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Background adaptation in a rat model of retinopathy of prematurity.

Low dark-adapted, scotopic retinal and visual sensitivity in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) could be due to disease of the inner retina, or the recently described rod photoreceptor abnormalities. Receptoral disease decreases catch of quanta from both test flashes and steady background lights; increment threshold functions are shifted up and right. In diseases with normal receptors but low retinal sensitivity due to abnormal post receptoral processing, the increment threshold functions are shifted up with no horizontal translation. Herein we test the hypothesis that the rod photoreceptors are the site of ROP disease which causes low dark adapted b-wave sensitivity. The effect of steady background light on the ERG b-wave in a rat model of ROP is studied. ERG stimulus/response functions were obtained using full-field stimuli in the dark-adapted state, and in the presence of a steady background light. In each adaptation condition, log sigma, the test flash intensity that produced a half-maximum b-wave amplitude, was calculated. In pilot experiments, the background light selected had raised log sigma about a log unit in controls. In dark-adapted ROP rats log sigma was significantly higher, 0.35 log unit, than in controls. In the presence of the background light, log sigma in ROP and control rats did not differ significantly indicating a relative shift, up and right, of the increment sensitivity function for the less sensitive ROP rats. The effect of the background light is consistent with receptoral disease causing low dark adapted b-wave sensitivity in ROP rats.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Intracellular recordings from gecko photoreceptors during light and dark adaptation.

Intracellular recordings were obtained from rods in the Gekko gekko retina and the adaptation characteristics of their responses studied during light and dark adaptation. Steady background illumination induced graded and sustained hyperpolarizing potentials and compressed the incremental voltage range of the receptor. Steady backgrounds also shifted the receptor's voltage-intensity curve along the intensity axis, and bright backgrounds lowered the saturation potential of the receptor. Increment thresholds of single receptors followed Weber's law over a range of about 3.5 log units and then saturated. Most of the receptor sensitivity change in light derived from the shift of the voltage-intensity curve, only little from the voltage compression. Treatment of the eyecup with sodium aspartate at concentrations sufficient to eliminate the beta-wave of the electroretinogram (ERG) abolished initial transients in the receptor response, possibly indicating the removal of horizontal cell feedback. Aspartate treatment, however, did not significantly alter the adaptation characteristics of receptor responses, indicating that they derive from processes intrinsic to the receptors. Dark adaptation after a strongly adapting stimulus was similarly associated with temporary elevation of membrane potential, initial lowering of the saturation potential, and shift of the voltage-intensity curve. Under all conditions of adaptation studied, small amplitude responses were linear with light intensity. Further, there was no unique relation between sensitivity and membrane potential suggesting that receptor sensitivity is controlled at least in part by a step of visual transduction preceding the generation of membrane voltage change.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

The influence of rod light and dark adaptation upon rod-cone interaction.

The influence of a rod-detected mask of illuminance IR on the threshold illuminance of a cone-detected test flash (ICth) was assessed while rods were recovering from the effects of a bleach, and when rods were selectively light adapted. Providing that IR was restricted to within 2 log10 units of rod mask threshold (IRth), results show that ICth/IC0 = K (square root (IR/IRth) + D), where IC0 is cone absolute threshold, D is a dark noise term and K is a proportionality constant. These data were used to obtain 'equivalent background functions' or 'Crawford (1947) transforms' (illuminance of a background field plotted against time in the dark). The same Crawford transform was obtained when either IRth or ICth (in the presence of a fixed illuminance IR) were used as equating variables. All of the foregoing results could be predicted by considering both the influence of light adaptation on rods (see Fain, 1976) and the model developed by Bauer, Frumkes & Nygaard (1982). Under dark-adapted conditions, 40' and 60' diameter rod masks of equal illuminance have very similar influences on ICth. When rods are selectively light adapted 60' masks have smaller influences on ICth. The foregoing results were used to extend the model developed in the previous paper. We suggest that rod adaptation has a distinct influence on neural loci designated E (the excitatory spatial summator) and I (the inhibitory spatial summator), and that E represents a site for both adaptation and spatial summation.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Pangenome analysis of Lactobacillus mulieris strains reveals distinct subspecies clusters with defined ecological adaptations.

