Plos One
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In mammals, the limited regenerating potential of the central nervous system (CNS) in adults contrasts with the plasticity of the embryonic and perinatal periods. SCO (subcommissural organ)-spondin is a protein secreted early by the developing central nervous system, potentially involved in the development of commissural fibers. SCO-spondin stimulates neuronal differentiation and neurite growth in vitro. ⋯ In vitro studies were carried out on the B104 neuroblastoma cell line demonstrating neuroprotection by the resistance to oxidative damage using hydrogen peroxide and the measure of cell viability by metabolic activity. In vivo studies were performed in two rat models of SCI: (1) a model of aspiration of dorsal funiculi followed by the insertion of a collagen tube in situ to limit collateral sprouting; white matter regeneration was assessed using neurofilament immunostaining; (2) a rat spinal cord contusion model to assess functional recovery using BBB scale and reflex testing. We demonstrate for the first time that NX210 (a) provides neuroprotection to oxidative stress in the B104 neuroblastoma cells, (b) stimulates axonal regrowth in longitudinally oriented neofibers in the aspiration model of SCI and (c) significantly improves functional recovery in the contusive model of SCI.
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Glycyrrhizin (GL) has been reported to protect against ischemia and reperfusion (I/R)-induced injury by inhibiting the cytokine activity of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). In the present study, the protective effects of GL against I/R injury, as well as the related molecular mechanisms, were investigated in rat brains. ⋯ GL has a protective effect on ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat brains through the inhibition of inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptotic injury by antagonising the cytokine activity of HMGB1.
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Dietary supplement use is increasing despite lack of evidence of benefits, or evidence of harm. Press releases issued by the supplements industry might contribute to this situation by using 'spin' (strategies to hype or denigrate findings) to distort the results of clinical studies. We assessed press releases issued in response to publication of clinical studies on dietary supplements. ⋯ Dietary supplements industry press releases issued in response to clinical research findings are characterized by 'spin' that hypes results that are favourable to supplement use and denigrates results that are not.
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To characterize the distribution of BMI in a population-based sample of COPD patients and to evaluate the impact of obesity on their health status, exercise tolerance, systemic inflammation and comorbidity. ⋯ In a population-based sample, obesity is more prevalent in COPD patients than in subjects without airflow limitation. Furthermore, obesity affects the clinical manifestations, quality of life and exercise tolerance of COPD patients, and it may contribute to a phenotype characterized by increased systemic inflammation and greater frequency of cardiovascular comorbidity.
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Manipulation of hand posture, such as crossing the hands, has been frequently used to study how the body and its immediately surrounding space are represented in the brain. Abundant data show that crossed arms posture impairs remapping of tactile stimuli from somatotopic to external space reference frame and deteriorates performance on several tactile processing tasks. Here we investigated how impaired tactile remapping affects the illusory self-touch, induced by the non-visual variant of the rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm. ⋯ Finally, in contrast to the illusion increase in the non-visual RHI, the crossed hand postures did not alter illusory ownership or proprioceptive drift in the classical, visuo-tactile version of RHI (Experiment 4). We argue that the increase in illusory self-touch is related to misalignment of somatotopic and external reference frames and consequently inadequate tactile-proprioceptive integration, leading to re-weighting of the tactile and proprioceptive signals. The present study not only shows that illusory self-touch can be induced by crossing the hands, but importantly, that this posture is associated with a stronger illusion.