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A novel technique to develop thoracic spinal laminectomy and a methodology to assess the functionality and welfare of the contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) rat model.
No full textThis study reports the advantage of a novel technique employing a motorised dental burr to assist laminectomy over the conventional manual technique at T10-T11 vertebra level in a rat model of spinal cord injury. Twenty-four female rats were randomly assigned to four groups: (1) conventionally laminectomised, (2) dental burr assisted laminectomised, (3) conventionally laminectomised with spinal cord contusion and (4) dental burr assisted laminectomised with spinal cord contusion. Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) score, postoperative body weights, rat grimace scale (RGS), open cage activity and rearing was studied at 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days postoperatively, and area of spinal tissue affected was evaluated histologically. Laminectomised and spinal cord injured rats from dental burr groups showed significantly more weight gain and less weight loss respectively in comparison with respective conventionally laminectomised groups at various time points. Significantly higher RGS score was noticed in conventionally laminectomised animals on Day 1 in comparison to burr assisted laminectomy and presence of pain was evident until Day 7 in the conventionally spinal cord injured group. BBB score did not differ between techniques, whereas laminectomy groups showed more resting time than spinal injury groups. High rearing score was significantly higher in groups which underwent dental burr assisted technique at various time points with respect to their conventional counterparts. This study suggests that the use of dental burr assisted technique to perform laminectomy will bring refinement by producing less pain, aiding in better recovery, removing procedural artefacts without affecting the outcome of the model
Green synthesis of Pluronic stabilized reduced graphene oxide: Chemical and biological characterization.
No full textThe wonder material graphene has numerous potential applications in nanoelectronics, biomedicine, storage devices, etc. Synthesis of graphene is highly challenging due to the toxic chemicals used and its low yield. In the present study, a facile green route for synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was carried out using ascorbic acid as reducing agent. rGO was stabilized using Pluronic P123 polymer to give Pluronic stabilized reduced graphene oxide (rGO-P) and gave superior yield (15 mg graphene oxide yielded ˜13 mg rGO-P). Despite the potential neuroscience applications of graphene, the impending toxicological outcome upon interaction with neurons is not well understood. Here, differentiated PC-12 neuron-like cells exposed to rGO-P showed a dose-dependent cytotoxicity. Membrane disruption and cytoskeletal integrity remained uncompromised after 24 h exposure. Oxidative stress in PC-12 was evident due to an increase in ROS generation in dose and time-dependent manner. In vivo acute toxicity was assessed in mice administered with 10 mg/kg body weight of rGO-P. There were no evident changes in behaviour, motor function or other morphological changes. In conclusion, rGO-P was successfully synthesized and provided superior yield. Even though in vitro toxicity testing showed dose-dependent toxicity, in vivo toxic effect was not apparent
Prospective observational study of patients undergoing anterior petrosectomy
No full textThe anterior petrous apex has been considered as a gateway to the posterior
cranial fossa. The anterior petrosectomy as described by Kawase converts this deep
narrow operative corridors into wider shallower exposures, improves manoeuvrability
and minimizes retraction. It comprises of a sub-temporal craniotomy followed by
extradural drilling of the petrous apex to reach the posterior fossa. The traditional
Kawase approach provides a 10×5 mm fenestration at the petrous apex of the
temporal bone between the 5th cranial nerve and internal auditory canal and the
greater superficial petrosal nerve. Complications of this approach include palsies of
facial, trigeminal and abducent nerve, CSF leak, hearing loss, injury to the vein of
Labbe, etc. This study aims to calculate the amount of bone resected in an anterior
petrosectomy done in this institute and with this knowledge, quantify the differential
variations used in each surgery while achieving adequate exposure with respect to the
local complications will provide a better understanding of this approach. The study
ought to define minimal safe resection for a lesion with the best local outcome while
preserving the adequacy of exposur
Levels of physical inactivity in rural and urban Tamil Nadu, India: A cross-sectional study
