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Biomedical subjects

A Hiraga

Publications and source records attributed to A Hiraga.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

EMG activity of the muscles of the neck and forelimbs during different forms of locomotion.

We recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of 7 skeletal muscles in the forequarters and 1 in the hindquarters of 6 Thoroughbred horses during overground walking, swimming in a circular pool, and walking and trotting in a water treadmill. Bipolar fine wire electrodes were inserted into the muscles and the EMG signals were recorded using a telemetric system. The splenius exhibited tonic EMG activity during swimming. The brachiocephalicus showed its highest intensity during swimming followed by the walk and trot in the water treadmill and then walking overground. The triceps brachii caput longum had a similar activity pattern to the brachiocephalicus. The brachialis showed only weak EMG activity in all 3 types of locomotion. The extensor digitorum communis had higher intensity of EMG activity in the walk in the water treadmill than in other kinds of locomotion. The flexor digitorum profundus exhibited the most intense EMG activity during swimming. These results indicated that swimming evoked strong EMG activity in the antigravity muscles in spite of reduced gravitational force. Walking in the water treadmill may require more intensified EMG activity of the forelimb than the trot in the same treadmill.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Plasma adrenocorticotropin, cortisol and catecholamines response to various exercises.

The responses of plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), cortisol, noradrenaline and adrenaline in 5 Thoroughbred horses to an incremental exercise and 2 relative workload exercises, at 105 and 80% maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), on a treadmill were examined. These hormone concentrations increased (P < 0.05) with each exercise and the maximal plasma concentrations of ACTH, cortisol were observed between 5 and 30 min after the end of the exercise, while maximal catecholamine concentrations occurred just at exhaustion time. The plasma ACTH, noradrenaline and adrenaline responses during exercise were more sensitive to the intensity of exercise than that of cortisol and showed a significant correlation with blood lactate concentrations (r = 0.605, P < 0.001 for ACTH; r = 0.718, P < 0.001 for noradrenaline; r = 0.738, P < 0.001 for adrenaline). The plasma cortisol response appeared to be connected with the duration of exercise (r = 0.71, P < 0.05). The recovery of these hormones was related to the exercise styles. These results suggest that the autonomic nervous system and the pituitary-adrenal axis of the horse are efficiently stimulated by various treadmill exercises, and these hormones may be used in the evaluation of exercise-induced stress.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed1999

Effects of caffeine and promazine hydrochloride on plasma catecholamines in thoroughbreds at rest and during treadmill exercise.

Our aim was to investigate plasma catecholamine responses to so-called 'doping' drugs and exercise in Thoroughbreds. Plasma adrenaline (Ad) and noradrenaline (NA) were determined after the administration of caffeine and promazine hydrochloride (PRZ) using a high performance liquid chromatographic method. Caffeine or PRZ was administered i.m. to Thoroughbreds and its effects on plasma catecholamines at rest and during exercise were compared with the saline control. The treadmill exercise was performed 1 h after administration. A dose of 5.0 mg/kg bwt caffeine was found to significantly increase both plasma Ad and NA levels but this was not the case for the 2.5 mg/kg bwt dose and their peak levels at 1.5 h were about 3 and 2.5 times as compared with the control values at 1.5 h (Ad: mean +/- s.e. 21.2 +/- 2.8 pg/ml, NA: 55.5 +/- 4.1 pg/ml), respectively. Both 1.0 and 1.5 mg/kg bwt PRZ doses reduced the plasma Ad to below the detection limit (10 pg/ml) and significantly reduced the plasma NA. The 2.5 mg/kg bwt caffeine dose significantly increased plasma Ad and NA during exercise and approximately doubled their maximal values as compared with the saline control (Ad: mean +/- s.e. 12.328 +/- 4.733 ng/ml, NA: 9.997 +/- 4.146 ng/ml). The 1.5 mg/kg bwt PRZ dose decreased the plasma Ad during exercise but the effect was not significant. On the other hand, PRZ significantly increased the plasma NA as compared with the saline control. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that the plasma catecholamine responses to caffeine and PRZ were modified by exercise. It is probable that the modification may be related to exercise-induced activation of the sympathetico-adrenal axis.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Fragility of red cells during exercise is affected by blood pH and temperature.

