Population divergence in maternal investment and embryo energy use and allocation suggests adaptive responses to cool climates.

The thermal sensitivity of early life stages can play a fundamental role in constraining species distributions. For egg-laying ectotherms, cool temperatures often extend development time and exacerbate developmental energy cost. Despite these costs, egg laying is still observed at high latitudes and altitudes. How embryos overcome the developmental constraints posed by cool climates is crucial knowledge for explaining the persistence of oviparous species in such environments and for understanding thermal adaptation more broadly. Here, we studied maternal investment and embryo energy use and allocation in wall lizards spanning altitudinal regions, as potential mechanisms that enable successful development to hatching in cool climates. Specifically, we compared population-level differences in (1) investment from mothers (egg mass, embryo retention and thyroid yolk hormone concentration), (2) embryo energy expenditure during development, and (3) embryo energy allocation from yolk towards tissue. We found evidence that energy expenditure was greater under cool compared with warm incubation temperatures. Females from relatively cool regions did not compensate for this energetic cost of development by producing larger eggs or increasing thyroid hormone concentration in yolk. Instead, embryos from the high-altitude region used less energy to complete development, that is, they developed faster without a concomitant increase in metabolic rate, compared with those from the low-altitude region. Embryos from high altitudes also allocated relatively more energy towards tissue production, hatching with lower residual yolk: tissue ratios than low-altitude region embryos. These results are consistent with local adaptation to cool climate and suggest that this is underpinned by mechanisms that regulate embryonic utilisation of yolk reserves and its allocation towards tissue, rather than shifts in maternal investment of yolk content or composition.

Increased familiarity of intellectual deficits in early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

OBJECTIVES: Early-onset schizophrenia is considered to be neurobiologically similar to adult-onset forms, although it represents a more severe expression of the disorder. In the present study, we explored putative larger familial vulnerability of intellectual impairments in early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders (EOS) when compared to adult-onset (AOS) families. METHODS: A sample of 340 subjects including schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients, their first degree relatives and age-matched healthy controls was assessed on intelligence quotient (IQ). We used linear regression analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) to explore familial aggregation of IQ across age at onset groups. RESULTS: The relationship between IQ level of patients and their first-degree relatives showed positive linear association (ß = 0.43, P < 0.01). High significant familial aggregation was found for intelligence quotient in EOS families (ICC = 0.618, P < 0.01), while AOS families responded to lower estimates (ICC = 0.204, P = 0.26; between ICC comparison z = 1.993, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: High aggregation of intellectual performance in the EOS group suggests larger familial vulnerability in early-onset forms of the disease when cognitive functions are considered. Within a continuum of psychopathology in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, specific genetic effects are discussed for distinct onset forms that might be in line with a neurodevelopmental model of the disease.

Estudio transversal sobre el seguimiento de las medidas no farmacológicas y control de la presión arterial / Cross-sectional study on the follow up of the non- pharmacological recommendations and control of blood pressure

Objetivos. 1) Valorar el seguimiento de las recomendaciones no farmacológicas para el tratamiento de la hipertensión arterial (HTA). 2) Analizar la relación entre el seguimiento de las medidas no farmacológicas y el control de la presión arterial. Métodos. Estudio transversal descriptivo realizado en un centro de atención primaria de Murcia. Se incluyen 102 pacientes diagnosticados y tratados de HTA desde hace más de un año. Se valora su hábito tabáquico, consumo de alcohol, práctica de ejercicio físico y consumo de alimentos ricos en sal mediante cuestionario clínico específico en entrevista bidireccional. A todos ellos se les mide la excreción de sodio en orina de 24h. Resultados. El 19,6% de los pacientes son fumadores. El 7,8% de los pacientes presentan consumo excesivo alcohol. El 40,2% de los pacientes no realizan ejercicio físico ningún día a la semana. El 93,1% presentan una excreción urinaria de sodio > 100 mmol/24h. Globalmente sólo el 6,9% de pacientes del total de la muestra cumplen todas las medidas no farmacológicas para el tratamiento de la HTA. De los pacientes que cumplen todas las medidas del tratamiento no farmacológico, el 85,7% presentan buenos controles de presión arterial. Los pacientes que no cumplen las medidas no farmacológicas, presentan una odds ratio de 9,4 respecto a tener peores controles tensionales que los que las cumplen (p<0,05). Conclusiones. El cumplimiento de las medidas no farmacológicas para el tratamiento de la HTA es muy bajo. Los pacientes que tienen un mejor cumplimiento del tratamiento no farmacológico presentan mejores controles de su presión arterial (AU)

Objectives. 1) To assess the monitoring of non-pharmacological recommendations for the treatment of hypertension. 2) Analyse the relationship between monitoring and non-pharmacological blood pressure control. Methods. Cross-sectional descriptive study in a Primary Care Centre of Murcia, which included 102 patients diagnosed and treated for hypertension for over one year. Their smoking habits, alcohol consumption, physical exercise and consumption of foods high in salt were assessed by specific clinical questionnaire in a bidirectional interview. All of them had sodium excretion measured in a 24 hour urine sample. Results. The responses from the questionnaire and interview showed that 19.6% of patients were smokers; 7.8% had excessive alcohol consumption; 40.2% did not exercise any day of the week. The laboratory results showed that 93.1% had a urinary sodium excretion > 100 mmol/24h. Overall, only 6.9% of total patients in the sample met all non-pharmacological treatment requirements for hypertension, of whom 85.7% had good control of their blood pressure. Patients who did not comply with the non-pharmacological recommendations had an odds ratio of 9.4, as regards having poorer blood pressure control than those who did comply (P<.05). Conclusions: Adherence to non-pharmacological measures for the treatment of hypertension is very low. Patients with better compliance with non-pharmacological treatment had better control their blood pressure (AU)

Cannabis use and age at onset of psychosis: further evidence of interaction with COMT Val158Met polymorphism.

