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Testosterone administration increases synaptic density in the gyrus dentatus of old mice independently of physical exercise
No full textTestosterone and physical exercise administration have been shown to affect hippocampal morphology in adult rodents. In aged animals, similar data are only available after physical exercise. In this work we used ultrastructural quantitative morphometry to investigate the effect of testosterone administration on the hippocampal synapses of old mice, either alone or in combination with aerobic physical exercise. The inner molecular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (IMLDG) and the molecular stratum of Ammon's horn 1 neurons (SMCA1) were investigated in 27-month-old male Balb/c mice randomly allocated to one of four experimental conditions (five mice each): sedentary control (C), testosterone administration (10 mg/kg once a week, TA), treadmill training (30 min a day, five days a week for 4 weeks at belt speed 8 m/min, 0% incline, TT) and testosterone administration plus treadmill training (TTTA). At the end of a four-week period, hippocampi were excised, fixed, and processed by ethanol phosphotungstic acid procedure to contrast synapses. The following variables were measured in electron micrographs: number of synapses/μm3 of tissue (Nv), total area of contact zones/μm3 of tissue (Sv), average area of the synaptic contact zone (S), and percentage of perforated synapses (%PS). ANOVA showed a statistically significant main effect of experimental condition for Nv and Sv in IMLDG, and for Sv in SMCA1 (p ≤ 0.003). The S and %PS were similar within group in ANOVA. Post-hoc analysis revealed a significant (p < 0.05) increase of Sv vs. C in SMCA1 and IMLDG after TT and TA, respectively. In IMLDG, Nv was significantly increased vs. C and TT after both TA and TTTA. Overall, results showed that testosterone increases synaptic density in IMLDG of old mice independently of physical exercise or changes in synaptic size. Instead, synaptic density in SMCA1 was only sensitive to physical exercise. These findings show that exogenous testosterone administration exerts a positive effect of on synapses in selected areas of the old mouse hippocampus
Modulatory Effect of Aerobic Physical Activity on Synaptic Ultrastructure in the Old Mouse Hippocampus
Full text linkAerobic physical exercise (APE) leads to improved brain functions. To better understand the beneficial effect of APE on the aging brain, a morphometric study was carried out of changes in hippocampal synapses of old (>27 months) Balb/c mice undergoing treadmill training (OTT) for 4 weeks in comparison with old sedentary (OS), middle-aged sedentary (MAS) and middle-aged treadmill training (MATT) mice. The inner molecular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (IMLDG) and the molecular stratum of Ammon’s horn1 neurons (SMCA1) were investigated. The number of synapses per cubic micron of tissue (numeric density, Nv), overall synaptic area per cubic micron of tissue (surface density, Sv), average area of synaptic contact zones (S), and frequency (%) of perforated synapses (PS) were measured in electron micrographs of ethanol-phosphotungstic acid (E-PTA) stained tissue. Data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA). In IMLDG, an effect of age was found for Nv and Sv, but not S and %PS. Similar results were found for exercise and the interaction of age and exercise. In post hoc analysis Nv was higher (60.6% to 75.1%; p < 0.001) in MATT vs. MAS, OS and OTT. Sv was higher (32.3% to 54.6%; p < 0.001) in MATT vs. MAS, OS and OTT. In SMCA1, age affected Nv, Sv and %PS, but not S. The effect of exercise was significant for Sv only. The interaction of age and exercise was significant for Nv, Sv and %PS. In post hoc analysis Nv was lower in OS vs. MAS, MATT and OTT (−26.1% to −32.1%; p < 0.038). MAS and OTT were similar. Sv was lower in OS vs. MAS, MATT and OTT (−23.4 to −30.3%, p < 0.004). MAS and OTT were similar. PS frequency was higher in OS vs. MAS, MATT and OTT (48.3% to +96.6%, p < 0.023). APE positively modulated synaptic structural dynamics in the aging hippocampus, possibly in a region-specific way. The APE-associated reduction in PS frequency in SMCA1 of old mice suggests that an increasing complement of PS is a compensatory phenomenon to maintain synaptic efficacy. In conclusion, the modulation of synaptic plasticity by APE gives quantitative support to the concept that APE protects from neurodegeneration and improves learning and memory in aging
Adapted physical exercise enhances activation and differentiation potential of satellite cells in the skeletal muscle of old mice
No full textDuring ageing, a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and a decrease in muscle strength and endurance take place, in the condition termed sarcopenia. The mechanisms of sarcopenia are complex and still unclear; however, it is known that muscle atrophy is associated with a decline in the number and/or efficiency of satellite cells, the main contributors to muscle regeneration. Physical exercise proved beneficial in sarcopenia; however, knowledge of the effect of adapted physical exercise on the myogenic properties of satellite cells in aged muscles is limited. In this study the amount and activation state of satellite cells as well as their proliferation and differentiation potential were assessed in situ by morphology, morphometry and immunocytochemistry at light and transmission electron microscopy on 28-month-old mice submitted to adapted aerobic physical exercise on a treadmill. Sedentary age-matched mice served as controls, and sedentary adult mice were used as a reference for an unperturbed control at an age when the capability of muscle regeneration is still high. The effect of physical exercise in aged muscles was further analysed by comparing the myogenic potential of satellite cells isolated from old running and old sedentary mice using an in vitro system that allows observation of the differentiation process under controlled experimental conditions. The results of this ex vivo and in vitro study demonstrated that adapted physical exercise increases the number and activation of satellite cells as well as their capability to differentiate into structurally and functionally correct myotubes (even though the age-related impairment in myotube formation is not fully reversed): this evidence further supports adapted physical exercise as a powerful, non-pharmacological approach to counteract sarcopenia and the age-related deterioration of satellite cell capabilities even at very advanced age
Neonatal exposure to permethrin pesticide causes lifelong fear and spatial learning deficits and alters hippocampal morphology of synapses.
Full text linkDuring the neurodevelopmental period, the brain is potentially more susceptible to environmental exposure to pollutants. The aim was to determine if neonatal exposure to permethrin (PERM) pesticide, at a low dosage that does not produce signs of obvious abnormalities, could represent a risk for the onset of diseases later in the life.
METHODS:
Neonatal rats (from postnatal day 6 to 21) were treated daily by gavage with a dose of PERM (34 mg/kg) close to the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL), and hippocampal morphology and function of synapses were investigated in adulthood. Fear conditioning, passive avoidance and Morris water maze tests were used to assess cognitive skills in rats, whereas electron microscopy analysis was used to investigate hippocampal morphological changes that occurred in adults.
RESULTS:
In both contextual and tone fear conditioning tests, PERM-treated rats showed a decreased freezing. In the passive avoidance test, the consolidation of the inhibitory avoidance was time-limited: the memory was not impaired for the first 24 h, whereas the information was not retained 72 h following training. The same trend was observed in the spatial reference memories acquired by Morris water maze. In PERM-treated rats, electron microscopy analysis revealed a decrease of synapses and surface densities in the stratum moleculare of CA1, in the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus and in the mossy fibers of the hippocampal areas together with a decrease of perforated synapses in the stratum moleculare of CA1 and in the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus.
CONCLUSIONS:
Early-life permethrin exposure imparts long-lasting consequences on the hippocampus such as impairment of long-term memory storage and synaptic morphology
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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