetic MMP inhibitor that has a greater specificity for gelatinase A, gelatinase B and stromelysin than for interstitial collagenase and matrilysin, in a nude mouse model that better mimics the clinical development of human colon cancer. The model is constructed by surgical orthotopic implantation (SOI) of histologically-intact tissue of the metastatic human colon tumor cell line Co-3. Animals were gavaged with CT1746 twice a day at 100 mg/kg for 5 days after the SOI of Co-3 for 43 days.

Non-retinal abnormalities associated with progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in the miniature poodle.

Osmotic fragility was examined in red blood cells taken from miniature poodles with progressive retinal atrophy (PRA). In this study, the median osmotic fragility for erythrocytes (concentration of NaCl required for 50% haemolysis) was found to be significantly lower for clinically affected, compared to unaffected animals. These differences were maintained regardless of changes in erythrocyte incubation pH (7.

Functional importance of the dihydropyridine-sensitive, yet voltage-insensitive store-operated Ca2+ influx of U937 cells.

The Ca2+ current activated by Ca2+ store depletion in non-excitable cells is classically regarded as being dihydropyridine-insensitive, suggesting that store-operated Ca2+ channels (SOCs) are dissimilar to voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCs) of excitable-cells. Here, we demonstrate dihydropyridine-sensitivity for the store-operated Ca2+ influx induced by ATP and thapsigargin (Tg) in the non-excitable U937 cell-line. Ca2+ store depletion by prior treatment of cells with either Tg or ATP, stimulated a Ca2+ entry mechanism that was inhibited by nicardipine, nifedipine, and the specific L-type Ca2+ channel blocker, calciseptine.

Calcium store depletion potentiates a phosphodiesterase inhibitor- and dibutyryl cGMP-evoked calcium influx in rat pituitary GH3 cells.

A role for cGMP in the control of capacitative Ca2+ influx was identified in rat pituitary GH3 cells. Application of 50 microM - 1 mM of the non-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX), or the specific cGMP-phosphodiesterase inhibitor, zaprinast, induced a dose-dependent increase in the intracellular free Ca2+ concentration [Ca2+]i of the pituitary cell line, as assessed by video ratio imaging using fura-2. Response onset times were identical and response profiles were similar in all cells analysed.

Anti-Ig-induced calcium influx in rat B lymphocytes mediated by cGMP through a dihydropyridine-sensitive channel.

In contrast to excitable tissues where calcium channels are well characterized, the nature of the B lymphocyte calcium channel is unresolved. Here, we demonstrate by single cell analysis of freshly isolated rat B cells that the anti-immunoglobulin (Ig)-induced calcium influx takes place through a channel which shares pharmacologic and serologic properties with the L-type calcium channel found in excitable tissues. It is sensitive to the dihydropyridines nicardipine and Bay K 8644, to calciseptine, and to an anti-peptide antibody raised against the alpha1 subunit of the L-type calcium channel, but is voltage-insensitive.

Effect of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors on tumor growth and spontaneous metastasis.

Four potent, synthetic inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were assessed as inhibitors of tumor growth and spontaneous metastasis to the lung. Mat Ly Lu rat prostate tumor, LOX human melanoma and M27 murine Lewis lung tumor were implanted subcutaneously (s.c.

Nitric oxide-induced mobilization of intracellular calcium via the cyclic ADP-ribose signaling pathway.

Cyclic adenosine diphosphate ribose (cADPR) is a potent endogenous calcium-mobilizing agent synthesized from beta-NAD+ by ADP-ribosyl cyclases in sea urchin eggs and in several mammalian cells (Galione, A., and White, A. (1994) Trends Cell Biol.