This study was conducted to investigate the hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of pentoxifylline (PTX) against aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure in perfused rat livers by evaluating damage marker enzymes, antioxidant defense systems (glutathione, GSH) and lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde, MDA). Sixteen rats were divided randomly into four experimental groups: control, PTX, AFB1 and AFB1 + P...

Interruption of coronary flow during cardiac surgical procedures provides a bloodless flaccid heart and allows precise and rapid correction of complex cardiac defects. However, myocardial damage occurs in direct proportion to the duration of the ischemia. As the induction of cardioplegia simulataneous with the initiation of cardiac ischemia helps to preserve cardiac energy reserves and thus myo...

The influence of nicotine on the production of prostacyclin was studied in umbilical arteries from newborn infants of mothers who were smokers and those who were non-smokers. Thirteen umbilical cords were obtained from the non-smokers and 10 from the smokers. After their ability to produce prostacyclin was shown, the arteries were perfused during a 20 minute period with nicotine 10-7 mol in Kre...

The purpose of the present investigation was to establish a method for estimating intracellular Ca(2+) concentrations ([Ca(2+)](i)) in isolated rat epitrochlearis muscles. Epitrochlearis muscles excised from 4-wk-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were loaded with a fluorescent Ca(2+) indicator, fura 2-AM, for 60-90 min at 35 degrees C in oxygenated Krebs-Henseleit buffer. After fura 2 loading and su...

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) acts as a cellular energy sensor: it responds to an increase in AMP concentration ([AMP]) or the AMP-to-ATP ratio (AMP/ATP). Metformin and phenformin, which are biguanides, have been reported to increase AMPK activity without increasing AMP/ATP. This study tests the hypothesis that these biguanides increase AMPK activity in the heart by increasing cytosolic [...

The performance of isolated working rabbit hearts perfused with Krebs-Henseleit (KH) buffer was compared with those in which the buffer was supplemented with washed human red blood cells (KH + RBC) at a hematocrit of 15 percent. When perfused with KH alone at 70 cm H2O afterload and paced at 240 beats/minute, coronary flow was more than double, whereas aortic flow was 40-60 percent of that in h...

Background: Saline is still the most widely used storage and rinsing solution for vessel grafts during cardiac surgery despite knowing evidence of its negative influence on human endothelial cell function. Aim this study was to assess effect DuraGraft©, an intraoperative graft treatment solution, saphenous vein segments further elaborate vasoprotective rat aortic in comparison saline. Methods: ...

A key component of a technological aid for the partially sighted (TAPS) is a system to detect kerbs and steps. In this paper, a vision-based kerb detection system is described which uses the Hough Transform to find clusters of parallel lines in the image as evidence for a kerb. This is combined with a stereo vision-based obstacle detection algorithm. Experiments show that kerb regions are ident...