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Investigates the development of gastric damage and body weight loss in lateral hypothalamic area (LHA)-lesioned rats. Effects of geranylgeranylacetone, a cytoprotective antiulcer agent; Effects of LHA lesions on food intake, body weight, gastric damage; potential differences and gastric acid output.

Abstract: Elevated serum levels of neurotrophins such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been reported in allergic and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to assess serum levels of BDNF in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and to investigate the relationship of the BDNF level with other markers of disease severity. Serum BDNF concentration was significantly higher in patients with AD (n =62) compared to control subjects (n =20) (P <0.01). Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed a significant influence of the peripheral blood eosinophil counts (F =6.90) and the percentage of CD4+IL-4+ (Th2) cells (F =6.61). Moreover, after remission of AD patients with conventionally treated AD patients (n =14), serum levels of BDNF, eosinophil counts and percentage of Th2 cells were decreased significantly. These results suggest that serum BDNF may be a useful marker of disease activity in AD and that both eosinophils and Th2 cells are major cellular sources of serum BDNF. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to studies on acupuncture for gait disturbance in Parkinson's disease

Objective: Many claims have been made regarding the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture. However, most controlled clinical studies have been limited to treatment of pain-related disorders and do not provide objective, quantifiable data for analysis. Traditional acupuncture has been applied to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, only a few studies have been performed to determine the efficacy of this treatment. This study was conducted to determine whether a combination of traditional acupuncture treatment and conservative treatment for COPD improves dyspnea on exercise. Methods: This was a prospective trial with matched-pair parallel groups of patients from the departments of respiratory internal medicine of Gifu University of Medicine, Meiji University of Oriental Medicine, and Gifu Red Cross Hospital, Japan. Thirty patients were divided into the acupuncture group ( n = 15) and the control group ( n = 15). The control group received conservative treatment with medication only. The acupuncture group received acupuncture treatments once a week for 10 weeks, in addition to conservative treatment with medication. The main outcome measure was the Modified Borg dyspnea scale after the 6-minute walk test. Results: The acupuncture group had significantly better results on the Borg scale than the control group after 10 weeks (2.2 ± 2.7 versus 6.4 ± 3.4, p = 0.0001, 95% confidence interval, −5.10 to −2.35, paired t-test). The 6-minute walk distance and oxygen saturation at the minimum rate improved significantly in the acupuncture group compared with the control group. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that acupuncture contributed to the reduction of COPD-related dyspnea on exercise in 15 matched-pair parallel subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are made of multiple subunits with diversified functions. The nAChR α[sub 7]-subunit has a property of high Ca[sup 2+] permeability and may have specific functions and localization within the plasma membrane as a signal transduction molecule. In PC-12 cells, fractionation by sucrose gradient centrifugation revealed that nAChRα[sub 7] existed in low-density, cholesterol-enriched plasma membrane microdomains known as lipid rafts where fiotillin also exists. In contrast, nAChR α[sub 5]- and β[sub 2]-subunits were located in high-density fractions, out of the lipid rafts. Type 6 adenylyl cyclase (AC6), a calcium-inhibitable isoform, was also found in lipid rafts and was coimmunoprecipitated with nAChRα[sub 7]. Cholesterol depletion from plasma membranes with methylβ-cyclodextrin redistributed nAChRα[sub 7] and AC6 diffusely within plasma membranes. Nicotine stimulation reduced forskolin-stimulated AC activity by 35%, and this inhibition was negated by either treatment with α-bungarotoxin, a specific antagonist of nAChRα[sub 7], or cholesterol depletion from plasma membranes. The effect of cholesterol depletion was negated by the addition of cholesterol. These data suggest that nAChRα[sub 7] has a specific membrane localization relative to other nAChR subunits and that lipid rafts are necessary to localize nAChRα[sub 7] with AC within plasma membranes. In addition, nAChRα[sub 7] may regulate the AC activity via Ca[sup 2+] within lipid rafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brefeldin A induces a rapid redistribution of cost proteins associated with clathrin-coated vesicles that bud from the tans-Golgi network but not of those associated with vesicles derived from the plasma membrane. Its effect on glucose transport and the subcellular distribution of the glucose transporter CLUT4 were therefore investigated in the absence or in the presence of insulin in order to characterize the mechanism of insulin-induced GLUT4 recycling. Exposure of rat adipose cells to befeldin A in the absence of insulin resulted in a slight increase both in 3-O-methyl-D-glocose transport and in the amount of GLUT4 in the plasma membrane as determined by immunoblot analysis. In contrast, it had no effect on the insulin-induced increase in 3-O-methyl-glucose transport and plasma-membrane-associated GLUT4. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed clathrin immunoreactivity in the juxtanuclear region and in the cell periphery, and the staining in the perinuclear region decreased after exposure of cells to 35 μM brefeldin A. However, it had no effect on the basal pattern of GLUT4 staining or on the insulin-induced redistribution of GLUT4 staining to the cell periphery. These results suggest that basal recycling of GLUT4 responsible for maintaining the intracellular location of the transporter may include a membrane budding step sensitive to brefeldin A, possibly associated with clathrin-coated vesicles, but that the insulin-stimulated GLUT4 recycling pathway is mediated predominatly by a brefeldin A-insensitive mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]