Elevated Amygdala Activity to Sad Facial Expressions: A State Marker of Bipolar but Not Unipolar Depression

Background: Difficulties in emotion processing and poor social function are common to bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) depression, resulting in many BID depressed individuals being misdiagnosed with MDD. The amygdala is a key region implicated in processing emotionally salient stimuli, including emotional facial expressions. It is unclear, however, whether abnormal amygdala activity during positive and negative emotion processing represents a persistent marker of BD regardless of illness phase or a state marker of depression common or specific to BID and MDD depression. Methods: Sixty adults were recruited: 15 depressed with BID type 1 (BDd), 15 depressed with recurrent MDD, 15 with BID in remission (BDr), diagnosed with DSM-IV and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Research Version criteria; and 15 healthy control subjects (HC). Groups were age- and gender ratio-matched; patient groups were matched for age of illness onset and illness duration; depressed groups were matched for depression severity. The BDd were taking more psychotropic medication than other patient groups. All individuals participated in three separate 3T neuroimaging event-related experiments, where they viewed mild and intense emotional and neutral faces of fear, happiness, or sadness from a standardized series. Results: The BDd-relative to HC, BDr, and MDD-showed elevated left amygdala activity to mild and neutral facial expressions in the sad (p < .009) but not other emotion experiments that was not associated with medication. There were no other significant between-group differences in amygdala activity. Conclusions: Abnormally elevated left amygdala activity to mild sad and neutral faces might be a depression-specific marker in BID but not MDD, suggesting different pathophysiologic processes for BD versus MDD depression.

Synthesis of Fructooligosaccharides in Banana `Prata` and Its Relation to Invertase Activity and Sucrose Accumulation

Levels of sucrose and total fructool igosaccha rides (FOS) were quantified in different phases of banana `Prata` ripening during storage at ambient (similar to 19 degrees C) and low (similar to 10 degrees C) temperature. Total FOS levels were detected in the first days after harvest, whereas 1-kestose remained undetectable until the sucrose levels reached approximately 200 mg/g (dry weight) in both groups. Sucrose levels increased slowly but constantly at low temperature, but they elevated rapidly when the temperature was raised to 19 degrees C. Total FOS and sucrose levels were higher in bananas stored at low temperature than in the control group. In both samples, total FOS levels were higher than those of 1-kestose. The carbohydrate profiles obtained by HPLC and TLC suggest the presence of neokestose, 6-kestose, and bifurcose. The enzymes putatively involved in banana fructosyltransferase activity were also evaluated. Results obtained indicate that the banana enzyme responsible for the synthesis of FOS by transfructosylation is an invertase rather than a sucrose-sucrosyl transferase-like enzyme.

Prefrontal cortical and striatal activity to happy and fear faces in bipolar disorder is associated with comorbid substance abuse and eating disorder

Background: The spectrum approach was used to examine contributions of comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder to abnormal prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to happy and fear faces previously demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD). Method: Fourteen remitted BD-type I and sixteen healthy individuals viewed neutral, mild and intense happy and fear faces in two event-related fMRI experiments. All individuals completed Substance-Use and Eating-Disorder Spectrum measures. Region-of-Interest analyses for bilateral prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions were performed. Results: BD individuals scored significantly higher on these spectrum measures than healthy individuals (p<0.05), and were distinguished by activity in prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions. BD relative to healthy individuals showed reduced dorsal prefrontal-cortical activity to all faces. Only BD individuals showed greater subcortical-striatal activity to happy and neutral faces. In BD individuals, negative correlations were shown between substance use severity and right PFC activity to intense happy faces (p<0.04), and between substance use severity and right caudate nucleus activity to neutral faces (p<0.03). Positive correlations were shown between eating disorder and right ventral putamen activity to intense happy (p<0.02) and neutral faces (p<0.03). Exploratory analyses revealed few significant relationships between illness variables and medication upon neural activity in BID individuals. Limitations: Small sample size of predominantly medicated BD individuals. Conclusion: This study is the first to report relationships between comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder and prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to facial expressions in BD. Our findings suggest that these comorbid features may contribute to observed patterns of functional abnormalities in neural systems underlying mood regulation in BD. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

THE EFFECTS OF BROMAZEPAM ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A SENSORY-MOTOR ACTIVITY: AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY

Aims. To investigate the effects of using bromazepam on the relative power in alpha while performing a typing task. Bearing in mind the particularities of each brain hemisphere, our hypothesis was that measuring the relative power would allow its to investigate the effects of bromazepam oil specific areas of the cortex. More, specifically, we expected to observe different patterns of powers in sensory-motor integration, attention and activation processes. Subjects and methods. The sample was made up of 39 subjects (15 males and 24 females) with a mean age of 30 +/- 10 years. The control (placebo) and experimental (3 mg and 6 mg of bromazepam) groups were trained ill the typing task with a randomised double-blind model. Results. A three-way ANOVA and Scheffe test were used to analyse interactions between the factors condition and moment, and between condition and sector Conclusions. The doses used ill this study facilitated motor performance of the typing task. Ill this study, the use of the drug did not prevent learning of the task, but it did appear to concentrate mental effort on more restricted and specific aspects of typing. It also seemed to influence the rhythm and effectiveness of the operations performed during mechanisms related to the encoding and storage often, information. Likewise, a predominance of activity was observed in the left (dominant) frontal area in the 3 mg bromazepam group, which indicates that this close of the drug affords the subject a greater degree of directionality of cortical activity for planning and performing the task. [REV NEUROL 2009; 49: 295-9]

Pulmonary involvement in pleural tuberculosis: How often does it mean disease activity?

Objective: To evaluate in chest X-rays and high-resolution computed tomographies of patients with pleural tuberculosis, the incidence of parenchymal and mediastinal lung lesions suggestive of active disease. Methods: Prospective study (2008-2009) evaluating the radiographic and tomographic abnormalities of 88 HIV-negative patients with pleural tuberculosis (unilateral effusion). The images were reviewed by 3 independent specialists, and the observed changes were classified according to previously established criteria: presence or absence of signs suggestive of disease activity, and nonspecific findings. Results: Abnormal changes were observed in chest X-rays of 22 (25%) patients and in the computed tomography of 55 (63%). Images compatible with active pulmonary tuberculosis were detected by radiography in 9 (10%) patients and by tomography in 38 (43%). Only 4 (4.5%) patients had tomography images suggestive of residual disease. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that pulmonary involvement is quite common in pleural tuberculosis. This finding is mainly observed in high-resolution computed tomography and has important epidemiological implications, since patients with pleural tuberculosis are significant sources of infection and disease dissemination. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toll-like receptor activity in Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are membrane proteins that recognize conserved molecules derived from bacterial, virus, fungal or host tissues. Activation of TLRs causes the production of cytokines that mediate inflammatory responses and drive T helper (Th) 1 and 2 cell development. As an exaggerated Th1 immune response is supposed to be involved in pathogenesis of Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration (RAU), we suggest that RAU patients may have an imbalance in TLR pathways. To study the function of TLR activation ex vivo, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from RAU patients (n = 17) and controls (n = 17) were exposed to TLR2 [lipoteichoic acid (LTA), heat-killed Listeria monocytogenes (HKLM) and PamC3CSK4], TLR3 [Poly(I:C)], TLR4 [lipopolysaccharide (LPS)], TLR5 (flagellin) and TLR7 (imiquimod) ligands, and the time course of supernatant tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) levels was quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In addition, serological and salivary TNF-alpha and soluble CD14 levels were quantified. The TNF-alpha produced by PBMCs in contact with each TLR ligand and autologous serum or saliva at the same time was also investigated. The data were analyzed by statistical multivariate tests. The control group had a higher response to LTA, whereas RAU had a higher response to HKLM. LTA and LPS interfered with the salivary stimulation of the RAU PBMC and HKLM with the stimulation of the control. Autologous serum was capable of inhibiting TLR2 responsiveness to LTA and enhancing LPS stimulation. Salivary and serological levels of sCD14 and TNF-alpha were not significantly different. Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration patients have an anomalous activity of the TLR2 pathway that probably influences the stimulation of an abnormal Th1 immune response.

