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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 541-544 PubMed PMID: 17984950 Citation  Keywords:  Animals, Energy Metabolism:physiology, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System:secretion, Nerve Tissue Proteins:physiology, Neurotransmitter Agents:physiology, Prolactin:secretion, Rats,.   

: Cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) is widely expressed in the central nervous system and in several endocrine organs. The physiological role of this peptide includes modulation of appetite control, energy expenditure, thermoregulation and hormone secretion. It has been suggested that CART influences prolactin (PRL) secretion both directly and indirectly. However, the mechanism underlying the regulation of PRL release by CART remains unclear....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 585-590 PubMed PMID: 17984949 Citation  Keywords:  Adaptation, Psychological:physiology, Aggression:physiology, Animals, Corticosterone:blood, Dominance-Subordination, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System:physiology, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Social Environment, Stress, Psychological:blood, Territorialit.   

OBJECTIVE: Social stressors modulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in rodents. However, reports on the association between corticosterone level and behavioural responses to the stressor are ambivalent. This may depend on the experimental paradigm, species- and strain-differences, duration of exposure to the stressor, but also on using either the social state (dominant or subordinate) or the coping style (proactive or passive) of an animal to correlate the corticosterone level with.r />r /> DESIGN AND SETTING: We used male Balb-C mice in a resident-intruder paradigm. Adolescent intruders (aged five to eight weeks) were transferred into the cage of an adult resident (aged about four month) for five minutes. The interactions were video-taped for behavioural analysis. Ten minutes after the encounters, intruders were sacrificed and blood samples were collected.r />r /> RESULTS: Dominant intruders showed offensive behaviours (attack, chase, tail tracking) and won most of the fights, whereas subordinate intrudes showed mainly submissive behaviours (flight, freezing) and were further classified into active and passive subordinates. Active subordinates displayed significantly more flight-behaviour than passive subordinates. Dominant intruders showed significantly higher post-stress levels of corticosterone than subordinates, which did not differ from control mice, which experienced five minutes of novel-cage exposure. Comparing all three behavioural phenotypes we found the lowest corticosterone levels in active subordinates.r />r /> CONCLUSION: Social state significantly affects the HPA-axis response to acute social stressors....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 639-642 PubMed PMID: 17984948 Citation  Keywords:  Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Depressive Disorder:blood, Dissociative Disorders:blood, Female, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System:physiopathology, Male, Middle Aged, Pituitary-Adrenal System:physiopathology, Prolactin:blood, Statistics, Nonparamet.   

OBJECTIVES: Usual neuroendocrinological manifestation of traumatic stress and dissociation is dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The aim of the present study is to perform examination of HPA axis as indexed by basal serum prolactin and test its relationship to dissociative symptoms and symptoms of traumatic stress.r />r /> PATIENTS AND METHODS: 25 inpatients treated at the university hospital with diagnosis of unipolar depression mean age 41.23 (SD=11.53) were assessed using psychometric measures of dissociation (DES) and traumatic symptoms (TSC-40), and using standard biochemical analytical methods basal serum prolactin levels were investigated.r />r /> RESULTS: Data show that prolactin manifests significant relationship to dissociative symptoms (r=0.52, p=0.004). Significant correlation was not found between prolactin and traumatic symptoms measured by TSC-40 (r=0.31, p=0.07).r />r /> CONCLUSIONS: The present data suggest that serum prolactin levels in unipolar depressive patients are related to dissociative symptoms that is likely caused by passive coping mechanisms leading to dissociation....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 591-595 PubMed PMID: 17984947 Citation  Keywords:  Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome:drug therapy, Anti-Retroviral Agents:therapeutic use, Base Sequence, Citrobacter freundii:genetics, DNA, Bacterial:analysis, Enterobacter aerogenes:genetics, Enterobacteriaceae:genetics, Genes, Bacterial:genetics, Genes,.   

OBJECTIVES: Bacterial DNA isolated from the intestinal tract of 11 American and 30 Slovak HIV/AIDS patients were analyzed by colony and dot blot hybridization assay for HIV-1 specific sequences. Secondly, PCR using primers specific for the HIV-1 gag, pol and env genes for detection of HIV-1 sequences in these DNA were performed.r />r /> RESULTS: Intestinal bacteria DNA of HIV/AIDS patients hybridized in colony and dot blot hybridization assay for HIV-1 specific sequences. PCR products synthesized on specific primers of HIV-1 gag (115 bp), env (142 bp), pol-env (1484) genes were found to be for more than 90% homologous to the corresponding sequence in HIV-1.r />r /> CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal bacteria of HIV/AIDS patients are bearing sequences for more than 90% identical with those of HIV-1....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 659-661 PubMed PMID: 17984946 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Behavior, Addictive:psychology, Cerebral Cortex:physiology, Choice Behavior, Conflict (Psychology), Decision Making, Games, Experimental, Humans, Male, Reinforcement (Psychology), Smoking:psychology, Socioeconomic Factors,.   

