Colloid oncotic pressure and total protein changes in horses during anesthesia fluid therapy

It is unknown whether overlapping or sequential use of nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory (NSAIDs) results in an increased risk for gastrointestinal (GI) ulceration. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the GI effects of various combinations of an injectable NSAID followed by an oral NSAID, a scenario often employed clinically for management of the pre‐ and post‐operative canine patient. Six healthy Walker hounds received four treatment regimens in a randomized, cross‐over design with a 2 week washout period between each treatment week: carprofen (4 mg kg^–1, SQ) followed by placebo (PO, q24 × 4 days); placebo (SQ) followed by deracoxib (3–4 mg kg^–1, PO, q24 × 4 days); carprofen (4 mg kg^–1, SQ) followed by carprofen (4 mg kg^–1, PO, q24 × 4 days); carprofen (4 mg kg^–1, SQ) followed by deracoxib (3–4 mg kg^–1, PO, q24 ×4 days). Weekly bloodwork (CBC, biochemistry panel, fecal evaluation, fecal occult blood) and daily clinical scoring (TPR, vomiting, diarrhea, appetite) were obtained. GI endoscopy was performed on days –2, 1, 2, 5, and 11 days post treatment of each treatment period and lesions scored using a previously reported 6‐point scale. Data was analyzed using a mixed anova for repeated measures. There were no significant differences in clinical or clinicopathologic data between groups. Within the carprofen‐carprofen and carprofen‐deracoxib groups, lesions worsened by Day 5 (1 day after last oral dose) for the fundic and antral regions (p < 0.05). Fundic, antral and lesser curvature lesions improved by Day 5 in the carprofen‐placebo group and lesser curvature lesions improved in the placebo‐deracoxib group (p < 0.05). No significant within‐group differences were noted for the esophagus, cardia or duodenum. The small number of dogs precludes general conclusions about the safety of sequential NSAID use, but these results suggest that a larger scale study is warranted.     

Die jagdlichen Verh?ltnisse in Elsa\-Lothringen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Efficacy of vaginal spaying and anabolic implants on growth and carcass characteristics in beef heifers

Ninety crossbred beef heifers averaging 260 kg were blocked by weight and allotted randomly to 15 pens of six heifers each, with three replicates per treatment. The treatments were spayed heifers (S); intact heifers (I); S + Synovex-H7 (SH); I + Synovex-H (IH); and S + Synovex-S7 (SS). The heifers were spayed vaginally with a Willis instrument; intact heifers were rectally palpated for reproductive soundness. Heifers were fed a growing diet (55 d), re-implanted and subsequently fed a finishing ration (73 or 101 d). All heifers were observed for estrus daily at approximately 0600 and 2000 until d 69. A jugular vein blood sample was obtained from each heifer on d 48, 55, 62 and 69 for blood progesterone analysis. Results of blood progesterone analysis and reproductive tract examination indicated that two spayed heifers were incompletely spayed, a 96% success rate. The SH and SS heifers continued to exhibit estrous behavior despite being successfully spayed. Heifers implanted with Synovex-H had greater (P less than .01) ADG and were more efficient (P less than .03) than nonimplanted heifers. The SS heifers had greater ADG (P less than .05) during the finishing phase than SH heifers, but no advantage of SS over SH was apparent during the growing phase. The overall ADG response to implantation was fourfold greater (P less than .07) in the spayed heifers than in the intact heifers (32 vs 8%). Heifers implanted with Synovex-H had greater adjusted hot carcass weight (P less than .02) and ribeye area (P less than .002) than nonimplanted heifers. For adjusted live weight and ribeye area, the response to implantation was approximately threefold greater in the spayed heifer than the intact heifer. These results demonstrate that spaying and implanting heifers can increase rates and efficiency of gain even though behavioral estrus is not eliminated.     

Radio Frequency Signals in Jupiter's Atmosphere

During the Galileo probe's descent through Jupiter's atmosphere, under the ionosphere, the lightning and radio emission detector measured radio frequency signals at levels significantly above the probe's electromagnetic noise. The signal strengths at 3 and 15 kilohertz were relatively large at the beginning of the descent, decreased with depth to a pressure level of about 5 bars, and then increased slowly until the end of the mission. The 15-kilohertz signals show arrival direction anisotropies. Measurements of radio frequency wave forms show that the probe passed through an atmospheric region that did not support lightning within at least 100 kilometers and more likely a few thousand kilometers of the descent trajectory. The apparent opacity of the jovian atmosphere increases sharply at pressures greater than about 4 bars.     