Effects of bromazepam in frontal theta activity on the performance of a sensorimotor integration task: A quantitative electroencephalography study

Our objective is to verify the modulatory effects of bromazepam on EEG theta absolute power when subjects were submitted to a visuomotor task (i.e., car driver task). Sample was composed of 14 students (9 males and 5 females), right handed, with ages varying between 23 and 42 years (mean = 32.5 +/- 9.5), absence of mental or physical impairments, no psychoactive or psychotropic substance use and no neuromuscular disorders (screened by a clinical examination). The results showed an interaction between condition and electrodes (p=0.034) in favor of F8 electrode compared with F7 in both experimental conditions (t-test; p=0.001). Additionally, main effects were observed for condition (p=0.001), period (p=0.001) and electrodes (p=0.031) in favor of F4 electrode compared with F3. In conclusion, Br 6 mg of bromazepam may interfere in sensorimotor processes in the task performance in an unpredictable scenario allowing that certain visuospatial factors were predominant. Therefore, the results may reflect that bromazepam effects influence the performance of the involved areas because of the acquisition and integration of sensory stimuli processes until the development of a motor behavior based on the same stimuli. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Elevated striatal and decreased dorsolateral prefrontal cortical activity in response to emotional stimuli in euthymic bipolar disorder: no associations with psychotropic medication load

To examine abnormal patterns of frontal cortical-subcortical activity in response to emotional stimuli in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder type I in order to identify trait-like, pathophysiologic mechanisms of the disorder. We examined potential confounding effects of total psychotropic medication load and illness variables upon neural abnormalities. We analyzed neural activity in 19 euthymic bipolar and 24 healthy individuals to mild and intense happy, fearful and neutral faces. Relative to healthy individuals, bipolar subjects had significantly increased left striatal activity in response to mild happy faces (p < 0.05, corrected), decreased right dorsolateral prefrontal cortical (DLPFC) activity in response to neutral, mild and intense happy faces, and decreased left DLPFC activity in response to neutral, mild and intense fearful faces (p < 0.05, corrected). Bipolar and healthy individuals did not differ in amygdala activity in response to either emotion. In bipolar individuals, there was no significant association between medication load and abnormal activity in these regions, but a negative relationship between age of illness onset and amygdala activity in response to mild fearful faces (p = 0.007). Relative to those without comorbidities, bipolar individuals with comorbidities showed a trend increase in left striatal activity in response to mild happy faces. Abnormally increased striatal activity in response to potentially rewarding stimuli and decreased DLPFC activity in response to other emotionally salient stimuli may underlie mood instabilities in euthymic bipolar individuals, and are more apparent in those with comorbid diagnoses. No relationship between medication load and abnormal neural activity in bipolar individuals suggests that our findings may reflect pathophysiologic mechanisms of the illness rather than medication confounds. Future studies should examine whether this pattern of abnormal neural activity could distinguish bipolar from unipolar depression.

Benzylglucosinolate, Benzylisothiocyanate, and Myrosinase Activity in Papaya Fruit during Development and Ripening

Papaya is a climacteric fruit that has high amounts of benzylglucosinolates (BG) and benzylisothiocyanates (BITC), but information regarding levels of BG or BITC during fruit development and ripening is limited. Because BG and BITC are compounds of importance from both a nutritional and a crop yield standpoint, the aim of this work was to access data on the distribution and changes of BG and BITC levels during fruit development and ripening. BG and BITC levels were quantified in peel, pulp, and seeds of papaya fruit. Volatile BITC was also verified in the internal cavity of the fruit during ripening. The influence of the ethylene in BG and BITC levels and mirosinase activity was tested by exposing mature green fruits to ethylene and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). The highest BG levels were detected in seeds, followed by the peel and pulp being decreased in all tissues during fruit development. Similarly, the levels of BITC were much higher in the seeds than the peel and pulp. The levels of BG for control and ethylene-treated fruit were very similar, increasing in the pulp and peel during late ripening but not changing significantly in seeds. On the other hand, fruit exposed to 1-MCP showed a decrease in BG amount in the pulp and accumulation in seed. The treatments did not result in clear differences regarding the amount of BITC in the pulp and peel of the fruit. According to the results, ethylene does not have a clear effect on BITC accumulation in ripening papaya fruit. The fact that BG levels in the pulp did not decrease during ripening, regardless of the treatment employed, and that papaya is consumed mainly as fresh fruit, speaks in favor of this fruit as a good dietary source for glucosinolate and isothiocyanates.