OBJECTIVE: To examine, in a sample of young psychiatric patients, (n = 157, mean age 17.01 years (SD = 3.6)) whether i) age at first cannabis use and age at emergence of psychiatric disorders are related and ii) such a relationship is modulated by the Val158Met polymorphism in the COMT gene. METHOD: Cannabis use profiles and COMT Val158Met genotypes were obtained from 80 inpatients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and 77 inpatients with other non-psychotic disorders. RESULTS: First, age at first cannabis use correlates with age at onset in both schizophrenia-spectrum and other psychiatric disorder groups: those who started using cannabis earlier had an earlier age at onset of psychiatric disorders. Second, the distribution of the Val158Met genotypes was not different either between diagnosis groups or between cannabis users and non-users. Third, an interaction between Val158Met genotypes and cannabis use was observed specifically on age at emergence of psychotic disorders, with Val/Val genotype carriers showing an earlier age at onset than Met carriers. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest the importance of brain maturation timing in which exposure to cannabis occurs. The COMT Val158Met genotype seems to modulate the association between cannabis and age at onset of psychotic disorders. These results are consistent with previous studies.

Typicality of objects in urban park scenes.

Typicality is a basic property of any categorization process, including the categorization of environmental scenes. We tried to judge whether a scene as a type of situation influences judgements about the typicality of elements when considering the part-whole relationship between the element and the scene. The subjects were asked to rate typicality on a scale of 1 to 7 and to give a word that defined the urban park elements appearing in a park scene or on a blank background. Some elements (wastepaper basket, fountain, street lamp, and statue) were depicted with two styles (classical and contemporary). The results indicate that the scene or blank background had no effect on the typicality scores but subjects had difficulty providing an appropriate word when elements with a contemporary style were shown on a blank background.

Relation between exploratory activity and immune function in aged mice: a preliminary study.

Previous studies show that fast exploration of a T-shaped maze by mature mice may predict an above average longevity. Since the nervous and the immune systems work in a coordinated fashion, and it seems that these two homeostatic systems both influence organismic aging and suffer a senescent decline, we have performed a comparative study of the above behavioral parameter and different functions of three representative immune cells: lymphocytes, macrophages and natural killer (NK) cells obtained from old (76 +/- 1 weeks of age) female OF1-Swiss mice. At 70 weeks of age the mice were divided into a 'fast' and a 'slow' group, containing 100 and 0%, respectively, of animals able to explore the 50 cm-long first arm of the maze in 20 s or less. At 76 +/- 1 weeks of age the animals were sacrificed, the peritoneal cell suspensions were obtained and the immune organs (axillary nodes, spleen and thymus) were isolated. The following leukocyte functions were studied in peritoneal macrophages: adherence to substrate, mobility (spontaneous and chemotaxis), ingestion of particles and superoxide anion production whereas mobility, lymphoproliferative response to the mitogen Con A and NK activity were studied in the immune-organ leukocyte suspensions. The results show that the aged fast mice have better immune functions than the aged slow mice.

Effects of endotoxic shock in several functions of murine peritoneal macrophages.

Gram negative sepsis and septic shock continue to be a major medical problem, with a complex physiopathology and it is associated with high mortality. Although secretion of cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha by macrophages is the principal host mediator of septic shock, other characteristic functions of macrophages implicated in their phagocytic capacity have not been studied in the process of endotoxic shock. In the present study we have used an intraperitoneal injection of E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (100 mg/kg) in order to obtain an endotoxic shock model in adult female BALB/c mice. Peritoneal cell suspensions were obtained at several times (2, 4, 12 or 24 h) after injection and the following functions were studied on the peritoneal macrophages: adherence to substrate, mobility (spontaneous and directed or chemotaxis), ingestion of particles and superoxide anion production. The results showed a stimulation of adherence, ingestion and superoxide production as well as a decrease of chemotaxis in the animals injected with LPS. These effects changed with time after LPS injection. Thus, the increase of adherence and the decrease of mobility were higher during the first hours, whereas the increase in ingestion and superoxide production turned larger with time.

Retinoic acid posttranscriptionally up-regulates proteolipid protein gene expression in C6 glioma cells.

The proteolipid protein (PLP) gene codes for the major central nervous system myelin protein. We have studied the effects of different agents on the expression of the PLP gene in C6 glioma cells. Retinoic acid (RA), but not dexamethasone, estradiol, insulin, growth hormone, or vitamin D3, had a drastic effect, increasing 10-20-fold the level of PLP mRNA. Concomitantly, RA also induced the appearance of the corresponding immunoreactive protein. The increase in PLP RNA level showed a slow kinetics and was blocked by cycloheximide, suggesting a posttranscriptional regulation by RA. Nuclear run-on assays confirmed that the rate of PLP gene transcription was unchanged by RA. In contrast, we found that retinoic acid augmented PLP mRNA stability, causing a substantial increase in its half-life. RA action was independent of cell density, serum, or PDGF but was partially inhibited by bFGF. On the other hand, thyroid hormone caused a moderate increase in PLP mRNA levels in C6 cells but only when the low numbers of thyroid receptors in these cells were increased by retrovirally mediated expression of an exogenous c-erbA/TR alpha-1 gene. Our results indicate that RA specifically up-regulates PLP expression in glioma C6 cells at a posttranscriptional level by increasing PLP RNA half-life.