No full textBackground and Objectives: Physical inactivity is an important cardiovascular risk factor. This study assessed the prevalence and factors associated with insufficient physical activity (PA) in urban and rural Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, among adults aged 30–64 years. Methodology: A cross-sectional World Health Organization STEPS survey was carried out in 48 wards of Vellore Municipality and nine rural villages of Tamil Nadu in 2010–2012. Adults (n = 6164, men 43.9%) aged 30–64 years were interviewed using the Global PA Questionnaire (2390 urban and 3774 rural). Insufficient PA was defined as not meeting the recommendation of 150 min of moderate aerobic PA, or 75 min of vigorous aerobic PA, or an equivalent combination, achieving at least 600 metabolic equivalent-minutes per day. Results: The prevalence of insufficient PA was 63.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 61.3%–65.3%) in the urban area and 40.6% (95% CI: 39.0%–42.2%) in the rural area. Women had a higher prevalence of insufficient PA compared to men, in both urban (70.8% vs. 53.8%) and rural (44.5% vs. 35.6%) areas. Those with higher education (odds ratio [OR]: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.20–1.53) and who were unemployed (OR: 2.97, 95% CI: 2.59–3.39) reported insufficient PA which was significantly higher than their counterparts. While urban participants had higher leisure time PA, rural participants had higher work- and travel-related PA. Conclusions: The high prevalence of insufficient PA found in this study shows that targeted interventions are needed to reduce insufficient PA, especially for women and urban populations
Role of phenotypic testing in determining the mechanism of resistance in Gram-negative bacilli & risk factors for meropenem resistance
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Modulation of tumor antigen-reactive anti-Gal antibodies by lipoprotein(a) concentration and its effect on tumor susceptibility
No full textA Simple Method to Efficiently Record/ Capture Caenorhabditis elegans Locomotory Behaviours
No full textCaenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model to study animal chemotaxis and thermotaxis behaviours. These nematodes have highly predictable behaviour pattern towards olfactory cues. A complex chemosensory information processing, based on both temporal and spacial cues, is involved in chemotaxis behaviour and can modify its behaviour towards attractants as well as repellents (Ward., 1973; Colbert et al., 1995; Troemel et al., 1997). In chemotaxis assay, worms show unsurpassed behaviour with a pattern of movement based on concentration gradient in the assay plate (Saeki et al., 2001; Iino et al., 2009). Such behavioural patterns are highly intriguing because they give better understanding on how various neuronal signalling elicit such pattern of behaviour and how factors such as past experience of the animal, mutations affecting neuronal function, modify them. (Brenner., 1974; de Bono et al., 1998). Hence, behavioural assays have critical role in elucidating the alterations in neuronal activities in C. elegans.
The standard chemotaxis assay estimates the movement pattern of C. elegans by tracking the course it takes in an agar plate containing a chemical gradient. This measurement requires recording the tracks over time in the plate (Buckingham et al., 2005; Yemini et al., 2011). Automated single worm tracker allows long term behavioural recording (Husson et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2013). The pattern of behaviour of animals in the assay plates shows there are significant alterations in patterns of movement like body bends and omega turns under experimental conditions. For a long term observation for such behaviour one needs to record the animals with least disturbances. Efficient recording often eliminates researcher’s bias and makes it easy to re-evaluate the results if needed (Piere-Shimoura et al., 1999; Hardaker LA et al., 2001; Baek et al., 2002). These recorded videos can be later processed in ImageJ for measuring the patterns. Though these recording can be done using a simple dissection microscopic system with camera, there is a major limitation that the light source is very close to the worm making series of artefacts in its behaviour,
Here we report a simple setup to manually record and count these behavioural changes in worms. In this study we measured basal slowing response and enhanced slowing responses, the two different locomotory changes in response to food. Neuronal circuitry underlying these locomotory changes involves dopamine and serotonin (Sawin et al 2000)
Pyrogens, a polypeptide produces fever by metabolic changes in hypothalamus: Mechanisms and detections.
No full textFever is one of the cardinal symptoms of onset of an infection or inflammation and is the common clinical indicator for medical consultation in mammalian host worldwide. Simply, fever manifested with elevation of body temperature from normal physiological range represents adaptive response of immune system on challenge with an infectious and non-infectious circumstance. Fever usually initiated in the periphery as a result of interaction of immune cells with exogenous or endogenous pyrogens. Peripheral pyrogenic signals gain access to the central nervous system via humoral and neural route. Humoral pathway was initiated with production of pyrogenic cytokines and prostaglandins from immune cells of blood as well as liver, transmitted directly to pre-optic area of hypothalamus through the circumventricular organ of brain. On the other hand an alternative pathway was initiated by the same cytokines indirectly via stimulating the vagal sensory neurons result in pyrogenic fever; so-called neuronal pathway. If the magnitude of pyrogens associated fever is very high, it will lead to severe illness ranging from septic shock to death. So it is necessary to evaluate the presence of pyrogens in implants, medical devices, drugs and biological materials to ensure safety in biomedical applications and therapeutics. Classification, route of administration, mechanism of action and detection of pyrogens and associated products are the major subject of this review