ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A variety of studies have demonstrated improvement in quality of life and depressive symptoms in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. However, very little is known about the effect of OSA treatment on physical activity and energy consumption. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in depression, physical activity, energy expenditure, and quality of life (QoL) in OSA patients before and after CPAP therapy. METHODS: Forty-one patients with OSA as revealed by polysomnography, were included to the study. They responded to the generic World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL) questionnaire, to the specific-disease Quebec Sleep Questionnaire, and to Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in order to evaluate QoL and the incidence of depression. In addition, all patients wore an accelerometer which measured physical activity and energy expenditure during a week. At least 6 months after initiation of CPAP treatment (mean time, 9 months) we re-examined 24 patients who met the compliance with the treatment criteria. RESULTS: Patients after CPAP therapy had significantly higher scores in all domains of the Quebec Sleep Questionnaire and in the domains of physical health/level of independence and psychological health/spirituality of the WHOQoL. Depression scores were also better in CES-D after treatment. However, despite the improvement in QoL and psychological status, CPAP therapy had no impact on physical activity and energy expenditure. CONCLUSIONS: CPAP therapy improves QoL and lessens depressive symptoms in our group of well-treated OSA patients. However, physical activity and energy expenditure did not present statistically significant improvement in the same group of OSA patients.
Subject(s)
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure/psychology , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Depressive Disorder/therapy , Energy Metabolism , Motor Activity , Quality of Life/psychology , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive/psychology , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive/therapy , Activities of Daily Living/classification , Activities of Daily Living/psychology , Adult , Aged , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Polysomnography , Sleep Apnea, Obstructive/diagnosis , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Brain laterality has been observed in animals and humans structurally, functionally, and behaviorally. MRI and CT scans have revealed pathological and normal brain asymmetry. A coarse assessment of rat or human brain fails to expose profound left/right differences, while a finer examination of its structure reveals an array of asymmetric features. This lateralization may be derived from evolutionary, genetic, developmental, epigenetic, and pathologic factors. However, brain structure and function is complex and macroscopic or microscopic asymmetries may be hard to discern from random fluctuations. This study concentrated on the hippocampus and we explored lateralization employing a molecular high-throughput approach. Using proteomic analysis based on a combined approach of 2-D PAGE and MS, we examined differential protein expression in the hippocampi (left vs. right) of young adult male rats. Initial proteomic analysis demonstrated quantitative differences of approximately eighty proteins between the right (RH) and left hippocampus (LH). These were primarily energy-, cell metabolism-, stress-inducible chaperone proteins and cytoskeleton- proteins. Analysis revealed higher abundance of metabolic enzymes related to cellular energy metabolism, in the RH than the LH. In contrast, higher concentrations of proteins which are located mainly in astrocytes were shown in the LH than the RH. Immunoblotting of brain-specific proteins, on single animal hippocampal lysates confirmed the expression of Dynamin-1, DRP2, synapsin-1 and others, to be higher in the RH than LH lysates. These findings demonstrate major laterality in the expression of protein molecules between the two hippocampi providing a fertile field for mapping studies relating molecular, neuroimaging and functional data. Undoubtedly, asymmetries found at the animal level are hard to extrapolate to humans; however, studies in animal models will increase our understanding of the developing and adult brain and the healthy and diseased brain.
Subject(s)
Functional Laterality/physiology , Gene Expression Profiling , Hippocampus/physiology , Animals , Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional , High-Throughput Screening Assays , Immunoblotting , Male , Proteomics , Rats , Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-IonizationABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyse the polypeptide patterns of colorectal adenocarcinomas and mirror biopsies and to investigate the expression of calreticulin and the relationship of this chaperon to colon cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The investigation was carried out on 21 adenocarcinomas and 21 mirror biopsies using high-resolution two-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis and immunohistochemical PAP method. RESULTS: 2D electrophoresis revealed several polypeptide patterns that were shown to be upregulated in colorectal adenocarcinomas compared to their mirror biopsies. One polypeptide spot being upregulated in colorectal adenocarcinoma, turned out to be calreticulin. The overexpression of calreticulin was confirmed by further examination in immunohistochemical level. CONCLUSION: Calreticulin was found overexpressed in colon cancer tissues as compared to the corresponding mirror biopsy tissues. The overexpression was particularly intense to high-malignancy tissues and particularly in the poorly differentiated regions of the tissue. Calreticulin showed a direct relationship to the disease stage, a fact strongly indicating that the functional role of calreticulin is directly associated with tumor growth and metastasis.