Lactobacillus mulieris is a recently described species, reportedly isolated from human urine, vagina, and gut. Previous genomic studies of L. mulieris highlighted significant genetic diversity among its strains. To gain a deeper understanding of this genomic diversity, we conducted a comprehensive genomic comparison of 70 L. mulieris strains from diverse sources. Phylogenomic and genome relatedness analysis identified three distinct clades, each representing a potential subspecies cluster. Pangenome analysis revealed distinct gene clusters shaping the functional characteristics and unique ecological adaptations of each clade. Clade 1 demonstrated a generalist lifestyle, with strains isolated from diverse sources and enriched in serine/threonine protein kinases, suggesting adaptive versatility. Clade 2, predominantly composed of urinary isolates, displayed enrichment in genes facilitating nutrient acquisition and osmotic regulation, enabling survival in the nutrient-limited and high osmolarity conditions of the urinary tract. Clade 3, exclusively composed of vaginal isolates, exhibited significant enrichment in genes supporting glycogen metabolism, carbohydrate transport, and capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis-features indicative of adaptation to the vaginal environment. Collectively, our findings provide essential genomic insights into the ecological specialization of L. mulieris, shedding light on their genetic variability and adaptive traits within their respective ecological niches.IMPORTANCERecognizing the genomic diversity within Lactobacillus mulieris is essential for understanding its ecological specialization and adaptation strategies across distinct human-associated environments. By identifying three distinct clades with unique functional traits, our study highlights the critical role of niche-specific genetic adaptations in microbial survival. The presence of specialized gene functions within each clade underscores how evolutionary pressures shape bacterial resilience in different environments. Despite their coexistence in overlapping environments, these clades exhibit distinct genomic profiles that may influence their colonization potential and interactions with the host and within the host-associated microbiota. Our findings emphasize the need for a classification framework that accounts for these genetic and functional differences and the necessity for further investigation to understand their distinct roles and impact on human health.

Humans↗

Adaptation in vertebrate photoreceptors.

When light is absorbed within the outer segment of a vertebrate photoreceptor, the conformation of the photopigment rhodopsin is altered to produce an activated photoproduct called metarhodopsin II or Rh(*). Rh(*) initiates a transduction cascade similar to that for metabotropic synaptic receptors and many hormones; the Rh(*) activates a heterotrimeric G protein, which in turn stimulates an effector enzyme, a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase. The phosphodiesterase then hydrolyzes cGMP, and the decrease in the concentration of free cGMP reduces the probability of opening of channels in the outer segment plasma membrane, producing the electrical response of the cell. Photoreceptor transduction can be modulated by changes in the mean light level. This process, called light adaptation (or background adaptation), maintains the working range of the transduction cascade within a physiologically useful region of light intensities. There is increasing evidence that the second messenger responsible for the modulation of the transduction cascade during background adaptation is primarily, if not exclusively, Ca(2+), whose intracellular free concentration is decreased by illumination. The change in free Ca(2+) is believed to have a variety of effects on the transduction mechanism, including modulation of the rate of the guanylyl cyclase and rhodopsin kinase, alteration of the gain of the transduction cascade, and regulation of the affinity of the outer segment channels for cGMP. The sensitivity of the photoreceptor is also reduced by previous exposure to light bright enough to bleach a substantial fraction of the photopigment in the outer segment. This form of desensitization, called bleaching adaptation (the recovery from which is known as dark adaptation), seems largely to be due to an activation of the transduction cascade by some form of bleached pigment. The bleached pigment appears to activate the G protein transducin directly, although with a gain less than Rh(*). The resulting decrease in intracellular Ca(2+) then modulates the transduction cascade, by a mechanism very similar to the one responsible for altering sensitivity during background adaptation.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Effects of rod activity on color perception with light adaptation.

