Nephron loss in a diseased kidney invokes adaptations in the remaining nephrons. Whether and how these adaptations condition the response of the kidney to injury is not known. We examined the ...susceptibility of the kidney after subtotal (5/6th) nephrectomy (STN) to ischemic injury in rats. GFR in STN kidneys did not significantly change after ischemia reperfusion (IR), whereas GFR fell by 70% after IR in unilateral nephrectomy controls. In micropuncture experiments, single-nephron GFR responses mirrored the whole-kidney responses: in STN, single-nephron GFR decreased by 7% after IR compared with 28% in controls. Furthermore, we found that tubuloglomerular feedback, a mechanism that links proximal tubular injury to a fall in GFR, was inoperative in STN but was normal in controls. Restoration of normal feedback in STN attenuated the functional resistance to IR. In addition to the functional resilience, the morphology of the kidney was better preserved in STN. In STN kidneys, the S3 segment of the proximal tubule, normally injured after ischemia, constitutively expressed hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), which is cytoprotective in ischemia. Inducing HIF before IR improved GFR in control animals, and inhibiting the HIF target heme-oxygenase-1 before IR reduced GFR in STN animals. Taken together, these data suggest that fewer functioning nephrons in a diseased kidney do not increase the susceptibility to injury, but rather, hemodynamic and molecular adaptations in the remnant nephrons precondition them against ischemic injury.
In the on-going democratic debate, the Cameroonian media have not played the role of objective mediators. A one-party logic, of which government, opposition and the public are guilty, has prevented ...Cameroonian multipartyism from addressing the major issue: that of how best to bring about real participatory democracy. So far, democracy has served mainly as a face powder, an empty concept or slogan devoid of concrete meaning used to justify reactionary propaganda by the ruling party and its acolytes on the one hand, and revolutionary propaganda by the opposition and some pressure groups on the other. This polarisation in the Cameroonian political arena corresponds to a similar polarisation in the Cameroonian media. One can identify two main political tendencies in the media: first, there are those who argue that all the government does is good and in the best interest of Cameroon, and that the radical opposition is void of patriots and motivated only by selfish, regional, or ethnic self-interests. These comprise the publicly owned, government-controlled electronic and print media on the one hand, and pro- government privately owned newspapers on the other. Second, there are those who claim that all the radical opposition does or stands for is in the best interest of Cameroon, and that the government and its allies are only motivated by a stubborn love of power and other selfish pursuits. These comprise the bulk of the privately owned papers. The media are polarised into two diametrically opposing camps, each claiming to know and represent the best interests of the Cameroonian people.
Novel (amide–imide)-silica composites that can be used to enhance the mechanical properties of high performance polymers have successfully been synthesized by a sol–gel process. In a first step, a ...dimer containing two chemically pre-formed imide rings has been synthesized and fully characterized. The dimer was then used to synthesize an intermediate with amide linkages and terminal ethoxy-silane groups which were finally reacted with varying amounts of tetraorthosilicate (TMOS) in a sol–gel reaction in order to generate the (amide–imide)-silica composites. The amount of TMOS added to the reaction was found to influence the amount of silica incorporated in the composites as well as their microstructure. It has been observed that the addition of 25% of TMOS with respect to the ethoxy-silane content of the intermediate leads to the formation of a highly homogeneous microstructure with well-defined grains as opposed to an inhomogeneous distribution of pure silica resulting from excess of TMOS in the composite to which 100% of that component was added.
Objectives: To test the null hypothesis that mothers of asymmetric small for gestational age (SGA) infants produce milk with fatty acids composition similar to that of lactating mothers of ...appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) infants.
Methods: We obtained human milk (HM) from 2 groups of lactating volunteers that gave birth to asymmetric SGA (study group) or AGA infants (control group). Each mother was asked to contribute by manual expression at least one of 3 samples: first 72 hours after labor (colostrum), day 2-7 postpartum (transitional milk) and 14 days post partum (mature milk). After lipid extraction using Folch's cold-extraction procedure fatty acids were analyzed using gas chromatography.
Results: A total of 108 samples were obtained in 60 women. In univariate analysis, there were no significant differences in any of the fatty acids concentrations examined between groups. This remained true when timing of the sample (colostrum, transitional or mature milk) or gestational age were introduced as confounders in analysis of variance (general linear model).
Conclusion: Fatty acid composition of human milk is not affected by whether or not the infant was fetal growth restricted. We suggest that mothers of SGA infants may be reassured about the fat quality of their milk.
Aim
To determine the normal SpO2 in healthy term newborns at mild altitude (MA, 780 metres) compared with sea level (SL), within the context of universal screening for critical congenital heart ...disease (CCHD).
Methods
We studied 199 (119 at MA and 80 at SL) consecutively born healthy newborns. SpO2 recordings were at 24–72 h using Masimo SET Radical‐7 on the right hand and left foot.
Results
Mean SpO2 was lower at MA compared with SL in the right hand (97.86 ± 1.58 vs 98.28 ± 1.41, p = 0.05) and left foot (98.49 ± 1.35 vs 98.90 ± 1.16, p = 0.03). No infant with SpO2 <95% had CCHD. Extrapolating with predicted regression lines set at 95% CI, a SpO2 cut‐off of 95% would result in up to 3.5 times more false‐positive screens at MA compared with SL.
