Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars Yangmai 9 (water-logging tolerant) and Yumai 34 (water-logging sensitive) were subjected to water-logging (WL) from 7 d after anthesis to determine the responses of photosynthesis and anti-oxidative enzyme activities in flag leaf. At 15 d after treatment (DAT), net photosynthetic rate under WL was only 3.7 and 8.9 µmol(CO2) m-2 s-1 in Yumai 34 and Yangmai 9, respectively, which was much lower than in the control. Ratios of variable to maximum and variable to initial fluorescence, actual photosynthetic efficiency, and photochemical quenching were much lower, while initial fluorescence and non-photochemical quenching were much higher under WL than in control, indicating damage to photosystem 2. WL decreased activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase in both cultivars, and activity of peroxidase (POD) in Yumai 34, while POD activity in Yangmai 9 was mostly increased. The obvious decrease in the amount of post-anthesis accumulated dry matter, which was redistributed to grains, also contributed to the grain yield loss under WL. and W. Tan ... [et al.].
STR/N is an inbred strain of mice which is known to exhibit extreme polydipsia and polyuria. We previously found central administration of angiotensin II enhanced cardiovascular responses in STR/N mice than normal mice, suggesting that STR/N mice might exhibit different cardiovascular responses. Therefore, in this study, we investigated daily mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate, and changes in the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex in conscious STR/N mice and control (ICR) mice. We found that variability in daily mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate was significantly larger in STR/N mice than in ICR mice (p<0.05). There was a stronger response to phenylephrine (PE) in STR/N mice than in ICR mice. For baroreceptor reflex sensitivity, in the rapid response period, the slopes of PE and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were more negative in STR/N mice than in ICR mice. In the later period, the slopes of PE and SNP were negatively correlated between heart rate and blood pressure in ICR mice, but their slopes were positively correlated in STR/N mice. These results indicated that STR/N mice exhibited the different cardiovascular responses than ICR mice, suggesting that the dysfunction of baroreceptor reflex happened in conscious STR/N mice., C. P. Chu, B. R. Cui, H. Kannan, D. L. Qiu., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The oxidative mechanisms of injury-induced damage of neurons within the spinal cord are not very well understood. We used a model of T8-T9 spinal cord injury (SCI) in the rat to induce neuronal degeneration. In this spinal cord injury model, unilateral avulsion of the spinal cord causes oxidative stress of neurons. We tested the hypothesis that apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (or redox effector factor-1, APE/Ref-1) regulates this neuronal oxidation mechanism in the spinal cord region caudal to the lesion, and that DNA damage is an early upstream signal. The embryonic neural stem cell therapy significantly decreased DNA- damage levels in both study groups - acutely (followed up to 7 days after SCI), and chronically (followed up to 28 days after SCI) injured animals. Meanwhile, mRNA levels of APE/Ref-1 significantly increased after embryonic neural stem cell therapy in acutely and chronically injured an imals when compared to acute and chronic sham groups. Our da ta has demonstrated that an increase of APE/Ref-1 mRNA levels in the caudal region of spinal cord strongly correlated with DNA damage after traumatic spinal cord injury. We suggest that DNA damage can be observed both in lesional and caudal regions of the acutely and chronically injured groups, but DNA damage is reduced with embryonic neural stem cell therapy., T. Dagci, G. Armagan, S. Konyalioglu, A. Yalcin., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Both brain and peripheral nitric oxide (NO) play a role in the control of blood pressure and circ ulatory homeostasis. Central NO production seems to counteract angiotensin II-induced enhancement of sympathetic tone. The aim of our study was to evaluate NO synthase (NOS) activity and protein expression of its three isoforms - neuronal (nNOS), endothelial NOS (eNOS) and inducible (iNOS) - in two brain regions involved in blood pressure control (diencephalon and brainstem) as well as in the kidney of young adult rats with either genetic (12-week-old SHR) or salt- induced hypertension (8-week-old Dahl rats). We have demonstrated reduced nNOS and iNOS expression in brainstem of both hypertensive models. In SHR this abnormality was accompanied by attenuated NOS activity and was corrected by chronic captopril treatment which prevented the development of genetic hypertension. In salt hypertensive Dahl rats nNOS and iNOS expression was also decrea sed in the diencephalon where neural structures important for salt hypertension development are located. As far as peripheral NOS activity and expression is concerned, renal eNOS expression was considerably reduced in both genetic and salt-induced hypertension. In conclusions, we disclosed similar changes of NO system in the brainstem (but not in the diencephalon) of rats with genetic and salt-induced hypertension. Decreased nNOS