To investigate the effect of rod activity on color perception with light adaptation, chromaticity shifts of monochromatic test lights were measured as a function of background field intensity at 17 deg in the nasal field of view. The measurements were performed both after complete dark adaptation and during the cone-plateau period at a mesopic test intensity level of 15 photopic trolands. To clarify the mechanisms underlying the chromaticity shifts obtained, six supplementary experiments were performed. The results of the experiments strongly suggest that at scotopic background intensities, light adaptation of rods, both within and adjacent to the test area, may reduce rod signals triggered by the test light and thereby produce marked chromaticity shifts with light adaptation. At mesopic background intensities, cones in the background field become activated and may influence the chromaticity shift with light adaptation both by suppressing signals from rods elicited by the test light and by producing a selective chromatic adaptation.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

[Brightness power function and equal brightness contour for dark- and light-adapted eye in the peripheral visual field (author's transl)].

To test whether the equal brightness contour at supra-threshold runs parallel with the contour at threshold, magnitude estimation and the staircase procedure were employed for estimating brightness power function under dark- and light-adaptation. The luminance was changed from 43 to 83 dB re 10(-6) cd/m2 with the light adapting luminance at 53 dB. The retinal loci tested were 0 degrees to 70 degrees periphery in steps of 10 degrees. The exponent of the power function gradually increased from .37 to .73 as eccentricity and adapting luminance increased. The equal brightness contour decreased for dark-adaptation and increased for light-adaptation as eccentricity increased at supra-threshold but at threshold did not follow the parallel hypothesis for both adapting conditions.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Temporal contrast adaptation in salamander bipolar cells.

This work investigates how the light responses of salamander bipolar cells adapt to changes in temporal contrast: changes in the depth of the temporal fluctuations in light intensity about the mean. Contrast affected the sensitivity of bipolar cells but not of photoreceptors or horizontal cells, suggesting that adaptation occurred in signal transfer from photoreceptors to bipolars. This suggestion was confirmed by recording from photoreceptor-bipolar pairs and observing a direct dependence of the gain of signal transfer on the contrast of the light input. After an increase in contrast, the onset of adaptation in the bipolar cell had a time constant of 1-2 sec, similar to a fast component of contrast adaptation in the light responses of retinal ganglion cells (Kim and Rieke, 2001). Contrast adaptation was mediated by processes in the dendrites of both on and off bipolars. The functional properties of adaptation differed for the two bipolar types, however, with contrast having a much more pronounced effect on the kinetics of the responses of off cells than on cells.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Children's adaptation to insulin dependent diabetes mellitus: a critical review of the literature.

A preventive health care context is important in managing children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Specific risk factors can make adaptation to IDDM more difficult. These include older age, female gender, family stress, and non-intact family structure. Factors which enhance child adaptation, also called resistance factors, include family cohesion and adaptability, positive coping strategies, younger age, and social support. Children having a chronic illness face many challenges, including changes in lifestyle, such as regimented scheduling of everyday life, readjustment of roles in the family, and potential activity alterations. An important role of health care professionals is to guide and counsel both children who are newly diagnosed with a chronic illness and their families about ways to normalize their lives as much as possible, even while realizing that their lives will never be the same as before diagnosis. Throughout the course of an illness, children and families rely on nurses to provide information about health promotion and illness management. Nurses coordinating the care of children adapting to insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) must recognize the significance the diagnosis has on the child. Furthermore, identification of those factors that place the child at risk for poor adaptation is critical so that the nurse can assist with the process of adaptation and recruit other psychological or social support resources as early as possible.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Rod light and dark adaptation influence cone-mediated spatial acuity.