We examined the relationship in horses between osmotic fragility of erythrocytes (OFE) measured as the red cell haemolysis rates (HLR) in 0.56% NaCl and certain physiological characters. Animals were exercised on a treadmill: warmed up at 30% VO2max for 5 min or at 105% VO2max for 1 min, given an exercise test at 80 or 105% VO2max until fatigued, and then cooled down. The pH and temperature of the blood had a significant correlation for the HLR: r = 0.93 and 0.92 (P < 0.01) on arterial and mixed venous blood, respectively. In multiple regression analysis, heart rate and packed cell volume showed lower coefficients for the HLR. The present study suggested that, in exercising horses, 1) the increase of blood flow and release of erythrocytes from the spleen into the circulation have little effect on changes of OFE; 2) the decrease of blood pH promotes OFE; 3) the increase of the pH causes osmotic resistance in the cells and 4) an increase of blood temperature during exercise is associated with the decrease in the OFE.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Rapid progression of pituitary hyperplasia in humans with primary hypothyroidism: demonstration with MR imaging.

PURPOSE: To use magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to evaluate the morphologic changes of the pituitary gland during the development of hypothyroidism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fourteen patients who had undergone thyroidectomy were evaluated before radioactive iodine 131 therapy. In each patient, MR imaging and measurement of serum hormone levels were performed twice: 5 weeks before 131I treatment as the "euthyroid state" with thyroid hormone supplementation and on the day of 131I treatment as the "hypothyroid state" after a 3-week depletion of thyroid hormone supplements. Nine healthy volunteers also underwent MR imaging twice at an interval of 5 weeks. Pituitary volume and the relative signal intensity ratio of the anterior pituitary to the pons were measured. The shape and signal intensity of the pituitary gland were also visually assessed. The paired Student t test was used to evaluate the significance of the data. A P value less than .05 indicated a statistically significant difference. RESULTS: The patients had significantly larger pituitary volume in the hypothyroid state than in the euthyroid state both quantitatively (P < .001) and visually. No significant differences were found in the relative signal intensity ratios of the anterior pituitary to the pons. In healthy volunteers, no significant differences in pituitary volumes or signal intensity were found between the two MR images. CONCLUSION: Rapid progression of hyperplasia of the anterior pituitary may occur with acute development of hypothyroidism.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Muscle adaptation of Thoroughbred racehorses trained on a flat or sloped track.

OBJECTIVE: To determine histochemical and biochemical properties of muscle during adaptation to training on a flat or sloped track. ANIMALS: 22 Thoroughbreds. PROCEDURE: Samples were obtained from the middle gluteus muscle before and after training programs were conducted, using a needle-biopsy technique. Training programs consisted of horses running 1,600 m on a flat or sloped track for 16 weeks. Amplitude of middle gluteus muscle activity per burst was calculated. Muscle fiber composition and area were examined on serial cross sections processed by standard histochemical staining procedures (ATPase stain after prior incubation with an acid or base, followed by succinate dehydrogenase [SDH] stain). Furthermore, SDH and phosphofructokinase activities were determined biochemically, and composition of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms was analyzed electrophoretically. RESULTS: Training resulted in substantial adaptations. Relative contribution of muscle fiber with high SDH activity (type-I and -IIa fibers) to total cross-sectional area, SDH activity, and composition of MHC-IIa isoforms were increased. Gel electrophoresis revealed a large amount of MHC-IIx isoform and a small amount of MHC-IIb isoform in the muscle. Although root mean square of muscle activity for training on a sloped track was 7.6% higher than the value obtained while training on a flat track, muscle histochemical and biochemical properties did not differ significantly between groups training on flat and sloped tracks. CONCLUSIONS: Training adaptations for contractile and metabolic properties of the middle gluteus muscle were evident for the 2 types of training. However, training adaptations did not differ significantly between groups trained on flat or sloped tracks.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1998

Selective suppression of stress-activated protein kinase pathway by protein phosphatase 2C in mammalian cells.