ex pression was associated with increased blood pressure due to enhanced sympathetic tone., S. Hojná, J. Kuneš, J. Zicha., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The aim was to study the blood-brain permeability according to the distribution in the rat brain of Evans blue (EB) and sodium fluorescein (NaFl) administered by an intracarotid injection. Eighteen animals were divided into six groups according to the state of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) at the moment when the dyes were being applied. In the first two groups, the BBB was intact, in groups 3 and 4 the barrier had been opened osmotically prior to the application of the dyes, and in groups 5 and 6 a cellular edema was induced by hyperhydration before administration of the dyes. The intracellular and extracellular distribution of the dyes was studied by fluorescence microscopy. The histological picture thus represented the morphological correlate of the way BBB permeability had been changed before the application of the dyes., P. Kozler, J. Pokorný., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Prolonged exposure to alveolar hypoxia induces physiological changes in the pulmonary vasculature that result in the development of pulmonary hypertension. A hallmark of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension is an increase in vasomotor tone. In vivo, pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cell contraction is influenced by vasoconstrictor and vasodilator factors secreted from the endothelium, lung parenchyma and in the circulation. During chronic hypoxia, production of vasoconstrictors such as endothelin-1and angiotensin II is enhanced locally in the lung, while synthesis of vasodilators may be reduced. Altered reactivity to these vasoactive agonists is another physiological consequence of chronic exposure to hypoxia. Enhanced contraction in response to endothelin-1 and angiotensin II, as well as depressed vasodilation in response to endothelium-derived vasodilators, has been documented in models of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Chronic hypoxia may also have direct effects on pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cells, modulating receptor population, ion channel activity or signal transduction pathways. Following prolonged hypoxic exposure, pulmonary vascular smooth muscle exhibits alterations in K+ current, membrane depolarization, elevation in resting cytosolic calcium and changes in signal transduction pathways. These changes in the electrophysiological parameters of pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cells are likely associated with an increase in basal tone. Thus, hypoxia-induced modifications in pulmonary arterial myocyte function, changes in synthesis of vasoactive factors and altered vasoresponsiveness to these agents may shift the environment in the lung to one of contraction instead of relaxation, resulting in increased pulmonary vascular resistance and elevated pulmonary arterial pressure., L. A. Shimoda, J. S. K. Sham, J. T. Sylvester., and Obsahuje bibliografii
We present new formulae providing equivalent quasi-norms on Lorentz-Karamata spaces. Our results are based on properties of certain averaging operators on the cone of non-negative and non-increasing functions in convenient weighted Lebesgue spaces. We also illustrate connections between our results and mapping properties of such classical operators as the fractional maximal operator and the Riesz potential (and their variants) on the Lorentz-Karamata spaces.
Influence of respiration on photosynthesis in Synechocystis PCC6803 was studied by measuring the redox transients of cytochrome f (cyt f) upon excitation of the cells with repetitive single turnover flashes. Upon the addition of KCN the flash-induced oxidation of cyt f was increased and the rereduction of cyt f+ was accelerated. Dependence of these effects on the concentration of KCN clearly demonstrated the existence of two cyanide-sensitive oxidases interacting with photosynthesis: cyt aa3, which was sensitive to low concentrations of cyanide, and an alternative oxidase, which could be suppressed by using ≥1 mM KCN. The interaction between the photosynthetic and the respiratory electron transport chains was regulated mainly by the activity of the alternative cyanide-sensitive oxidase. The oxidative pathway involving the alternative cyanide-sensitive oxidase was insensitive to salicyl hydroxamic acid and azide. The close resemblance of the inhibition pattern reported here and that described for chlororespiration in algae and higher plants strongly suggest that an oxidase of the same type as the alternative cyanide-sensitive oxidase of cyanobacteria functions as a terminal oxidase in chloroplasts. and C. Büchel, O. Zsíros, G. Garab.
Methods of analyses of biological time series are presented and compared to the traditional techiiiques based on the Fourier transform. Paranietric methods are used for computation of the autoregressive estimator, for the model order selection and for the spectrum estirnation. A nonlinear analysis deals with the state-space trajectory reconstruction and with the fractal and embedding dirnension estirnation. Experimental resiilts compare the abilities of traditional, pararnetric and nonlinear methods to distinguish different cognitive States of the human operator by an analysis of an EEG curve.