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Molecular factors of artherogenesis in chronic kidney disease with experimental model of chronic inhibition of Nitric Oxide Synthesis and its Effect of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitoin
Lecian, Dalibor ; Matouš, Bohuslav (advisor) ; Tesař, Vladimír (referee) ; Zadražil, Josef (referee)
The experimental part of the thesis covered the markers involved in nitric oxide deficiency model in rats. The analogue of arginine N-nitro- L -arginine-methyl ester ( L -NAME) was used. L -NAME administration resulted in sustained elevation of BP, decreased GFR, and in higher albuminuria compared to control animals. The administration of hypolipidemic drug - atorvastatin to Wistar rats was studied. The statin used caused lower albuminuria and prevented decreases in GFR in L -NAME rats without having an impact on hypertension. CAV1 protein expression was similar in all groups of rats. In contrast, VEGF expression and RhoA activity was increased in L -NAME-treated animals, and normalized with coadministration of atorvastatin. Clinical part of the thesis focused on the analysis of markers of oxidative stress in obese and non-obese patients with CKD and after kidney transplantation. The patients with CKD had elevated serum concentrations of AGEs, sRAGE and ADMA with the maximal concentrations of AGEs in the patients on hemodialysis. The successful kidney transplantation decreases the AGEs, sRAGE and ADMA concentrations but not to normal value according to general population. Patients with obesity exhibited lower concentrations of sRAGE in CKD as a protective factor for cardiovascular disease. Concentrations of...
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STRAIN ENGINEERING OF THE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF 2D MATERIALS
del Corro, Elena ; Peňa-Alvarez, M. ; Morales-García, A. ; Bouša, Milan ; Řáhová, Jaroslava ; Kavan, Ladislav ; Kalbáč, Martin ; Frank, Otakar
The research on graphene has attracted much attention since its first successful preparation in 2004. It possesses many unique properties, such as an extreme stiffness and strength, high electron mobility, ballistic transport even at room temperature, superior thermal conductivity and many others. The affection for graphene was followed swiftly by a keen interest in other two dimensional materials like transition metal dichalcogenides. As has been predicted and in part proven experimentally, the electronic properties of these materials can be modified by various means. The most common ones include covalent or non-covalent chemistry, electrochemical, gate or atomic doping, or quantum confinement. None of these methods has proven universal enough in terms of the devices' characteristics or scalability. However, another approach is known mechanical strain/stress, but experiments in that direction are scarce, in spite of their high promises.\nThe primary challenge consists in the understanding of the mechanical properties of 2D materials and in the ability to quantify the lattice deformation. Several techniques can be then used to apply strain to the specimens and thus to induce changes in their electronic structure. We will review their basic concepts and some of the examples so far documented experimentally and/or theoretically.
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The influence of stress and life satisfaction of chronic vulvovaginal candidiasis
Hájková, Lucie ; Jílek, Petr (advisor) ; Kestřánek, Jan (referee)
1 SUMMARY In this study we are dealing with the effect of stress and life satisfaction on recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC). Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is one of the most frequent genital infections. It is hypothesized that 75% of women experience during their reproductive age at least 1 episode of VVC in their lifetime. RVVC can be defined as four or more attacks of symptomatic vulvovaginal candidiasis in 12 month period. The true incidence of RVVC remains unknown. Estimates over many years suggest that the incidence is approximately 5%; another recent study shows that the incidence is approximately 8% of women during their reproductive age. Our previous study suggests that the incidence is approximately 7.6%. There were elaborate questionnaires, including a questionnaire on life satisfaction and the level of vulnerability by stress, made for the purpose of this study. Each questionnaire consists of 17 pages and includes 49 questions. Full text of the questionnaire is showed in enclosure. The questionnaire consisted of 15 questions in the bold frames that were tailor-made just for women, who have repeatedly experienced episodes of vulvovaginal candidiasis. A sample of 199 women was interviewed, 184 of them completed our questionnaire (which is 92.5%). By evaluation of questions in the bold...
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Antioxidant, anti-proliferative and immunomodulatory effect of fruits, vegetables and mushrooms in vitro
Doskočil, Ivo ; Havlík, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Orsák, Matyáš (referee)
Recently there has been an increasing interest in discovering of new species of plants and mushrooms which have antioxidant or anti proliferative activity. The interest is caused by the fact that these species have medicinal and food utilization. These properties of plants and mushrooms can be used when dealing with many diseases which may be connected with oxidative stress (inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and tumour disease, etc.).
The thesis propounds characteristics of in vitro antioxidant and anti proliferative activity of 19 types of juices and 28 methanol extracts of fruits and vegetables, which are common parts of a diet. In the thesis there are also characteristics of 13 ethanol extracts of edible mushrooms of the order of Polypore (Popyporales). Antioxidant activity was quantifie by 2, 2 diphenyl 1 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), and inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production. Cytotoxicity was measured by MTT (3 (4,5 dimethylthiazol 2 yl) 2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide. Immunomodulatory activity was determined by an assay of phagocytic activity of human neutrophil granulocytes. Further a total phenolic content (TPC) and total beta glucan content were investigated; these are considered to be the potentially active constituents participating in mentioned activities.
