The therapeutic goal in liver fibrosis is the reversal of fibrosis and the selective clearance of activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) by inducing apoptosis. Over the past several years, we have screened for natural products that mediate apoptosis in activated HSCs. Among the candidate compounds, honokiol, isolated from Magnoliae cortex, was found to induce apoptotic death in activated rat HSCs, while there was no cell viability change in hepatocytes, at concentrations of 12.5-50 microM. Apoptosis was identified by DNA fragmentation, activation of caspase-3 and -9, and the proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, down-regulation of bcl-2 and the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c into the cytoplasm.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2005-837757 | DOI Listing |
Cerebellum
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Neuroscience Institute, New York University, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
Cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (ctACS) has the potential to be an appealing, non-invasive treatment option for psychiatric and neurological disorders. However, realization of this potential has been limited by gaps in our knowledge of how ctACS affects cerebellar output on single cell and population levels. Previously, we showed that AC stimulation applied to the cerebellar surface produced a strong, frequency-dependent modulation of Purkinje cell (PC) and cerebellar nuclear (CN) cell activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerebellum
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium.
As brain-machine interfaces (BMI) are growingly used in clinical settings, understanding how to apply brain stimulation is increasingly important. Despite the emergence of optogenetic techniques, ethical and medical concerns suggest that interventions that are safe and non-invasive, such as Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS), are more likely to be employed in human in the near future. Consequently, the question of how and where to apply current stimulation is becoming increasingly important for the efficient neuromodulation of both neurological and psychiatric disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Mol Neurobiol
January 2025
Neuroscience Department, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, Trieste, TS, Italy.
In clinics, physical injuries to the spinal cord cause a temporary motor areflexia below lesion, known as spinal shock. This topic is still underexplored due to the lack of preclinical spinal cord injury (SCI) models that do not use anesthesia, which would affect spinal excitability. Our innovative design considered a custom-made micro impactor that provides localized and calibrated strikes to the ventral surface of the thoracic spinal cord of the entire CNS isolated from neonatal rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutr Neurosci
January 2025
Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
Objectives: Maternal protein malnutrition alters brain functioning, impairing fetal development. Physical exercise during gestation benefits the fetal organism from maternal adaptive changes that may be neuroprotective. This study evaluated the effect of a low-protein diet associated with maternal voluntary physical activity (VPA) on rats' behavioral and brain electrophysiological parameters in the mother-pup dyad.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVet Med Sci
January 2025
Department of Medical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
The present study aimed to unveil the gastroprotective potential of Vaccinium macrocarpon (VM) extract and its mechanism of action against indomethacin (INDO)-induced gastric ulcers in rats. To achieve this goal, rats were pretreated with either omeprazole (20 mg/kg) or VM (100 mg/kg) orally for 14 consecutive days. Gastric tissue samples were collected and various parameters were evaluated to understand the mechanism of VM's action, including the levels of superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde, glutathione, CAT and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), as well as the mRNA expression levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1 beta, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and inhibitor kappa B (IκB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!