Sensory feedback as well as the coupling signals within the CNS are essential for leeches to produce intersegmental phase relationships in body movements appropriate for swimming behavior. To study the interactions between the central pattern generator (CPG) and peripheral feedback in controlling intersegmental coordination, we have constructed a computational model for the leech swimming syste...

The effects of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and saxitoxin (STX) on the action potentials recorded in Ca2+-free solution in the absence of Ca2+ and K+ currents were investigated in the Retzius cell of three hirudinid leech species (Hirudo medicinalis, Macrobdella decora and Poecilobdella granulosa) and in the glossiphoniid leech Haementeria ghilianii. In the four leech species, stimulation of the Retzius ...

At the end of the eighteenth century there was a rapidly growing demand for leeches in Europe. Western European and Central European freshwater species had been mainly used until then but now more and more different species were introduced. England imported large numbers from Eastern Europe and the Levant, and Pondicherry in Southern India was an important centre for the shipment of these anima...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and associated complications of a leech therapy protocol used for patients with a head and neck free tissue transfer in whom flap viability is threatened because of surgically unsalvageable venous obstruction. DESIGN Medical record review of a prospective protocol. SETTING Tertiary care academic medical center. PATIENTS Of the 450 free tissue transfers to ...

Little is known about the long-term regulation of epithelial ion transport in invertebrates and the specific mediators involved. For some years, we have been investigating the short-term regulation of transepithelial ion transport across the dorsal integument of the leech Hirudo medicinalis, and we have established a model of Na+ uptake. In the present study, we investigated the effect of long-...