bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 3 in the ventral and lateral hypothalamic area of female rats: morphological characterization and functional implications
Authors: Kiss David S , Zsarnovszky Attila , Horvath Krisztina , Gyorffy Andrea , Bartha Tibor , Hazai Diana , Sotonyi Peter , Somogyi Virag , Frenyo Laszlo V , Diano Sabrina 
Published: April 2009

Abstract

Background
Based on its distribution in the brain, ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 3 (NTPDase3) may play a role in the hypothalamic regulation of homeostatic systems, including feeding, sleep-wake behavior and reproduction. To further characterize the morphological attributes of NTPDase3-immunoreactive (IR) hypothalamic structures in the rat brain, here we investigated: 1.) The cellular and subcellular localization of NTPDase3; 2.) The effects of 17β-estradiol on the expression level of hypothalamic NTPDase3; and 3.) The effects of NTPDase inhibition in hypothalamic synaptosomal preparations.

Methods
Combined light- and electron microscopic analyses were carried out to characterize the cellular and subcellular localization of NTPDase3-immunoreactivity. The effects of estrogen on hypothalamic NTPDase3 expression was studied by western blot technique. Finally, the effects of NTPDase inhibition on mitochondrial respiration were investigated using a Clark-type oxygen electrode.

Results
Combined light- and electron microscopic analysis of immunostained hypothalamic slices revealed that NTPDase3-IR is linked to ribosomes and mitochondria, is predominantly present in excitatory axon terminals and in distinct segments of the perikaryal plasma membrane. Immunohistochemical labeling of NTPDase3 and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) indicated that γ-amino-butyric-acid- (GABA) ergic hypothalamic neurons do not express NTPDase3, further suggesting that in the hypothalamus, NTPDase3 is predominantly present in excitatory neurons. We also investigated whether estrogen influences the expression level of NTPDase3 in the ventrobasal and lateral hypothalamus. A single subcutaneous injection of estrogen differentially increased NTPDase3 expression in the medial and lateral parts of the hypothalamus, indicating that this enzyme likely plays region-specific roles in estrogen-dependent hypothalamic regulatory mechanisms. Determination of mitochondrial respiration rates with and without the inhibition of NTPDases confirmed the presence of NTPDases, including NTPDase3 in neuronal mitochondria and showed that blockade of mitochondrial NTPDase functions decreases state 3 mitochondrial respiration rate and total mitochondrial respiratory capacity.

Conclusion
Altogether, these results suggest the possibility that NTPDases, among them NTPDase3, may play an estrogen-dependent modulatory role in the regulation of intracellular availability of ATP needed for excitatory neuronal functions including neurotransmission.
Close phylogenetic relationship between Angolan and Romanian HIV-1 subtype F1 isolates
Authors: Guimarães Monick L , Vicente Ana Carolina P , Otsuki Koko , da Silva Rosa Ferreira FC , Francisco Moises , da Silva Filomena Gomes , Serrano Ducelina , Morgado Mariza G , Bello Gonzalo 
Published: April 2009

AbstractBackgroundHere, we investigated the phylogenetic relationships of the HIV-1 subtype F1 circulating in Angola with subtype F1 strains sampled worldwide and reconstructed the evolutionary history of this subtype in Central Africa.MethodsForty-six HIV-1-positive samples were collected in Angola in 2006 and subtyped at theenv-gp41 region. Partialenv-gp120 andpol-RTsequences and near full-length genomes from thoseenv-gp41 subtype F1 samples were further generated. Phylogenetic analyses of partial and full-length subtype F1 strains isolated worldwide were carried out. The onset date of the subtype F1 epidemic in Central Africa was estimated using a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo approach.ResultsNine Angolan samples were classified as subtype F1 based on the analysis of theenv-gp41 region. All nine Angolan sequences were also classified as subtype F1 in bothenv-gp120andpol-RTgenomic regions, and near full-length genome analysis of four of these samples confirmed their classification as "pure" subtype F1. Phylogenetic analyses of subtype F1 strains isolated worldwide revealed that isolates from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were the earliest branching lineages within the subtype F1 phylogeny. Most strains from Angola segregated in a monophyletic group together with Romanian sequences; whereas South American F1 sequences emerged as an independent cluster. The origin of the subtype F1 epidemic in Central African was estimated at 1958 (1934–1971).Conclusion"Pure" subtype F1 strains are common in Angola and seem to be the result of a single founder event. Subtype F1 sequences from Angola are closely related to those described in Romania, and only distantly related to the subtype F1 lineage circulating in South America. Original diversification of subtype F1 probably occurred within the DRC around the late 1950s.
Effect of conjugated linoleic acids from beef or industrial hydrogenation on growth and adipose tissue characteristics of rats
Authors: He Mao L , Mir Priya S , Okine Erasmus K , Napadajlo Helen 
Published: April 2009

