ABSTRACT
Ageing is associated with altered neuroendocrine function. In the context of the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus, which makes the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin, ageing alters acute responses to hyperosmotic cues, rendering the elderly more susceptible to dehydration. Chronically, vasopressin has been associated with numerous diseases of old age, including type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Bulk RNAseq transcriptome analysis has been used to catalogue the polyadenylated supraoptic nucleus transcriptomes of adult (3 months) and aged (18 months) rats in basal euhydrated and stimulated dehydrated conditions. Gene ontology and Weighted Correlation Network Analysis revealed that ageing is associated with alterations in the expression of extracellular matrix genes. Interestingly, whilst the transcriptomic response to dehydration is overall blunted in aged animals compared to adults, there is a specific enrichment of differentially expressed genes related to neurodegenerative processes in the aged cohort, suggesting that dehydration itself may provoke degenerative consequences in aged rats.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a set of formulae for the temporal spontaneous baroreceptor reflex (sBRR) sequence parameters in isodistributional (ID) surrogate data is derived. This is facilitated by representing successive positive or negative amplitude changes as a Markov chain model. The obtained analytical tool measures the effect of random fluctuations on the overall number of sequences, estimated from the original biomedical time series. The formulae are tested using ID surrogates of systolic blood pressure and pulse-interval signals recorded from 13 healthy male Wistar rats at baseline conditions.