Protein phosphatase 2Calpha (PP2Calpha) or PP2Cbeta-1 expressed in COS7 cells suppressed anisomycin- and NaCl-enhanced phosphorylations of p38 co-expressed in the cells. PP2Calpha or PP2Cbeta-1 expression also suppressed both basal and stress-enhanced phosphorylations of MKK3b and MKK6b, which are upstream protein kinases of p38, and of MKK4, which is one of the major upstream protein kinases of JNK. Basal activity of MKK7, another upstream protein kinase of JNK, was also suppressed by PP2Calpha or PP2Cbeta-1 expression. However, basal as well as serum-activated phosphorylation of MKK1alpha, an upstream protein kinase of ERKs, was not affected by PP2Cbeta or PP2Cbeta-1. A catalytically inactive mutant of PP2Cbeta-1 further enhanced the NaCl-stimulated phosphorylations of MMK3b, MKK4 and MKK6b, suggesting that this mutant PP2Cbeta-1 works as a dominant negative form. These results suggest that PP2C selectively inhibits the SAPK pathways through suppression of MKK3b, MKK4, MKK6b and MKK7 activities in mammalian cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Mutational analysis of the domain structure of mouse protein phosphatase 2Cbeta.

The structures of five distinct isoforms of mammalian protein phosphatase 2Cbeta (PP2Cbeta-1, -2, -3, -4 and -5) have previously been found to differ only at their C-terminal regions. In the present study, we performed mutational analysis of recombinant mouse PP2Cbeta-1 to determine the functional domains of the molecule and elucidate the biochemical significance of the structural differences in the isoforms. Differences in affinity for [32P]phosphohistone but not for [32P]phosphocasein were observed among the five PP2Cbeta isoforms. Deletion of 12 amino acids from the C-terminal end, which form a unique sequence for PP2Cbeta-1, caused a 35% loss of activity against [32P]phosphohistone but no loss of activity against [32P]phosphocasein. Deletion of up to 78 amino acids from this end did not cause any further alteration in activity, whereas deletion of 100 amino acids totally eliminated the activity against both [32P]phosphohistone and [32P]phosphocasein. On the other hand, deletion of 11 amino acids from the N-terminal end caused a 97% loss of enzyme activity, and further deletions caused a total loss of activity. Substitution of any of the six specific amino acids among 16 tested in this study, which were located among the 250 N-terminal residues, caused 98-100% loss of enzyme activity. Among these amino acids, three (Glu-38, -60 and -243) have recently been reported to be essential for the binding of metal ions in the catalytic site of the PP2C molecule [Das, Helps, Cohen and Barford (1996) EMBO J. 15, 6798-6809]. These observations indicate that PP2Cbeta is composed of at least two distinct functional domains, an N-terminal catalytic domain of about 310 amino acids and the remaining C-terminal domain, which is involved in determination of substrate specificity.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Power spectral analysis of heart rate variability in a horse with atrial fibrillation.

This study has demonstrated the power spectral analysis of heart rate variability in a horse with atrial fibrillation. A large peak in the high frequency (HF) area of the power spectrum appeared in the horse. Hourly heart rate, the low frequency (LF) power, the HF power, and LF/HF ratio were almost constant during the recording period. The values of HF and LF power in the horse with atrial fibrillation were much larger than those in normal horses. The normalized unit of HF (HF n.u.) was much larger than that of LF (LF n.u.). Furthermore, the LF/HF ratio was very small in the horse. These results suggest that the ventricular rhythm has a respiratory related periodicity in the horse with atrial fibrillation and the predominant parasympathetic activity may modulate the intrinsic behavior of the atrioventricular node during atrial fibrillation.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Comparison of stride characteristics in a cantering horse on a flat and inclined treadmill.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was any difference in the stride characteristics between cantering on a flat or inclined treadmill. Five 2-year-old Thoroughbred horses were cantered on a treadmill at 3 different velocities and at 3 different slopes. The sequence of speeds at each slope was chosen at random and 16 mm cinefilms at 300 frames/s were taken from a lateral view at a distance of 15 m from the treadmill to record the linear and temporal data. On the slope, stride length, stride duration, stance duration and swing duration did not change. However, midstep length increased significantly and the airborne step length decreased significantly as slope increased from a 3% slope to a 8% slope at 12 m/s. The airborne duration increased significantly from a 0% slope to a 3% slope, and inversely decreased significantly from a 3% slope to a 8% slope. The advanced placement (AP) between trailing hindlimb and leading hindlimb (APTH-LH) and between trailing forelimb and leading forelimb (APTF-LF) and the overlap between LH and TF (LH-TF) tended to decrease and the AP between LH and TF (APLH-TF) and the overlap between TH and LH (TH-LH) inversely tended to increase as the slope increased, though these tendencies were not significant. These findings indicated that in slope locomotion, the stride length might be maintained by sacrificing the length of the airborne period as the workload became more intense.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Detection of bovine leukemia viruses (BLV) in mammary tissues of BLV antibody-positive cows affected by subclinical mastitis.