Abstract

Background
The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content of beef can be increased by supplementing appropriate beef cattle diets with vegetable oil or oil seed. Yet the effect of consumption of such beef on adipose tissue characteristics is unclear, thus the study was conducted to compare adipose tissue responses of rats to diets containing beef from steers either not provided or provided the oil supplements to alter CLA composition of the fat in muscle.

Methods
Effects of feeding synthetic (industrial hydrogenation) CLA or CLA from beef on growth and adipose tissue responses of weanling, male, Wistar rats (n = 56; 14 per treatment diet) were investigated in a completely randomized design experiment. Diets were: control (CON) diet containing casein and soybean oil, synthetic CLA (SCLA) diet; where 1.69% synthetic CLA replaced soybean oil, two beef-diets; CONM and CLAM, containing freeze dried beef from steers either not fed or fed 14% sunflower seeds to increase CLA content of beef. Diets were isonitrogenous (20% protein) and isocaloric. Rat weights and ad libitum intakes were recorded every 2 wk. After 9 wk, rats were fasted for 24 h, blood sampled by heart puncture, sacrificed, tissue and organs were harvested and weights recorded. The adipose tissue responses with regard to cellularity and fatty acid compositions of retroperitoneal and inguinal adipose tissue were determined.

Results
Body weights and gains were comparable, but organ weights as percent of body weight were greater for rats fed SCLA than CONM. Fasting blood glucose concentration was lower (p < 0.01) in rats fed SCLA than those fed CONM or CLAM. Retroperitoneal and inguinal fat weights, as percent of body weight were greater (p < 0.01) in rats fed CONM or CLAM than those fed CON or SCLA diets. Adipocyte numbers were least in retroperitoneal tissue of rats fed SCLA, while inguinal tissue cell density and total number were lower (p = 0.02) in rats fed CLAM (7.26 × 107 cells/g and 8.03 × 108 cells) than those fed CONM (28.88 × 107 cells/g and 32.05 × 108 cells, respectively).

Conclusion
Study suggests that dietary CLA either as synthetic or high CLA-beef may alter adipose tissue characteristics by decreasing the number of adipocytes and by decreasing the size of the tissue.
Nitric oxide production by Biomphalaria glabrata haemocytes: effects of Schistosoma mansoni ESPs and regulation through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway
Authors: Zahoor Zahida , Davies Angela J , Kirk Ruth S , Rollinson David , Walker Anthony J 
Published: April 2009

Abstract

Background

Schistosoma mansoni uses Biomphalaria glabrata as an intermediate host during its complex life cycle. In the snail, the parasite initially transforms from a miracidium into a mother sporocyst and during this process excretory-secretory products (ESPs) are released. Nitric oxide (NO) and its reactive intermediates play an important role in host defence responses against pathogens. This study therefore aimed to determine the effects of S. mansoni ESPs on NO production in defence cells (haemocytes) from schistosome-susceptible and schistosome-resistant B. glabrata strains. As S. mansoni ESPs have previously been shown to inhibit extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation (activation) in haemocytes from susceptible, but not resistant, B. glabrata the regulation of NO output by ERK in these cells was also investigated.