The influence of rod light and dark adaptation upon cone mediated spatial acuity was studied in the near parafoveal retina of normal human observers. The luminance just necessary to detect squarewave test gratings of variable frequency provided an index of spatial acuity. Such thresholds were determined in the presence of background fields which were varied in luminance, shape, and size, or throughout the time period of dark adaptation. Spectral controls determined the type of photoreceptors influenced by all stimuli. Cone mediated spatial acuity is improved by presenting background fields too dim to directly affect cones, and is increasingly suppressed during the rod recovery stage of dark adaptation. These effects are small with spatial frequencies less than 4 c/deg but increase with spatial frequency to greater than 1 log10 unit with the highest spatial frequency examined, 21 c/deg. These influences upon cone mediated spatial vision reflect the state of long-term adaptation of rods in a large annular area surrounding the locus to which the test grating is presented. Our results emphasize the differing influences of long-term dark adaptation and prevailing luminance level upon visual acuity. Ironically, spatial acuity is optimized under dim light conditions by selectively light adapting the receptors most sensitive to feeble stimuli, the rods.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Human responses to chronic illness: physiologic and psychosocial adaptation.

To identify factors that promote adaptation, physiological and psychosocial responses to chronic illness were studied. The adaptation to chronic illness model (Pollock, 1984a) served as the theoretical framework for integrating the major variables of chronicity, stress, hardiness, and physiological and psychosocial adaptation. The sample (N = 60) consisted of three equal-sized groups of adults who had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, essential hypertension, or rheumatoid arthritis for at least one year. Data were collected from all subjects over a 9-month interval to determine their physiological and psychosocial adaptation and if they had the hardiness characteristic. The hypothesis, that presence of the hardiness characteristic was significantly correlated with physiological adaptation, was supported for the diabetic group but not for the hypertensive or rheumatoid arthritic groups. Physiological and psychosocial adaptation were found to be two independent domains in this study.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

[Philosophical aspects of the theory of adaptation].

This paper discusses the general concepts of the problem of adaptation from the dialectic point of view which, according to F. Engels, is the most important pattern of thinking in natural sciences. Dialectics provides an analog and therefore a method for interpreting developmental processes, universal relationships in nature, transition from one area of research to another. From the point of view of dialectic laws adaptation acts as a contradictory process of habituation to various environments. The contradictory pattern of the adaptive process and its result is very distinct in terms of heredity and variability. A logical enlargement of the concept of adaptation is the transition to the study of homeostasis which is assumed to be its mechanism, a property which has developed in the course of evolution and fixed in heredity. This adaptive property is contradictory in its essence because homeostasis is a unity of stability and instability, a fluctuating constancy. In addition to the law of constancy of the inner melieu, there is a law of homeostatic deviations. This concept can be understood through an analysis of the system theory that includes a continuous variation and conservation of structure which indicates its ordered oscillation, that is, its rhythmicity. This clarifies the relationship between homeostasis and biological rhythmicity as a method of maintaining the former. Thus, a consistent analysis of the problem of adaptation can help identify transition from one area of research to another, specifically to the study of oscillatory processes in living systems, including such oscillatory processes that have characteristics of universality and necessity. Such processes are biological rhythms with a period of about 24 hours, that is, circadian rhythms.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Localization of S-antigen under various conditions of light or dark adaptation in the rabbit.