The mammary tissues of 6 cows with bovine leukemia virus (BLV) antibody and subclinical mastitis were investigated histopathologically, and their organ cultures were ultrastructurally observed. Numerous BLV particles, 110 to 120 nm in diameter, were seen around lymphocytes, which had infiltrated into mammary alveoli and showed blastogenesis under culture. Particles budding from the cell membrane were also found.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Measurement of erythrocyte volumes in splenectomized horses and sham-operated horses at rest and during maximal exercise.

Erythrocyte volumes of thoroughbred horses were measured. The volumes of splenectomized horses and sham-operated horses 2 hr after injection of 50Cr-tagged erythrocytes (at rest) and during maximal exercise were measured using the non-radioactive isotope 50Cr. Because splenic erythrocytes are released into circulation during exercise, it was estimated that the erythrocyte volumes of the sham-operated horses during maximal exercise are larger than those of the horses at rest. However, the erythrocyte volumes of the sham-operated horses at rest were about equal to those during maximal exercise. In the splenectomized horses, furthermore, erythrocyte volumes at rest and those at exercise were nearly equal. From these results, blood stored in the equine spleen is gradually mixed with circulating blood, and it was clarified that the phenomenon was completed within 2 hr. Although it is basically impossible to measure the circulating erythrocyte volume at rest using the erythrocyte tagged method, we observed that it is possible to measure the total erythrocyte volume using the 50Cr method. Also, the plasma volumes of the splenectomized horses during maximal exercise were found to be slightly smaller than those at rest. On the other hand, in the sham-operated horses, the plasma was decreased by a large quantity after maximal exercise. Therefore, it was suggested that the spleen participates in the phenomenon involving the disappearance of plasma from circulation due to exercise.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Okadaic acid suppresses neural differentiation-dependent expression of the neurofilament-L gene in P19 embryonal carcinoma cells by post-transcriptional modification.

Mouse P19 embryonal carcinoma cells in aggregation culture in the presence of 10(-6) M retinoic acid followed by monolayer culture differentiate into nerve and glial cells. In this study, we demonstrated that the neurofilament-L (NF-L) mRNA and protein levels of these cells were enhanced in accordance with their retinoic acid-induced neural differentiation. Okadaic acid (OA) treatment of the cells markedly suppressed this differentiation-dependent NF-L gene expression increase and neurite outgrowth of the cells. Similar results were obtained when tautomycin was used instead of OA, suggesting that inhibition of protein phosphatase(s) is involved in the suppression of neural differentiation. OA treatment did not affect the NF-L gene transcription level, determined by the nuclear run-on transcription assay, but it did reduce the stability of both the 3.5- and 2.3-kilobase NF-L mRNAs. The expression and activity levels of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and 2B (PP2B) but not protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) in P19 cells increased in accordance with the enhanced NF-L gene expression. The presence of OA in the culture medium during the course of the neural differentiation caused a reduced PP2A activity but not PP1 and PP2B activities of the cell extracts. On the other hand, both PP1 and PP2B activities but not PP2A activity of cell extracts were suppressed by the addition of cyclosporin A or FK506 in the culture medium. However, both cyclosporin A and FK506 treatments affected neither NF-L gene expression nor neurite outgrowth. These results demonstrate that the OA treatment inhibits the differentiation-dependent increase in NF-L gene expression by destabilizing its mRNAs and suggest that PP2A plays key roles in the differentiation-dependent enhanced expression of the NF-L gene and is the point of the action of OA.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Assessment of autonomic nervous function by power spectral analysis of heart rate variability in the horse.