Conclusions
At MA, SpO2 is approximately 0.4% lower compared with SL. Our study supports the AAP recommendation suggesting algorithm cut‐offs may need adjustment in high‐altitude nurseries and suggest broadening it to MA as well.
As the need to prepare ever more complex but well-defined materials has increased, a similar need for reliable synthetic strategies to access them has arisen. Accordingly, recent years have seen a ...steep increase in the development of reactions that can proceed under mild conditions, in aqueous environments, and with low concentrations of reactants. To enable the preparation of well-defined biomolecular materials with novel functional properties, our laboratory has a continuing interest in developing new bioconjugation reactions. A particular area of focus has been the development of oxidative reactions to perform rapid site- and chemoselective couplings of electron rich aromatic species with both unnatural and canonical amino acid residues. This Account details the evolution of oxidative coupling reactions in our laboratory, from initial concepts to highly efficient reactions, focusing on the practical aspects of performing and developing reactions of this type. We begin by discussing our rationale for choosing an oxidative coupling approach to bioconjugation, highlighting many of the benefits that such strategies provide. In addition, we discuss the general workflow we have adopted to discover protein modification reactions directly in aqueous media with biologically relevant substrates. We then review our early explorations of periodate-mediated oxidative couplings between primary anilines and p-phenylenediamine substrates, highlighting the most important lessons that were garnered from these studies. Key mechanistic insights allowed us to develop second-generation reactions between anilines and anisidine derivatives. In addition, we summarize the methods we have used for the introduction of aniline groups onto protein substrates for modification. The development of an efficient and chemoselective coupling of anisidine derivatives with tyrosine residues in the presence of ceric ammonium nitrate is next described. Here, our logic and workflow are used to highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with the optimization of site-selective chemistries that target native amino acids. We close by discussing the most recent reports from our laboratory that have capitalized on the unique reactivity of o-iminoquinone derivatives. We discuss the various oxidants and conditions that can be used to generate these reactive intermediates from appropriate precursors, as well as the product distributions that result. We also describe our work to determine the nature of iminoquinone reactivity with proteins and peptides bearing free N-terminal amino groups. Through this discussion, we hope to facilitate the use of oxidative approaches to protein bioconjugation, as well as inspire the discovery of new reactions for the site-selective modification of biomolecular targets.
Feeding infants born before week 34 of gestation is based mainly on providing nutrition directly to the gastrointestinal tract through a nasogastric tube. Little is known about the impact of formulas ...passage through nasogastric tube on their macronutrient content. The aim of our study was to evaluate changes in macronutrient content of various formulas after transfer through a feeding tube.
Eleven frequently used formulas were chosen. Ten consecutive measurements were performed for each formula. Simulated real-life practice tube feeding was performed by using an infusion pump connected to a feeding tube. A Human Milk Analyzer, using an infrared spectroscopy method, was used to compare the preinfusion and postinfusion macronutrient contents of the different formulas.
A total of 220 measurements were performed. Variations in at least one macronutrient were observed in 5 out of 10 formulas. Fat and energy content were modified in 1 preterm formula.
Changes in the macronutrient content after tube feeding transfer were observed for some infant formulas, including those designed for very low birth weight infants. These alterations might relate to specific formulation of each formula. The biological significance of our results to the very low birth weight infants should be studied further.
Medline classifies publications as clinical trials, randomised control trials, meta-analyses, practice guidelines, reviews, case reports, editorials, and letters. We tested the hypothesis that ...cardiology-related publications have increased with a shift in the type of publications over the past 10 years by age category.
To retrieve from Medline the cardiology articles, we used the keyword "heart disease", but limited the search to articles in English from 2000 to 2009. We repeated the search using one limit according to the publication type and using age tags. We used regression analysis to determine the effect of the year of publication on the number of publications of each type.
During the 10-year period, Medline registered 152,849 cardiology articles, doubling from 10,452 in 2000 to 20,841 in 2009, of which 8.5% were tagged as both paediatric and adult. There was a linear increase in the number over the study period in the total number of publications and in all categories, except for practice guidelines. There was almost a twofold increase in adult and neonatal articles, but ∼ 70% in paediatric articles. The rate of increase was 66% for randomised control trials, 73% for clinical trials, 124% for meta-analyses, 117% for editorials, 36% for reviews, and 103% for case reports. Practice guidelines remained very low, increasing significantly for paediatric and neonatal articles.
There was a substantial increase in cardiology articles over the past 10 years, being greater for adult and neonatal articles compared with paediatric articles. The increase varied according to the type of article.
Highlights • DBP region II is an attractive vaccine candidate against Plasmodium vivax blood stages. • A multi-allele DBPII vaccine is more immunogenic than single allele vaccines. • A multi-allele ...DBPII vaccine induces a strain-limited neutralizing response. • There is no correlation between antibody titer and functional inhibition. • Composition of a DBPII vaccine requires optimization to enhance efficacy.
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