Results
Haemocytes from resistant snails challenged with S. mansoni ESPs (20 μg/ml) over 5 h displayed an increase in NO production that was 3.3 times greater than that observed for unchallenged haemocytes; lower concentrations of ESPs (0.1–10 μg/ml) did not significantly increase NO output. In contrast, haemocytes from susceptible snails showed no significant change in NO output following challenge with ESPs at any concentration used (0.1–20 μg/ml). Western blotting revealed that U0126 (1 μM or 10 μM) blocked the phosphorylation (activation) status of ERK in haemocytes from both snail strains. Inhibition of ERK signalling by U0126 attenuated considerably intracellular NO production in haemocytes from both susceptible and resistant B. glabrata strains, identifying ERK as a key regulator of NO output in these cells.

Conclusion

S. mansoni ESPs differentially influence intracellular NO levels in susceptible and resistant B. glabrata haemocytes, possibly through modulation of the ERK signalling pathway. Such effects might facilitate survival of S. mansoni in its intermediate host.
Effect of sugar on male Anopheles gambiae mating performance, as modified by temperature, space, and body size
Authors: Gary Richard E , Cannon James W , Foster Woodbridge A 
Published: April 2009

Abstract

Background

Anopheles gambiae plant-sugar feeding was thought to be rare and physiologically optional. Unlike adult females, males have no alternative source of energy and soon die with only water, yet they might be competent to inseminate all females within their brief lifespan. This study was designed to detect sugar's effect, if any, on male performance.

Methods
Males with and without 20% sucrose were evaluated at two body sizes and two temperatures, 23° and 27°C. Survival was recorded twice daily, and sexual behaviour was recorded each night after adult emergence. Insemination at a 2:1 male:female ratio was examined in three cage sizes, including walk-in mesocosms.

Results
Without sugar, males of both sizes lived longer at 23° than 27°C, and large males lived longer at each temperature. Survival of large males at low temperature averaged 3.7 days, small males at high temperature, 1.9 days. With sugar, males in all four treatments suffered minimal mortality. With sugar, in small cages, large males at 27°C matured most rapidly. A few erected fibrillae and inseminated females on night 1. On night 2, maximal proportions erected fibrillae and swarmed, and over one-third of females became inseminated. Small sugar-fed males at 23°C matured most slowly but had achieved nearly maximal levels of swarming by night 3. By night 5, small males had inseminated more than half the females, and large males had inseminated nearly all of them. Without sugar, large males progressed similarly during the first two nights. On night 3, however, the proportion erecting fibrillae and swarming declined precipitously at 27°C, and to a lesser degree at 23°C. Cumulative insemination never reached high levels. Small males never achieved high levels of fibrillar erection or swarming and inseminated few females, even at 23°C. In larger cages and under more semi-natural conditions, regardless of body size, without sugar male insemination capacity was virtually nonexistent.

Conclusion
Under some conditions, a limited number of sugar-deprived males can survive long enough to inseminate females. However, in nature males that cannot obtain sugar at frequent intervals will not be competitive with those that can, suggesting that male performance is closely tied to plant communities.
BTLA targeting modulates lymphocyte phenotype, function, and numbers and attenuates disease in nonobese diabetic mice
Authors: Truong Wayne , Hancock Wayne W , Plester Jennifer C , Merani Shaheed , Rayner David C , Thangavelu Govindarajan , Murphy Kenneth M , Anderson Colin C , Shapiro A. M. James 
Published: April 2009

Abstract
Targeting coinhibitory T cell receptors using monoclonal antibodies attenuates autoimmune diabetes by altering lymphocyte number and function.
The novel coinhibitory receptor BTLA may have a regulatory role in maintaining peripheral tolerance; however, its role in autoimmune diabetes is unknown. In this study, we show that anti-BTLA mAb 6F7 selectively depleted pathogenic B and CD4+ TH cells; enhanced the proportion of cells with the forkhead box p3+ PD-1+CD4+ regulatory T phenotype; and increased the production of potentially protective (IL-10) and detrimental (IL-2, IFN-γ) cytokines in NOD mice. As interactions between BTLA and PD-1 coinhibitory pathways have been described in the cardiac allograft model, we also investigated if these pathways may have significant interaction in autoimmune diabetes. Anti-BTLA inhibited anti-PD-1-potentiated total IL-12 (p40+p70) production, suggesting the possibility that anti-BTLA may have a greater effect in the setting of anti-PD-1-triggered diabetes. To test this, NOD mice at 4 and 10 weeks of age were treated with anti-BTLA mAb, anti-PD-1 mAb, both mAb, or isotype control and were monitored for diabetes development. Although anti-BTLA mAb delayed diabetes onset significantly in 10- but not 4-week-old NOD mice, anti-BTLA mAb attenuated anti-PD-1-induced diabetes in both age groups. Hence, strategies targeting BTLA+ lymphocytes or therapies enhancing the BTLA-negative cosignal may prove valuable in treating autoimmune diabetes.
Acerca de la relación entre el Radicalismo argentino y la “clase media” (una vez más)
Authors: Adamovsky Ezequiel 
Published: April 2009

