Diverticula in Male Lycorea halia Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Danaini: Itunina)-Support Organs for Everted Hairpencils with Unique Ultrastructure.

The involvement of the diverticula, a synapomorphy for Itunina, in protrusion and expansion of hairpencils by male Lycorea halia (Hübner, 1816) is demonstrated for the first time. They facilitate maintaining the haemolymph pressure necessary to keep the hairpencils everted. The diverticula are curved hook-like lobes, open to the body cavity and densely filled with tracheae and threads made by units of two staggered cells surrounding a central extracellular fibril bundle. Such complex structures, apparently metabolically active, have not been reported for insects previously and might indicate additional functions, but their functional role(s) remains a puzzle. When a male emerges from pupa, the diverticula are not yet formed; this happens only during the first protrusion of the hairpencils.

Neural correlates of ideomotor effect anticipations.

How does our mind produce physical, goal-directed action of our body? For about 200years, philosophers and psychologists hypothesized the transformation from mind to body to rely on the anticipation of an action's sensory consequences. Whereas this hypothesis received tremendous support from behavioral experiments, the neural underpinnings of action control via such ideomotor effect anticipations are virtually unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study identified the inferior parietal cortex and the parahippocampal gyrus as key regions for this type of action control - setting the stage for a neuroscientific framework for explaining action control by ideomotor effect anticipations and thus enabling a synthesis of psychological and neuroscientific approaches to human action.

[The position of concentrated relaxation in a training program for the psychoprerention of myocardial infarction]. / Die Stellung der Konzentrativen Entspannung in einem Trainingsprogramm zur Psychoprophylaxe des Myokardinfarktes

After a summarised presentation of the institutional framework and of the aims of a training programme developed from psychotherapeutic and social psychological techniques, the method of concentrated relaxation is described in detail and its especial function in the first phase of training is explained. Through prompt realization results being made available through identification being made easier by the assigning into groups, through the stimulation of independent activity and the creation of an initial awareness of the problem, concentrated relaxation becomes the upholding element of this first phase, the aim of which is the increasing of motivation towards further participation in training in this relatively unsusceptible group.

ACE inhibitors and diabetic nephropathy: clinical and experimental findings.

Apart from near normal metabolic control, early treatment of an increase in blood pressure in diabetic patients with nephropathy, is one of the most important therapeutic methods to prevent further progression of this complication. Long-term studies, recently published, suggest that ACE inhibitors have a beneficial effect on albuminuria and progression of nephropathy, irrespective of their hemodynamic effects. However, the mechanism by which ACE inhibitors exert these positive effects on glomerular pathology is still unclear. Several non-hemodynamic factors have been identified as being involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy: (a) changes in the composition of glomerular basement membrane due to a changed metabolism of the proteins which make up this structure; consequences are an impairment of the filtration properties, onset of proteinuria as well as thickening of basement membrane; (b) Mesangial expansion due to an overproduction of mesangial matrix and deposition of proteins as well as (c) impairment of mesangial clearance function; consequences are development of glomerulosclerosis and reduction of filtration surface. It is known that the renin-angiotensin-system is stimulated in diabetic patients with nephropathy and that angiotensin II influences the synthesis of glomerular and mesangial proteins as well as the function of mesangial cells. Hypothetically, these points could explain the beneficial effects of ACE-inhibitors on the progression of diabetic nephropathy.

[ACE inhibitor effects on structure and function of the glomerular basement membrane]. / ACE-Hemmer-Wirkungen auf Struktur und Funktion der glomerulären Basalmembran.

Metabolism of proteins which compose capillary basement membrane is altered in diabetic patients. In the kidney, this leads to an impaired permselectivity of glomerular basement membrane and consequently to onset of proteinuria. Proteinuria which is often increased by hemodynamic factors, initiates and promotes the development of diabetic glomerusclerosis. Aside from near-normal metabolic control, special antihypertensive treatment can reduce proteinuria and retard loss of kidney function in proteinuric diabetic patients. The beneficial effect of ACE-inhibitors on course of diabetic nephropathy is generally thought to be a consequence of decreased systemic and intraglomerular pressure. However, recent longterm studies in Type I and Type II diabetic patients with nephropathy showed that ACE-inhibition can reduce proteinuria independent from their hemodynamic effects and, thus, improves the filtration properties of glomerular basement membrane. This may be due to an influence of ACE-inhibition on metabolism of basement membrane proteins.

Four different types of protease-activated receptors are widely expressed in the brain and are up-regulated in hippocampus by severe ischemia.

A variety of extracellular serine proteases are expressed in the central nervous system or might permeate the blood-brain barrier under pathological conditions. However, their intracerebral targets and physiological functions are largely unknown. Here, we show that four distinct subtypes of protease-activated receptors (PARs) are abundantly expressed in the adult rat brain and in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures. PAR-1 expression was significant in the hippocampus, cortex and amygdala. Highest densities of PAR-2 and PAR-3 were observed in hippocampus, cortex, amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus and striatum. Apart from the striatum, a similar localization was found for PAR-4. Within the hippocampal formation, each PAR subtype was predominantly localized in the pyramidal cell layers. Additionally, we identified PAR-2 in mossy fibers between dentate gyrus and CA3, PAR-3 in the subiculum and PAR-4 in CA3 and in mossy fibres as well as in the stratum lacunosum moleculare. After exposing hippocampal slice cultures to a severe experimental ischemia (oxygen-glucose deprivation), the expression of PARs 1-3 was up-regulated with subtype-specific kinetics. The localization of PARs in brain regions particularly vulnerable to ischemic insults as well as distinct alterations in the expression pattern after experimental ischemia support the notion of an important role of extracellular serine proteases and PARs in cerebral ischemia.

Effect of metabolic factors and blood pressure on kidney function in proteinuric type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients.

Decline of kidney function with time and its influencing factors were investigated in the present longitudinal study in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with clinical diabetic nephropathy. Compared to a control group of Type 2 diabetic patients without proteinuria, the proteinuric patients showed a higher prevalence of hypertension, higher systolic blood pressure values and serum triglyceride levels. The annual loss of glomerular kidney function was much higher in the proteinuric patients (5.3 ml.min-1 x 1.73 m2) than in the control subjects (0.9 ml.min-1 x 1.73 m2). Correlation analyses revealed a close correlation between the annual decrease of kidney function and the factors, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride and postprandial blood glucose level as well as body mass index. Regression analyses showed for the first time that in addition to the systolic blood pressure and metabolic control, the triglyceride level is also an independent factor influencing the progression of nephropathy. Higher values of these parameters were associated with a more rapid deterioration of kidney function.