DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification important for cell fate determination and cell type-specific gene expression. Transcriptional regulatory regions of the mammalian genome contain a large number of tissue/cell type-dependent differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs) with DNA methylation patterns crucial for transcription of the corresponding genes. In general, tissues consist of mul...

Chronic hypoxia may precondition the myocardium and protect from ischemia-reperfusion damage. We therefore examined the recovery of left and right ventricular function after ischemia and reperfusion (15 min each) in isolated blood-perfused working hearts from normoxic (Norm) and hypoxic (Hypo; 14 days, 10.5% O(2)) adult rats. In addition, the mRNA expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1a...

The functional integrity of spermatozoa in various domestic animals like horse, cattle and swine is evaluated by hypo osmotic swelling test. The hypo osmotic swelling test has not been tested in the fresh semen of Nili-Ravi buffalo bull. The aim of the present study was evaluation of membrane integrity by establishing the best hypo osmotic swelling solution. Ten solutions with different osmolar...

AIMS To evaluate responses of cortisol and growth hormone (GH) to spontaneous hypoglycaemia in infants and children. METHODS Retrospective review of laboratory and clinical data in paediatric patients investigated for suspected hypoglycaemia over a five year period. Thirty patients (16 aged <3 months) had hypoglycaemia confirmed by laboratory analysis (glucose <2.5 mmol/l) and were compared w...

BACKGROUND Iron deficiency (ID) is the main cause of hyporesponsiveness to erythropoietin in haemodialysis patients and its detection is of value since it is easily corrected by intravenous iron. Markers of iron supply to the erythron, including erythrocyte zinc protoporphyrin (Er-ZPP), percentage of hypochromic erythrocytes (Hypo), reticulocyte haemoglobin content (CHr) and soluble transferrin...

The effect of arterial O2 content (Ca(O2)) on quadriceps fatigue was assessed in healthy, trained male athletes. On separate days, eight participants completed three constant-workload trials on a bicycle ergometer at fixed workloads (314 +/- 13 W). The first trial was performed while the subjects breathed a hypoxic gas mixture [inspired O2 fraction (Fi(O2)) = 0.15, Hb saturation = 81.6%, Ca(O2)...

We have previously reported that osmotic stress prominently induces the DNA binding activity of the heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1). In the present study, we examined the effects of medium osmolarity on both the activation of HSF1 and the programmed cell death in normal human fibroblasts during cellular senescence. The activation of HSF1 occurred rapidly in presenescent (early passage)...

BACKGROUND Chronic sun exposure causes photoaging, the appearance of prematurely aged skin. This phenomenon is characterized by progressive alteration of the dermal extracellular matrix, including elastin and collagen fibers. While many cosmeceuticals claim to improve the appearance of photoaged skin, data are lacking regarding their ability to induce molecular responses associated with wrinkle...

INTRODUCTION Differentiating bipolar depression (BD) from unipolar depression (UD) is difficult in clinical practice and, consequently, accurate recognition of BD can take as long as nine years. Research has therefore focused on the discriminatory capacities of biomarkers, such as markers of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis or immunological activity. However, no previous study incl...

Osmoregulation, the cellular response to environmental changes of osmolarity and ionic strength, is important for the survival of living organisms. We have demonstrated previously that an exposure of mammalian cells to hypo-osmotic stress, either in growth medium (30% growth medium and 70% water) or in binary solution containing sorbitol and water, prominently induced the DNA-binding activity o...