It is well known that few weeks of high fat (HF) diet may induce metabolic disturbances and mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle. However, little is known about the effects of long-term HF exposure and effects on brain mitochondria are unknown. Wistar rats were fed either chow (13E% fat) or HF diet (60E% fat) for 1 year. The HF animals developed obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance...

Potassium channels are the most widely distributed class of ion channels. These channels are transmembrane proteins known to play important roles in both normal and pathophysiological functions in all cell types. Various potassium channels are recognised as potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, brain/spinal cord ischaemia and sepsis. In addi...

Current hypotheses implicate insulin resistance of the brain as a pathogenic factor in development Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, major depression, traumatic injury. A variety genetic, developmental, metabolic abnormalities that lead to disturbances receptor signal transduction may underlie resistance. Insulin substrate proteins are gener...

A revolution in our understanding of brain development, adult brain function, senescence, and disease has emerged from the recognition of structural and functional plasticity within the mammalian brain (1). For example, the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and other hormonal factors that mediate neurogenesis, as well as synaptic and dendritic plasticity in psychiatric disorders ...

The Tibet chicken lives in high altitude and has adapted itself well to hypoxia. The Silky chicken is a lowland chicken from Jiangxi province of China. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether there were any differences in brain mitochondrial respiratory function between Tibet chicken and Silky chicken embryos incubated in a normoxic (21% oxygen concentration) or simulated ...

1. The interrelationship of metabolism of pyruvate or 3-hydroxybutyrate and glutamate transamination in rat brain mitochondria was studied. 2. If brain mitochondria are incubated in the presence of equimolar concentrations of pyruvate and glutamate and the K(+) concentration is increased from 1 to 20mm, the rate of pyruvate utilization is increased 3-fold, but the rate of production of aspartat...