OBJECTIVE: No study to date compared degrees of inequity aversion in economic decision-making in the ultimatum game between non-addictive and addictive reinforcers. The comparison is potentially important in neuroeconomics and reinforcement learning theory of addiction.r />r /> METHODS: We compared the degrees of inequity aversion in the ultimatum game between money and cigarettes in habitual smokers.r />r /> RESULTS: Smokers avoided inequity in the ultimatum game more dramatically for money than for cigarettes; i.e., there was a "domain effect" in decision-making in the ultimatum game.r />r /> CONCLUSIONS: Reward-processing neural activities in the brain for non-addictive and addictive reinforcers may be distinct and the insula activation due to cue-induced craving may conflict with unfair offer-induced insula activation. Future studies in neuroeconomics of addiction should employ game-theoretic decision tasks for elucidating reinforcement learning processes in dopaminergic neural circuits....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 675-680 PubMed PMID: 17984945 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Copper:blood, Exercise:physiology, Humans, Male, Oxygen Consumption:physiology, Physical Exertion:physiology, Reference Values, Statistics, Nonparametric, Zinc:blood,.   

: This study was carried out in order to determine the effect of acute maximal aerobic exercise on the copper and zinc levels in blood. The study was participated by 16 healthy male university students with an average age of 19.44+/-1.63. There were 5 cc blood samples taken from the participants before and after they had been subjected to aerobic loading process (20 m shuttle run). The copper and zinc levels in the blood samples were determined by the use of Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV) technique. The data obtained were evaluated by simple t test and SPSS software. The results revealed the fact that the blood Zn levels of the participants increased and Cu levels decreased with statistical significant extent (p<0.01) after maximal aerobic loading. There found no correlation between the maximal aerobic power levels (Max VO2) of the participants and their resting copper and zinc blood levels. However blood zinc and Max VO2 levels of the participants were positively correlated after maximal aerobic loading. The participants were fed on a zinc and copper free diet six week prior to the program. They were also asked not to use copper and zinc containing vitamins during this period....

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Clinical Trial 2007; 28(5): 681-685 PubMed PMID: 17984944 Citation  Keywords:  Administration, Oral, Adolescent, Adult, Dietary Supplements, Exercise:physiology, Exercise Test, Fatigue:blood, Humans, Male, Physical Exertion:physiology, Testosterone:blood, Thyroid Hormones:blood, Thyroxine:blood, Trace Elements:administration & dosag.   

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine how exercise affects thyroid hormones and testosterone levels in sedentary men receiving oral zinc for 4 weeks.r />r /> METHODS: The study included 10 volunteers (mean age, 19.47+/-1.7 years) who did not exercise. All subjects received supplements of oral zinc sulfate (3 mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks and their normal diets. The thyroid hormone and testosterone levels of all subjects were determined at rest and after bicycle exercise before and after zinc supplementation.r />r /> RESULTS: TT3, TT4, FT3, and total and free testosterone levels decreased after exercise compared to resting levels before supplementation (p<0.01). Both the resting and fatigue hormone values were higher after 4 weeks of supplementation than the resting and fatigue values before supplementation (p<0.05).r />r /> CONCLUSION: The results indicate that exercise decreases thyroid hormones and testosterone in sedentary men; however, zinc supplementation prevents this decrease. Administration of a physiologic dose of zinc can be beneficial to performance....

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Journal Article 2007; 28(5): 596-603 PubMed PMID: 17984943 Citation  Keywords:  Acromegaly:etiology, Acylation, Adenoma:complications, Blood Glucose:metabolism, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, Fasting:blood, Female, Ghrelin:blood, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I:analysis, Male, Matched-Pair Analysi.   

OBJECTIVE: The pathophysiology of ghrelin secretion in acromegaly is unclear. Our aim was to study circulating fasting ghrelin levels and their response to oral glucose in acromegalic patients and normal control subjects.r />r /> DESIGN AND PATIENTS: 9 acromegalic patients (4 male, 5 female; 59.4+/-3.6 years; 28.6+/-1.0 kg/m2) and 9 age and BMI matched healthy control subjects (4 male, 5 female; 59.1+/-1.4 years; 26.5+/-0.8 kg/m2) were included. We obtained blood samples for glucose, insulin, GH, total ghrelin and acylated ghrelin at times 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after 75 g of oral glucose.r />r /> RESULTS: Fasting GH and IGF-I were statistically different between patients and controls: GH (microg/l): 6.7+/-1.4 vs. 0.8+/-0.4, p<0.01; IGF-I (ng/ml): 414+/-75 vs. 86+/-6, p<0.01. Fasting total ghrelin (pg/ml) were similar in the patient and in the control group, 916+/-132 vs. 844+/-169, p=ns. In both groups total ghrelin levels decreased during oral glucose, and nadir total ghrelin was lower than fasting ghrelin: patients: 916+/-132 vs. 747+/-95, p<0.05; controls: 844+/-169 vs. 625+/-90, p<0.05). The AUCs of total ghrelin (pg/ml*min) were not different between the two groups: 98953+/-13052 vs. 83773+/-13096, p=ns). Fasting acylated ghrelin (pg/ml) were similar in the patient and the control group 65+/-13 pg/ml vs.74+/-14 pg/ml, p=ns. In both groups acylated ghrelin levels decreased during oral glucose, and nadir acylated ghrelin levels were lower than basal acylated ghrelin levels: patients: 65+/-13 vs. 42+/-6, p<0.05; controls: 74+/-14 pg/ml vs. 37+/-4 pg/ml, p<0.05). The AUCs of acylated ghrelin (pg/ml*min) were not different between the two groups: patients: 6173+/-992 vs. controls 8648+/-2742, p=ns). In acromegalic patients there was a negative correlation between fasting, both total and acylated, ghrelin and both fasting and post oral glucose insulin levels.r />r /> CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that circulating total and acylated ghrelin in acromegaly is regulated by insulin and not by GH hypersecretion....

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