We studied power spectral analysis of heart rate (HR) variability in the horse, with the hypothesis that the quantitative information provided by the spectral analysis of HR variability reflects the interaction between sympathetic and parasympathetic regulatory activities. For this purpose, electrocardiogram, blood pressure (BP) and respiratory (Resp) waveform were simultaneously recorded from Thoroughbred horses (3-5 years old) and analyzed by power spectrum. There were two major spectral components at low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) bands for HR variability. The peak of Resp variability clearly occurred at the HF range. In contrast to Resp variability, the power spectra of BP variability occurred at lower frequencies. The maximum coherence between HR and Resp variabilities and HR and BP variabilities occurred at approximately 0.15 and approximately 0.03 Hz, respectively. These relationships were similar to the ensemble spectra. On the basis of these data, we have defined two frequency bands of interest: LF (0.01-0.07 Hz) and HF (0.07-0.6 Hz). Therefore, we believe that power spectral analysis of HR variability provides a very powerful technique for assessing autonomic nervous activity in the horse.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Enhanced UV sensitivity of yeast cells induced by overexpression of Mg(2+)-dependent protein phosphatase alpha (type 2C alpha).

The UV sensitivity of wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells was increased 2-fold when rat Mg(2+)-dependent protein phosphatase alpha (protein phosphatase type 2C alpha) was overexpressed in the cells. The overexpression of this enzyme rendered the rad 18 mutant (defective in postreplication repair) more UV-sensitive than was observed in the wild-type cells. However, this increase in UV sensitivity disappeared when the host cells had a rad 1 mutation (defective in excision repair). These results suggest that the Mg(2+)-dependent protein phosphatase overexpressed in the yeast cells inhibited their excision repair system.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Effects of altered FIO2 on maximum VO2 in the horse.

Although the horse is considered an elite athlete with a specific VO2max some 2-4 times higher than man, maximal O2 transport is compromised both by moderately severe arterial desaturation and by failure to extract all O2 from blood perfusing exercising muscle. This prompted the present study to ascertain whether correction of arterial desaturation would proportionally augment VO2max and, if so, would O2 extraction behave in a manner predicted by diffusional transport limitation. Six two year old thoroughbreds were exercised to VO2max on a treadmill each on three separate occasions breathing gases of FIO2 = 0.15, 0.21 and 0.35, each used once in balanced order. VO2, ventilation, arterial and pulmonary arterial blood gases, pressures and lactate levels were measured both submaximally and maximally at each FIO2 and cardiac output was computed by mass balance for O2. At FIO2 = 0.21, VO2max = 143.9 +/- 4.8 ml kg-1 min-1, arterial saturation (SaO2) was 81.6 +/- 3.3% while venous PO2 (PvO2) was 15.3 +/- 1.4 Torr. At FIO2 = 0.35, VO2max was 172.6 +/- 8.2 ml kg-1 min-1, SaO2 reached 97.4 +/- 0.4% and PvO2 was 23.4 +/- 0.7 Torr. VO2max at FIO2 = 0.15 was 109.8 +/- 4.1 ml kg-1 min-1, SaO2 fell to 68.1 +/- 2.5% and PvO2 was 10.6 +/- 1.0 Torr, all changes being significant, p < 0.01. As FIO2 was varied, VO2max changed proportionally to calculated mean capillary Po2 as well as to total O2 delivery. These data confirm substantial O2 supply dependence of VO2max in the horse, and in such a manner as to be consistent with the hypothesis of combined diffusive and convective transport limitation within muscle.

Animals↗