Comet west and the scattering function of cometary dust

Observations of Comet West (1975n) at wavelengths from 0.5 to 18 microns and at a variety of scattering angles are used to infer the scattering phase function for the cometary dust. This function is strongly peaked in the forward direction. The form of the function indicates that the particles are dielectric grains with radii of approximately 1 micron. Abrupt increases in the intrinsic brightness of the coma (both in scattered sunlight and in thermal emission) are consistent with the projected times of comet fragmentation.     

Convergence of developmental mutants into a single tomato model system: 'Micro-Tom' as an effective toolkit for plant development research

Background

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plant is both an economically important food crop and an ideal dicot model to investigate various physiological phenomena not possible in Arabidopsis thaliana. Due to the great diversity of tomato cultivars used by the research community, it is often difficult to reliably compare phenotypes. The lack of tomato developmental mutants in a single genetic background prevents the stacking of mutations to facilitate analysis of double and multiple mutants, often required for elucidating developmental pathways.

Results

We took advantage of the small size and rapid life cycle of the tomato cultivar Micro-Tom (MT) to create near-isogenic lines (NILs) by introgressing a suite of hormonal and photomorphogenetic mutations (altered sensitivity or endogenous levels of auxin, ethylene, abscisic acid, gibberellin, brassinosteroid, and light response) into this genetic background. To demonstrate the usefulness of this collection, we compared developmental traits between the produced NILs. All expected mutant phenotypes were expressed in the NILs. We also created NILs harboring the wild type alleles for dwarf, self-pruning and uniform fruit, which are mutations characteristic of MT. This amplified both the applications of the mutant collection presented here and of MT as a genetic model system.

Conclusions

The community resource presented here is a useful toolkit for plant research, particularly for future studies in plant development, which will require the simultaneous observation of the effect of various hormones, signaling pathways and crosstalk.     

Influence of murine Toxocara canis infection on plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid eosinophil numbers and its correlation with cytokine levels

Toxocara canis is a nematode of the Ascaridae family that normally parasites the small intestine of canid species. Humans are accidentally infected upon ingestion of embryonated eggs, and can manifest several clinical alterations such as fever, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, respiratory symptoms, muscle pain and anorexia. In the present work, we investigated the kinetics of tissue distribution of L2 larva in lungs, liver, kidney, brain, skeletal muscle and myocardium. Also, we analyzed the blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) for levels of IL-6, IFN-gamma, eotaxin and Regulated on Activation Normal T Cell Expressed and Secreted (RANTES) in experimental murine T. canis infection. We observed liver, lung and kidney lesions correlated to larva migration as early as the first day of infection. After the seventh post-infection day, larva could also be detected in brain, skeletal muscle and heart, as an indicator of biphasic migration pattern. Increased inflammatory activity was detected in BAL and plasma of infected animals, as was an intense eosinophil migration associated with an increase in the levels of all the cytokines studied. In conclusion, our results establish a tight correlation between tissue lesions caused by larva migration and increased plasma levels of pro-inflammatory and eosinophil chemotactic cytokines. Thus, murine T. canis infection may prove to be useful in understanding the role of cytokines in infection.     

Expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in macrophages inversely correlates with parasitism of lymphoid tissues in dogs with visceral leishmaniasis

Background

There are only a few studies reporting the role of nitric oxide metabolites for controlling macrophage intracellular parasitism, and these are controversial. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the lymph nodes and spleen of dogs affected by visceral leishmaniasis through immunohistochemistry and to determine its correlation with tissue parasite burden and serum interferon (IFN)-γ levels. Twenty-eight dogs were selected and assigned to one of two groups, symptomatic (n = 18) and asymptomatic (n = 10), according to clinical status and laboratory evaluation. A negative control group (n = 6) from a non-endemic region for visceral leishmaniasis was included as well.

Results

Parasite density (amastigotes/mm²) was similar between clinical groups in the lymph nodes (P = 0.2401) and spleen (P = 0.8869). The density of iNOS⁺ cells was higher in infected dogs compared to controls (P < 0.05), without a significant difference in lymph node (P = 0.3257) and spleen (P = 0.5940) densities between symptomatic and asymptomatic dogs. A positive correlation was found between the number of iNOS⁺ cells in lymph nodes and interferon-γ levels (r = 0.3776; P = 0.0303), and there was a negative correlation between parasites and iNOS⁺ cell densities both in lymph nodes (r = −0.5341; P = 0.0034) and spleen (r = −0.4669; P = 0.0329).

Conclusion

The negative correlation observed between tissue parasitism and the expression of iNOS may be a reflection of NO acting on the control of parasites.