Abstract
Es una creencia profundamente arraigada en el sentido común que la Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) –el más antiguo de los partidos políticos argentinos– canalizó los intereses de una “clase media” que, según se afirma, experimentó un crecimiento notable a partir de fines del siglo XIX de la mano de un proceso de “modernización”. Más aún, el caso de los radicales argentinos ha sido utilizado como ejemplo de procesos y tensiones de la modernización que afectaron a todo el subcontinente. En los últimos tiempos, el papel de la clase media en América Latina viene siendo reexaminado. La propia utilización de los conceptos de “clase media” y de “modernización” ha sido objeto de análisis críticos. En estudios recientes, la clase media viene dejando de ser una entidad cuya existencia social se presupone, para convertirse en un tipo de identidad específica cuya emergencia es necesario explicar. El objetivo de este artículo es contribuir al debate analizando los modos en los que la UCR pudo haber participado en la constitución de una “clase media” en Argentina, y los contextos políticos específicos en los que esto tuvo lugar. Sostendremos que, más que canalizar los intereses de una clase media previamente existente, la UCR contribuyó a la formación de tal identidad social mediante apelaciones discursivas motivadas más por necesidades y oportunidades político-ideológicas que por una vocación de vehiculizar intereses sectoriales particulares.
Economic Elites, Regional Cleavages, and the First Attempts at Introducing the Income Tax in Argentina
Authors: Román José Antonio Sánchez 
Published: April 2009

Abstract
This article analyzes Minister Víctor Molina’s 1924 income tax proposal, one of the first attempts to introduce this tax in Argentina, and explores the reasons for its failure. Argentine governments did not show a permanent commitment to fiscal reform during the 1920’s, mainly because the economic situation was not dire and the Treasury was able to finance its deficits through foreign debts due to the good performance of Argentine external sector. Nonetheless, Molina’s proposal was passed by the Chamber of Deputies and therefore it could have been the first income tax law in the country. Public opinion, intellectuals, and economists seemed to be persuaded that income tax was the solution to Argentine fiscal problems. Moreover, some key social sectors like rural or industrial entrepreneurs, without enthusiastically supporting the income tax, were disposed to tolerate it. In this article, I argue that we need a political interpretation of the failure of tax reform during 1920s. Molina’s draft was blocked in the Senate by the majority of the representatives of the interior provinces. In fact, income tax was considered to be a threat to the less affluent provinces of Argentina because it implied a step toward tax centralization and unification. Yet the economic weakness of the interior did not imply political weakness, and the interior provinces were the main obstacle to fiscal reform in Argentina until the 1930s.
FSHD region gene 1 (FRG1) is crucial for angiogenesis linking FRG1 to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy-associated vasculopathy
Authors: Wuebbles Ryan D. , Hanel Meredith L. , Jones Peter L. 
Published: April 2009

