Autophagy is a lysosomal-driven catabolic process that contributes to preserve cell and tissue homeostases through the regular elimination of damaged, aged and redundant self-constituents. In normal cells, autophagy protects from DNA mutation and carcinogenesis by preventive elimination of pro-oxidative mitochondria and protein aggregates. Mutations in oncogenes and oncosuppressor genes dysregu...

Load-induced extravascular fluid flow has been postulated to play a role in mechanotransduction of physiological loads at the cellular level. Furthermore, the displaced fluid serves as a carrier for metabolites, nutrients, mineral precursors and osteotropic agents important for cellular activity. We hypothesise that load-induced fluid flow enhances the transport of these key substances, thus he...

Hypothesis / aims of study Understanding the neurotransmitter mechanisms involved in pudendal nerve inhibition of bladder activity could lead to identify new pharmacological targets for overactive bladder. Currently little is known about the effect of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) 2 receptor on micturition reflex. This study used methysergide, a non-specific 5-HT2 receptor antagonist, and naloxone...

serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors (ssri) may induce antinociception however, the mechanism of this effect is not clear. ssrls increase 5-ht levels in neuronal synapses and facilitate serotonergic activity. in this study, therefore, the activity of para-chlorophenylalanine (pcpa), which reduces 5-ht release, and 5- hydroxy tryptophan (5-htp), a precursor of 5-ht, were examined on the antino...

To clarify the existence of HAM/TSP presenting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-like manifestations, we assayed HTLV-I proviral load in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in 15 patients with anti-HTLV-I antibody in serum and ALS-like manifestations (upper motor neuron involvement in at least one region and lower motor neuron involvement in at least two limbs) by quantitative PCR, and ...

the work presented in this paper investigates the causes of size effects in structural-concrete members. it isbased on the use of a finite-element model found to yield realistic predictions of structural-concrete behavior in allcases investigated to date. in fact, the previous use of this model in investigations of size effects in reinforced-concretebeams indicated that such effects reflect the...

The “less is more” hypothesis suggests that one reason adults and children differ in their language acquisition abilities is that they also differ in other cognitive capacities: for instance, the relatively poor memory and/or processing abilities of children may make them more likely to over-regularize inconsistent input (Singleton & Newport, 2004; Hudson Kam & Newport, 2005). We investigate th...

Recent evidence indicates that 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase (CNP), a marker enzyme of myelin and oligodendrocytes, is also present in neural and nonneural mitochondria. However, its role in mitochondria is still completely unclear. We found CNP in rat brain mitochondria and studied the effects of CNP substrates, 2',3'-cyclic nucleotides, on functional parameters of rat brain mit...

H1N1 virus is known to affect the respiratory tract. The majority of healthcare providers focus on the respiratory complications attributed to H1N1 infection, overlooking possible multi-organ involvement. We present a rare case of abnormal liver function in a child who was admitted for respiratory illness due to the H1N1 virus. There was a marked elevation in liver function tests concurrent wit...