This study evaluated the subacute morphologic alterations in renal artery wall and renal nerves in response to catheter-based renal denervation (RDN) in sheep and also compared the efficiency of single-point and multiple-point ablation catheters. Effect of each ablation catheter approved for the clinical use (Symplicity FlexTM, Medtronic, Inc., or EnligHTNTM, St. Jude Medical, INC.) was compared to intact contralateral renal artery in 12 sheep by histopathology and immunohistochemistry evaluation after a 10-day period post-RDN procedure. The safety was verified by extensive evaluation of kidney morphology. Vascular wall lesions and nerve injuries were more pronounced in those animals treated with multi-point EnligHTN catheter when compared with animals treated with single-point Symplicity Flex catheter. However, neither RDN procedure led to complete renal nerve ablation. Both systems, tested in the present study, provided only incomplete renal nerve ablation in sheep. Moreover, no appreciable progression of the nerve disintegration in subacute phase post-RDN procedure was observed. This study further supports the notion that the effectiveness remains fully dependent on anatomical inter-individual variability of the sympathetic nerve plexus accompanying the renal artery. Therefore, new systems providing deeper penetrance to targeted perivascular structure would be more efficient.
The animal osteological material from Přerov –
Horní náměstí 19, 20 comes from the 1990 and 1998 rescue excavations. Throughout the 10th / 11th / 12th centuries, domesticated species predominate over wildlife. Hunting and fishing were only an additional source of
livelihood. Common mammalian domesticated species were represented by: horses, cattle, pig, sheep, goats,
dogs, domesticated chickens and geese. The dominant role was played by cattle, sheep/goats, pigs and chickens. According to the number of bones and individuals, cattle and sheep/goats predominated over pigs during
the reference periods in this locality. The predominance of cattle and ruminants over pigs is rare, in general
cattle and pigs represent the greatest part of osteological collections from early medieval excavations. This
phenomenon could be related only to economic habits (proximity of suitable pastures), or possibly a suitable
grazing climate. The composition of domesticated fauna (predominance of ruminants) is relatively rare in the
monitored periods. Cattle and domesticated pigs dominated in the contemporary central places in Bohemia,
Poland and Germany, but small ruminants were in a minority everywhere. Although we do not have enough
data on the actual share of different domesticated animals concerning bone weight in the available publications, it can be assumed that the dominant food source was mostly domesticated animals. Among the species
of wildlife, the most remains come from carp, deer, followed by roe deer, wild pigs and ducks. For the first
time in this period (until the middle of the 11th century), here is evidence of hunting and eating songbirds.
The height at withers of the domesticated species correspond to dimensions of animals in other localities of
the same period. From the point of view of gender, females dominated. A higher proportion of females may
indicate that these animals were used for the production of chicks, milk, lambs and wool.
Echinactinomyxon-type actinospores were found in a mixed-species oligochaete culture originating from the Temperate Water Fish Hatchery near Budapest, Hungary. On the basis of DNA sequence analysis, the actinospores were identified as Myxobolus pavlovskii (Akhmerov, 1954), the 18S rDNA sequence from myxospores of which is available in GenBank. Silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes) fry specimens were successfully infected by cohabitation with the echinactinomyxon-releasing oligochaetes, which confirmed the molecular data congruence. The echinactinomyxons and the myxospores that developed in the gills of exposed fish fry were analysed morphologically and on DNA basis. The infected gill tissue was examined histologically. As typical characters of M. pavlovskii, numerous small plasmodia were observed in the epithelia of gill lamellae. Plasmodia contained thousands of myxospores with polar capsules unequal in size and with large intercapsular processes. The 18S rDNA sequence from actinospores and those from myxospores originating from the experimentally infected fish were identical. The oligochaete species releasing actinospores was morphologically determined as Limnodrilus sp. This is the first record of an echinactinomyxon as an alternate stage within the genus Myxobolus.