Low-dose estrogen therapy does not change postexercise hypotension, sympathetic nerve activity reduction, and vasodilation in healthy postmenopausal women

The aim of this study was to determine whether estrogen therapy enhances postexercise muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) decrease and vasodilation, resulting in a greater postexercise hypotension. Eighteen postmenopausal women received oral estrogen therapy (ET; n = 9, 1 mg/day) or placebo (n = 9) for 6 mo. They then participated in one 45-min exercise session (cycle ergometer at 50% of oxygen uptake peak) and one 45-min control session (seated rest) in random order. Blood pressure (BP, oscillometry), heart rate (HR), MSNA (microneurography), forearm blood flow (FBF, plethysmography), and forearm vascular resistance (FVR) were measured 60 min later. FVR was calculated. Data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA. Although postexercise physiological responses were unaltered, HR was significantly lower in the ET group than in the placebo group (59 +/- 2 vs. 71 +/- 2 beats/min, P < 0.01). In both groups, exercise produced significant decreases in systolic BP (145 +/- 3 vs. 154 +/- 3 mmHg, P = 0.01), diastolic BP (71 +/- 3 vs. 75 +/- 2 mmHg, P = 0.04), mean BP (89 +/- 2 vs. 93 +/- 2 mmHg, P = 0.02), MSNA (29 +/- 2 vs. 35 +/- 1 bursts/min, P < 0.01), and FVR (33 +/- 4 vs. 55 +/- 10 units, P = 0.01), whereas it increased FBF (2.7 +/- 0.4 vs. 1.6 +/- 0.2 ml (.) min(-1) (.) 100 ml(-1), P = 0.02) and did not change HR (64 +/- 2 vs. 65 +/- 2 beats/min, P = 0.3). Although ET did not change postexercise BP, HR, MSNA, FBF, or FVR responses, it reduced absolute HR values at baseline and after exercise.

Studies of RET gene expression and acetylcholinesterase activity in a series of sporadic Hirschsprung`s disease

The purpose is to present the studies of RET gene expression and acetylcholinesterase activity in 23 patients operated for Hirschsprung`s disease (HD). The patients underwent either transanal endorectal pull-through or Duhamell`s procedure. Full-thickness intestinal samples from the three different segments (ganglionic, intermediate and aganglionic) were collected. Each tissue sample was divided in two portions, one for AChE histochemical staining and the other for examination of RET mRNA expression level. All patients had an uneventful postoperative recovery. In all patients, the AChE stainings demonstrated the absence of activity in the ganglionic area, the marked increase of positive fibers in the aganglionic area, and little increase of positive fibers in the intermediate area. In the ganglionic and intermediate areas, all patients (100%) showed significant RET gene expression. In the aganglionic area, 18 patients (78.3%) did not present gene expression and the other five patients (21.7%) presented gene expression that was similar to the ganglionic and intermediate areas. The results reinforce the conclusion that the method of AChE staining is effective for the diagnosis of intestinal aganglionosis and confirm the knowledge that genes beyond RET may be implicated in the genesis of sporadic cases of HD.

ONSET OF ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY OF PATELLAR STABILIZER MUSCLES IN SUBJECTS WITH PATELLOFEMORAL PAIN

Objective: To asses the onset (%) of patella stabilizer muscles during maximal isometric contraction exercises (MIC) in individuals with and without signs of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) in open (OKC) and closed (CKC) kinetic chain exercises, Method: Assessments were carried out on 22 women; ten with no complains of anterior knee pain, and 12 with PFPS signs during MIC in OKC and CKC with the knee flexed at 90 degrees. The onset of the electromyographic activity of the vastus mediallis obliquus (VMO), vastus lateralis obliquus (VLO) and vastus lateralis longus (VLL) was identified by means of an algorithm in the Myosystem Br 1 software. The statistical analysis used was Chi-Square test and student`s t test, which are both tests with a level of significance at 5%. Results: The VMO and VLO muscles presented a greater onset compared to the VLL during OKC exercises for both groups and for the PFPS group without CCF No differences were observed between the groups. Conclusion: CKC and OKC exercises seem to benefit the synchronism of the musculature that supposedly benefits the patella stabilizer musculature, and can be recommended in physiotherapeutic treatment programs.