As of August 2003, the prevailing dogma posited that the heart is a terminally-differentiated organ, that the myocytes we have now are those we were born with (only bigger), and that the best hope for treating cardiac injury is to limit the insult (eg, by prompt reperfusion) or to block secondary maladaptive pathways. Because of pioneering work from various laboratories,1–3 the concept of cardi...

Fish cardiac physiology and anatomy show a multiplicity of intraspecific modifications when exposed to prolonged changes in environmentally relevant parameters such as temperature, hypoxia and food availability, and when meeting the increased demands associated with training/increased activity and sexual maturation. Further, there is evidence that rearing fish under intensive aquaculture condit...

Electrical signals play a pivotal role in the normal function of most if not all organisms. Understanding the electrophysiological principles that govern electrical signaling is essential for insights into normaland pathological processes in cell biology. The main aim of the current thesis is to provide a novel perspective on the way in which a passive electrical signal may participate in shapi...

Introduction: The prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a cyclooxygenase (COX) product, play critical roles in the synaptic plasticity. Therefore, long term use of COX inhibitors may impair the synaptic plasticity. Considering the wide clinical administration of aspirin and its unknown effects on information processing in the brain, the effect of aspirin and sodium salicylate on the short term synaptic p...

Abstract* Introduction: Chronic morphine exposure can cause addiction and affect synaptic plasticity, but the underlying neural mechanisms of this phenomenon remain unknown. Herein we used electrophysiologic approaches in hippocampal CA1 area to examine the effect of chronic morphine administration on short-term plasticity. Methods: Experiments were carried out on hippocampal slices taken f...

expansive behavior is usually observed in soils, which contain fractions of clay minerals in their composition. water absorption of clay particles and change of natural water content of soil up to plastic limit and down to shrinkage limit will cause significant volume change in expansive soils and will result in severe damages to the structures, buildings and foundations. swelling potential is ...

Vagal nerve stimulation in cardiac therapy involves delivering electrical current to the vagal sympathetic complex in patients experiencing heart failure. The therapy has shown promise but the mechanisms by which any benefit accrues is not understood. In this paper we model the response to increased levels of stimulation of individual components of the vagal sympathetic complex as a differentia...

Several studies have demonstrated the existence of pluripotent bone marrow-derived stem cells capable of homing to injured cardiac and skeletal muscle; however, there has been little evidence demonstrating the induction of tissue-specific endogenous genes in donor stem cells following engraftment. A new study in this issue reports an intriguing finding that raises additional concerns relating t...