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Biomedical subjects

L Mancini

Publications and source records attributed to L Mancini.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

[Changes in the subendothelial compartment during the maturation process of cerebral microvessels].

Basement lamina and pericytes of growing blood microvessels were analyzed in the chick embryo optic tectum, from the 8th incubation day to hatching. Formation of the basement lamina and morphological changes of the pericytes take place in a short range of time, but late in the embryonic life, when also the blood brain barrier (bbb) devices are developing. The spatial and temporal coincidence between basement lamina formation, endothelium tight junction differentiation, and perivascular arrangement of the astrocytic glia, indicates that these events are correlated and corroborates the hypothesis that the glia needs an extracellular matrix to induce the junctional system maturation in the neural endothelia. Pericytes are irregular in shape during the early neural angiogenesis and smooth and flattened later, as the basement lamina synthesis is taking place; these cells represent a second line of barrier beyond the endothelium when the bbb is immature, owing to their phagocytic and digestive properties.

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PubMed1991

[Endothelial vesicles as a transport system in the blood-brain barrier. Morphometric study during development].

The vesicles and vacuoles of the endothelia, morphological expression of endocytosis and transendothelial transport, are quite absent in the mature neural endothelia. In order to study the temporal sequence of the vesicle and vacuole modifications during the blood brain barrier (bbb) setting up, the extent of these structures was morphometrically analyzed on electron micrographs of neural microvessels in the optic tectum of 8, 14, and 17 day chick embryos, fixed after an intracardial injection of the permeability marker horseradish peroxidase. During the development, endocytosis and transendothelial transport change, since a statistically significant reduction of both vesicles and vacuoles was recorded at the 17th incubation day. The temporal coincidence between decrease of endocytosis-transport processes and appearance of astrocytic endfeet close to the vessel wall, suggests that the glial cells might control, besides the tight junction formation, the expression of other properties of the bbb-provided endothelia.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

[Microbiological profile in water-supply conduits from a clogged well].

This article presents the results of an investigation involving bacterioflora in a water well clogged for the presence of biomass. The water well, placed in a zone near Rome, showed some problems about the water quality and about the extraction of water. The examination of the interior of the pipes showed the presence of biomass. The biomass was examined microscopically and bacteriological analyses were carried out on it. Heterotrophic bacteria were enumerated with three different media by direct count, Pseudomonas sp., yeasts and fungi also by spread plate method. The anaerobic Sulphate Reducing Bacteria were investigated by "Most Probable Number" technique. The results of the analyses showed the presence of protozoa and algae. Moreover high quantity of bacterial flora as heterotrophic bacteria and Pseudomonas sp. were revealed. Sulphate Reducing Bacteria were enumerated in low quantities. Sphaerotilus natans, Actinomyces and Rhodotorula were identified. The clogging problems arose from the presence of filamentous microorganisms as Sphaeroilus natans and Actinomyces sp. When microorganisms of this kind are present in aquifers they can multiply massively if the conditions are favorable.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Computerized three-dimensional reconstruction of the developing blood-brain barrier.

Computer-aided techniques for three-dimensional reconstruction of images were employed in a morphological and morphometrical study of blood-brain barrier (BBB) development in the microvasculature of the chick embryo optic tectum. The method proved very useful for understanding the spatial relationships between BBB vascular and perivascular components, and of their modifications during embryonic life. The results indicate that the perivascular astrocytic endfeet, the main periendothelial components of the BBB, appear on the 14th incubation day and form an almost continuous perivascular envelope at hatching time.

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PubMed1989

Morphometric analysis on the effects of hypoxia during the central nervous system vasculogenesis.

A morphometric analysis was carried out on the optic tectum microvascolature in chicken embryos developing under normal and hypoxic conditions in order to evaluate the effects of an environmental O2 reduction on growing neural blood vessels. The vessel number, the vessel diameter and the distance intervening between contiguous vessels were measured. In the developing tectum under hypoxia the results evidenced a remarkable, progressive increase in vessel number, higher than in the controls; a transitory increment of the vessel diameter, which in later embryonic development returned similar to that recorded during normal tectum vasculogenesis; a value of the distance between contiguous vessels always much lower than under normal conditions. The possible significances of these morphological evidences were discussed and a capacity on the part of the growing neural vascular bed for adapting itself to a reduced oxygen concentration was noted.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Ethyl-oxide effects on a newly formed blood-brain barrier.

The morphofunctional effects of ethyl-oxide, utilized as anaesthetic, on the optic tectum blood-brain barrier were investigated in hatching chick embryos (21st incubation day) and young chickens in which the barrier to the marker of vascular permeability horseradish peroxidase is complete after the 18th incubation day. Results indicate that ethyl-oxide administration produces horseradish peroxidase extravasation by opening the tight interendothelial junctions. The escape rate of the marker is higher in the tecta of hatching embryos than in those of chickens and in both horseradish peroxidase extravascular diffusion is more frequent at the level of vessel bifurcation than along the branchless vessel tracts.