The localization of the S-antigen was studied by electron microscopy in the rabbit eye, under three conditions of adaptation: A) 24-hour dark adaptation, B) 24-hour dark adaptation and 1.5-hour light adaptation and C) light adaptation for 30 hours. The Fab' fraction of the IgG of rabbit against the swine S-antigen was labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and was used as the marking antibody. In Group A, the HRP reaction products indicating the S-antigen were found mainly in the disk and plasma membranes of the outer segments of the photoreceptor cells. The reaction products were also found diffusely in the cytoplasm of the inner segment with the exception of the mitochondria and nucleus. In Group B, the phagosomes were found surrounded by the multilayered microvilli of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells; the reaction products were scarcely found in the phagosomes but were seen in the microvilli. Some weak reaction products were also encountered in the cytoplasm of the RPE cells. In Group C, after 30-hour light adaptation, many phagosomes were found but they contained almost no reaction products. However, the microvilli of the RPE cells surrounding the phagosomes showed a fair amount of the reaction products. The cytoplasm of the RPE cells contained abundant reaction products, particularly in the area of the basal infoldings. The reaction products were also seen in the Bruch's membrane and the endothelial cells of the choriocapillaris. It was thought that the S-antigen is taken up by the RPE during phagocytosis of the shed outer segments and is transported to the choriocapillaris.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Comparison of dark- and light-adapted carp retinas with NADPH diaphorase staining.

The carp retina was examined by NADPH diaphorase histochemistry to determine if the staining pattern of retinal cells was changed depending on the adaptation state of the retina. When dark-adapted for 5 h, ellipsoids of inner segments of both rods and cones and some horizontal cells were heavily stained. Staining was also found in subpopulations of amacrine cells and ganglion cells. In addition, Müller cells were strongly positive for NADPH diaphorase. When light-adapted for 5 h, ellipsoids of photoreceptors and ganglion cells were less intensely stained, whereas Müller cells and horizontal cells became negative for NADPH diaphorase. Furthermore, rod ON-center bipolar cells were clearly stained. The difference of staining of amacrine cells between dark- and light-adapted retinas was not significant. The differences in diaphorase-staining pattern between dark- and light-adapted retinas suggest that Müller cells, some horizontal cells and rod ON-center bipolar cells contain inducible nitric oxide synthase, whose induction depends on the adaptation state.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Do you really need your oblique muscles? Adaptations and exaptations.

BACKGROUND: Primitive adaptations in lateral-eyed animals have programmed the oblique muscles to counterrotate the eyes during pitch and roll. In humans, these torsional movements are rudimentary. PURPOSE: To determine whether the human oblique muscles are vestigial. METHODS: Review of primitive oblique muscle adaptations and exaptations in human binocular vision. RESULTS: Primitive adaptations in human oblique muscle function produce rudimentary torsional eye movements that can be measured as cycloversion and cyclovergence under experimental conditions. The human torsional regulatory system suppresses these primitive adaptations and exaptively modulates cyclovergence to facilitate stereoscopic perception in the pitch plane. It also recruits the oblique muscles to generate cycloversional saccades that preset torsional eye position immediately preceding volitional head tilt, permitting instantaneous nonstereoscopic tilt perception in the roll plane. CONCLUSIONS: The evolution of frontal binocular vision has exapted the human oblique muscles for stereoscopic detection of slant in the pitch plane and nonstereoscopic detection of tilt in the roll plane. These exaptations do not erase more primitive adaptations, which can resurface when congenital strabismus and neurologic disease produce evolutionary reversion from exaptation to adaptation.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Light adaptation affects synaptic vesicle density but not the distribution of GABAA receptors in goldfish photoreceptor terminals.

GABA is a likely feedback transmitter from H1 horizontal cells to cone photoreceptors in fish retinas. Spinules arise from H1 cell dendrites in light-adapted retinas, are correlated with responses attributed to feedback, and have been proposed to be the GABA release sites. We used mAb 62-3G1, an antibody against the beta 2/beta 3 subunits of the GABAA receptor complex, to visualize GABAA receptor immunoreactivity (GABAr-IR) in photoreceptors as a function of light and dark adaptation at the electron microscopical level. Regardless of adaptation, GABAr-IR was restricted to the synaptic terminals of all cones and most rods; synaptic vesicular membrane and plasma membrane, exhibited GABAr-IR. Contrary to expectations, the density of GABAr-IR was least on the plasma membrane within the invagination, regardless of the presence or absence of spinules. Dense GABAr-IR was observed on the lateral surface of cone pedicles, on cone processes proximal to the invagination, and on presumed telodendria from nearby cones. There was no difference in GABAr-IR of rod plasma membranes within or outside of the invagination or with adaptation. The only novel effect of adaptation was in regards to the density of synaptic vesicles. Cones showed a 29% increase in vesicle density with dark adaptation, whereas rods showed a 17% decrease. We conclude that all goldfish photoreceptors will be GABA-sensitive and that the sensitivity is distributed over the surface of the synaptic terminal rather than localized to within the invagination. The role of spinules in GABA release remains to be determined, but we conclude that spinules are not related to the GABA sensitivity of goldfish photoreceptors.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Thermotolerance and intracellular pH in two Chinese hamster cell lines adapted to growth at low pH.