SUMMARYThe genetic lesion that is diagnostic for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) results in an epigenetic misregulation of gene expression, which ultimately leads to the disease pathology. FRG1 (FSHD region gene 1) is a leading candidate for a gene whose misexpression might lead to FSHD. Because FSHD pathology is most prominent in the musculature, most research and therapy efforts focus on muscle cells. Previously, using Xenopus development as a model, we showed that altering frg1 expression levels systemically leads to aberrant muscle development, illustrating the potential for aberrant FRG1 levels to disrupt the musculature. However, 50–75% of FSHD patients also exhibit retinal vasculopathy and FSHD muscles have increased levels of vascular- and endothelial-related FRG1 transcripts, illustrating an underlying vascular component to the disease. To date, no FSHD candidate gene has been proposed to affect the vasculature. Here, we focus on a role for FRG1 expression in the vasculature. We found that endogenous frg1 is expressed in both the developing and adult vasculature in Xenopus. Furthermore, expression of FRG1 was found to be essential for the development of the vasculature, as a knockdown of FRG1 resulted in decreased angiogenesis and reduced expression of the angiogenic regulator DAB2. Conversely, tadpoles subjected to frg1 overexpression displayed the pro-angiogenic phenotypes of increased blood vessel branching and dilation of blood vessels, and developed edemas, suggesting that their circulation was disrupted. Thus, the systemic upregulation of the FRG1 protein shows the potential for acquiring a disrupted vascular phenotype, providing the first link between a FSHD candidate gene and the vascular component of FSHD pathology. Overall, in conjunction with our previous analysis, we show that FRG1 overexpression is capable of disrupting both the musculature and vasculature, recapitulating the two most prominent features of FSHD.
Multiple congenital malformations of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome are recapitulated inFgfrl1null mice
Authors: Catela Catarina , Bilbao-Cortes Daniel , Slonimsky Esfir , Kratsios Paschalis , Rosenthal Nadia , te Welscher Pascal 
Published: April 2009

SUMMARYWolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is caused by deletions in the short arm of chromosome 4 (4p) and occurs in about one per 20,000 births. Patients with WHS display a set of highly variable characteristics including craniofacial dysgenesis, mental retardation, speech problems, congenital heart defects, short stature and a variety of skeletal anomalies. Analysis of patients with 4p deletions has identified two WHS critical regions (WHSCRs); however, deletions targeting mouse WHSCRs do not recapitulate the classical WHS defects, and the genes contributing to WHS have not been conclusively established. Recently, the human FGFRL1 gene, encoding a putative fibroblast growth factor (FGF) decoy receptor, has been implicated in the craniofacial phenotype of a WHS patient. Here, we report that targeted deletion of the mouse Fgfrl1 gene recapitulates a broad array of WHS phenotypes, including abnormal craniofacial development, axial and appendicular skeletal anomalies, and congenital heart defects. Fgfrl1 null mutants also display a transient foetal anaemia and a fully penetrant diaphragm defect, causing prenatal and perinatal lethality. Together, these data support a wider role for Fgfrl1 in development, implicate FGFRL1 insufficiency in WHS, and provide a novel animal model to dissect the complex aetiology of this human disease.
Asian versus Global Strategies for Energy Fairness and Reduced Carbon Footprint — The Promise of the CDM
Authors: Wood David , Giri Jagdish P. N. , Mokhatab Saeid 
Published: April 2009

Access to plentiful supplies of affordable energy is a key requirement for sustainable economic and social development in all emerging nations, and nowhere more so than in Asia. Global primary energy demand is expected in the reference scenario of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to increase by 1.6% per annum from 2004 to 2030, growing from 11.2 billion tones of oil equivalent (btoe) to 17.1 btoe in 2030, more than a 50% increase in total (IEA World Energy Outlook-WEO, 2006). 70% of this increase in energy demand is forecast to come from developing countries with 48.9% coming from developing nations in Asia (including China 30% and India 9.0%) with populations and economies growing much faster than OECD nations, shifting the focus of global energy demand to Asia. About 50% of the increase in global primary energy use is for electricity generation and one-fifth to meet transportation mainly in form of oil-based fuels. The fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) in the International Energy Agency's (IEA's) reference scenario continue to dominate primary energy supply over the next 25 years. Available fossil fuel reserves are just about adequate to meet that demand growth, but many doubt that they will be adequate to sustain energy demand growth much beyond 2030. Such projections raise several concerns, including: sufficient long-term energy supply, because of the finite nature of fossil fuel reserves; investment strategies to develop suitable and sustainable future energy infrastructure; environmental and climatic issues associated with the resulting carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel usage; increased competition for diminishing fossil fuel reserves; unequal access of the world's population to adequate energy supplies. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a provision of the Kyoto Protocol to The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC) that offers a new pathway to encourage technology transfer, promote sustainable development in host countries, reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and assist Annex B countries (developed countries listed in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol) to cost-effectively meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.