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PubMed1988

The barrier systems in the choroidal plexuses of the chick embryo studied by means of horseradish peroxidase.

The development of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and cerebrospinal fluid-blood barriers, and the differentiation of the choroidal vessel wall, have been ultrastructurally investigated in the choroidal plexuses of the lateral ventricles of 10, 15, 18 and 21 day chicken embryos, fixed in normal conditions and also after intracardial and intraventricular injection of horseradish peroxidase. In all the analyzed developmental stages the choroidal epithelial cells seem able to endocytose and degradate, in their lysosomal apparatus, the tracer molecules reaching their ventricular and basolateral sides. The intravascularly injected horseradish peroxidase can enter the ventricular cavity by interepithelial route only at 10th incubation day, when the tight intercellular junctions are not formed everywhere, while a transepithelial transport is always hindered. The marker injected into the ventricular cavity reaches the subepithelial compartment and the blood stream, at 10th incubation day by interepithelial as well as transepithelial route and, successively, by transepithelial vesicular transport alone. The differentiation processes undergone by the choroidal blood vessels consist in a progressive thinning of the endothelial cells, appearance of pores, already numerous at 15th incubation day, and formation of the endothelial basement lamina, the final event in vessel wall maturation.

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PubMed1986

Process of differentiation of cerebellar Purkinje neurons in the chick embryo.

The microscopic and ultrastructural differentiation of Purkinje neurons has been studied in 40 chicken embryo cerebella, from the 10th incubation day to hatching, and the transverse diameter of the cell body measured, for each developmental stage, on 30 electron micrographs of sagittally cut Purkinje cells. The developing Purkinje cell bodies, bipolar, at first, given the presence of two processes emerging from the opposite poles of the oval perikaryon, grow progressively in size. After the 12th incubation day, they develop a branched dendritic tree, and, shortly before hatching time, the cells acquire the characteristic flask or pear-shaped configuration. On the 10th incubation day, microtubules are already detectable together with Golgi complexes and a few vesicles of rough endoplasmic reticulum; on the 14th incubation day, RER cisterns are recognizable in the supranuclear cytoplasm, later extending into the whole perikaryon, and attaining their definitive distribution by the 18th incubation day. Pinocytotic and coated vesicles, as well as subsurface cisterns are seen during the whole embryonic life. In the earliest stages of development, three distinct types of junctional contacts between Purkinje cells and surrounding axons are described, and their functional role in relation to synaptogenetic processes is discussed. Beginning with the 16th incubation day, some Purkinje neurons undergo degenerative changes similar to those described in other types of neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system.

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PubMed1986

Microscopical and ultrastructural investigations on the development of the blood-brain barrier in the chick embryo optic tectum.

The formation of a blood-brain barrier to horseradish peroxidase was microscopically and ultrastructurally investigated in the tectum opticum of the chick during development of the intraneural blood vessel network from the 6th incubation day to hatching, and in adult specimens. Extravasation of the circulating marker, apparently unimpeded during early stages of vasculogenesis, starts to diminish from the 14th incubation day (i.d.) and is prevented after the 18th i.d. The tracer seems to get out of the vessel lumina through the sites of reciprocal contact between adjacent endothelial cells, and the differentiation of tight junctions there hinders the passage of peroxidase particles. The formation of numerous endothelial vacuoles during early vasculogenesis and the setting of the blood-brain barrier are discussed in connection with the mechanisms of transendothelial transport, and respectively, the processes of moulding of the growing endothelia.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Brain stimulation to treat mental illness and enhance human learning, creativity, performance, altruism, and defenses against suffering.

Any mental/emotional state or process (MESP) which is considered highly desirable (e.g., sustained concentration, memorization of important facts, empathy) or undesirable (e.g., paranoid delusionalism, delirium) could be, respectively, facilitated or deterred by means of an external (i.e., extracranial, or at least extracerebral, and extracorporal) brain stimulation circuit designed in such a way as to deliver rewarding stimulation as often and only as often as and for as long and only for as long as an electroencephalographic or other kind of brain function characteristic, which uniquely identifies the occurrence of the MESP in question, were being emitted by the individual's (i.e., the subject's) brain, with the intensity of the stimulation at every point in time being proportional, respectively, to the simultaneous magnitude or to the reciprocal of the simultaneous magnitude of the MESP-identifying characteristic. Approaches a and b are generalized examples of a number of hypothetical stimulation paradigms presented below that might be used to treat mental illness, enhance learning, etc. (as in the title). Explanations of the psychodynamic mechanisms whereby these paradigms might exert their intended effects are given in most cases.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1986

Effects of the chronic hypoxia on the developing blood-brain barrier in the chick embryo optic tectum.

The blood-brain barrier to horseradish peroxidase has been investigated microscopically and ultrastructurally in the optic tectum of hatching chicken embryos which were kept under hypoxic conditions from the 3rd incubation day. The results indicated that the weakness sites of the blood-brain barrier correspond to the tight interendothelial junctions, whose breakdown allows extravasation of the marker into limited areas of the tectum wall.

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