As an in vitro model for the low extracellular pH (pHe) which has frequently been observed in tumors, cell lines have been grown in a low-pH medium in order to allow cell adaptation to that milieu. Two Chinese hamster cell lines [Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and Chinese hamster ovarian carcinoma (OvCa)] were compared, both of which acquired thermotolerance during 42 degrees C heating in pHe = 7.3 buffer, but not in pHe = 6.7 medium unless grown at that pH long enough to become adapted. CHO cells, even when acutely acidified, showed higher intracellular pH (pHi) values in a suspension assay than OvCa cells, which confirmed the danger of comparing absolute values of pHi between cell lines. Despite this fundamental difference, relative changes in pHi were similar in that both lines showed a higher pHi in adapted than in unadapted cells, over the range of pHe values tested. The upregulation of pHi was statistically significant, but the two lines differed in the time frame over which adaptation occurred. OvCa cells acquired an enhanced ability to develop tolerance to 42 degrees heat at pHe = 6.7 in 4 days, but the CHO cells acquired this ability more progressively, achieving a maximum ability at approximately 100 days. In contrast, both lines were able to upregulate their pHi within 4 hours of being exposed to pH 6.7 medium. A further indication of different biochemical mechanisms at work was the opposite effects seen on pHi in the two cell lines upon the removal of extracellular CO2/HCO3-. The differential between adapted and unadapted OvCa cells was enhanced by removal of bicarbonate, whereas CHO cells seemed less stable and the data with greater scatter failed to show any difference between adapted and unadapted cells.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Femoral mechanics in the lesser bushbaby (Galago senegalensis): structural adaptations to leaping in primates.

One method used to examine the relationship between behavioral strategies and anatomical adaptation is to study the results of mechanical stress associated with a given behavior and compare this with skeletal adaptations to other behaviors. This comparative approach is appropriate for highlighting combinations of features that are specializations to specific types of behavior. The purpose of this paper is to compare femoral mechanics in Galago senegalensis with previously collected data for macaques and humans as a basis for discussing structural adaptations in the primate hindlimb to leaping. The stiffness and load carrying capabilities of the femoral diaphyses of 27 G. senegalensis were analyzed using the SCADS computer program. The data suggest that the galago femur is well adapted to sustain large sagittal plane compressive loads rather than large bending loads. The straightness of the femoral shaft and large midshaft area moments of inertia prevent buckling from these large compressive loads. Calculations indicate that the ratio of critical buckling load to body weight in galago is 31 times that in macaques and 55 times that in humans. The femur of this saltatory primate is morphologically adapted to resist buckling when subjected to large compressive loads, while those of macaques and humans are better adapted to resist bending moments caused by ground reaction forces acting on the extended limb. The differences between galago on the one hand and macaques and humans on the other suggest that relatively smaller moments about the hip and relatively larger moments about the knee accompany more quadrupedal and bipedal walking, while habitual leaping is associated with relatively larger moments about the hip. These data reinforce the apparent similarity of the mechanical effects of quadrupedal and bipedal locomotion on the femur and dissimilarity with femoral mechanics in habitually saltatory primates.

Adaptation, Physiological↗