From the obtained results it is evident that juices (TPC = 1603.2 mg GAE/L; ORAC = 438.5 umol TE/g)
and a bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) fruit extract (ORAC 836.6 umol TE/g; DPPH = 404.6 umol TE/g) showed
the highest antioxidant activity of all tested samples of fruits and vegetables. Capsicum (Capsicum L.)
juices (TPC = 642.1 mg GAE/L; ORAC = 127.9 umol TE/g) and a radish (Raphanus sativus L.) extract
(ORAC 724.5 umol TE/g; DPPH = 52.2 umol TE/g) also proved to have the high values of antioxidant activity. From the tested fruits and vegetables the following inhibited to produce a nitric oxide: onion (Allium cepa L) juices (lowered the NO production by 57%), tangerine juices (Citrus reticulata Blanco)(by 52%), broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis italic) extract (by 21%), and orange (Citrus sinensis Pers.) extract (by 10%). Concerning edible
mushrooms, Lentinus tigrinus (Bull.) Fr. (TPC = 216.2 umol GAE/g of extract), Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Kras (TPC = 257.9 umol GAE/g of extract), and Royoporus badius (Pers.) A.B. De (TPC = 257.8 umol GAE/g of extract) presented the highest phenolic content. Sparassis crispa (Wulfen) Fr. (117.4 mg/g of extract) had the highest content of beta glucan. Substantial effect on phagocytic activity of granulocytes was noticed in connection with Neolentinus lepideus (Fr.) Redhead & Ginns, Polyporus squamosus (Huds.) Fr., and S. crispa. In connection with the latter of mentioned mushrooms, a moderate inhibitory effect towards HT 29 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line
(IC50 = 107 ug/ml of extract) was noticed.
The results indicate that the tested plants and mushrooms can be beneficial when reducing the negative effects of oxidative stress. The oxidative stress has been recognized as a contributing factor to a whole range of diseases and the reduction of the oxidative stress may lead to the decrease in the possibility of the diseases´ progression. The results show the possible favourable effects on the human health. When evaluating the results, the following fact should be taken into consideration; the in vitro tests and screenings are considered to be the first phase of systematic research of the effects and serve for the choice of respondents for further detailed studies.
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Pharmacological cardioprotection with iron chelators and anthracycline cardiotoxicity
Popelová, Olga ; Geršl, Vladimír (advisor) ; Fusek, Josef (referee) ; Kolář, František (referee)
In this Ph.D. thesis, following aims were addressed: 1) potentially cardioprotective effects of deferiprone on the model of daunorubicin-induced chronic cardiotoxicity in rabbits, 2) the role of apoptotic cell death in the development of anthracycline cardiotoxicity, 3) cardioprotective effects of dexrazoxane against chronic anthracycline cardiotoxicity with a focus on rescue of cardiac myocytes from programmed cell death and oxidative stress, and 4) staging of myocardial changes in the time-course of chronic anthracycline cardiotoxicity development. First, using the leukemic cell line, deferiprone (1-300 µmol/L) was shown not to blunt the antiproliferative effect of daunorubicin. Instead, at higher concentrations of deferiprone, the augmentation of antiproliferative actions of both agents was observed. However, in the cardioprotective study deferiprone failed to afford significant protection against daunorubicin-induced mortality, cardiac dysfunction, morphological cardiac deteriorations, plasma cardiac troponin T rise as well as myocardial lipoperoxidation. This finding contrasted with previous positive outcomes of in vitro studies. Hence, this study changes the current view on deferiprone as a potential cardioprotectant against anthracycline cardiotoxicity. In addition, these results, together...
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Contribution of consulting service to a change of lifestyle
Fojtíková, Monika ; Fialová, Ludmila (advisor) ; Tilinger, Pavel (referee)
Title of thesis: Contribution of consulting service to a change of lifestyle Summary: The question of healthy life style has been recently in the centre of frequently discussed topics. The population's lifestyle has changed noticeably in comparison with the past and high-quality nutrition and regular motion activity is frequently neglected. People suffer from stress, lack of sleep and all these factors bring an increased level of heath risk. Among others, the society reacts to this fact by founding an amount of consulting clinics which try to help people to change and achieve a healthier and better quality life style. This thesis is concerned with an effect of a programme individually formed by a consultant on a change of life style and consequently on a change of female physical constitution at the age of 18 - 65. The research is supposed to reveal whether the program itself, regular controls and feed - backs will bring positive changes of life style and if there consequently follows a reduction of body weight as well as improvement of other physical parameters. Objective of thesis: Our aim was to determine what kind of women seek for help and consultations in the area of healthy life style. We were also interested which effect individually formed programme has and whether this change also...
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Numerical study of the fluid motion and mixing processes in the vitreous cavity
Pavlů, Karel ; Čermák, Libor (referee) ; Repetto, Rodolfo (advisor)
The vitreous cavity, the largest chamber of the eye, is delimited anteriorly by the lens and posteriorly by the retina and is filled by the vitreous humour. Under normal conditions the vitreous humour has the consistency of a gel, however, typically, with advancing age a disintegration of the gel structure occurs, leading to a vitreous liquefaction. Moreover, after a surgical procedure called vitrectomy the vitreous body may be completely removed and replaced by tamponade fluids. Besides allowing the establishment of an unhindered path of light from the lens to the retina, the vitreous also has important mechanical functions. In particular, it has the role of supporting the retina in contact to the outer layers of the eye, and of acting as a diffusion barrier for molecule transport between the anterior and the posterior segments of the eye. Studying the dynamics of the vitreous induced by eye rotations (saccadic movements) is important in connection of both the above aspects. On the one hand indications exist that the shear stress exerted by the vitreous on the retina may be connected with the occurrence of retinal detachment. On the other hand, if the vitreous motion is intense enough (a situation occurring either when the vitreous is liqueed or when it has been replaced with a uid after vitrectomy), advective transport may be by far more important than diffusion and may have complex characteristics. Advection has indeed been shown to play an important role in the transport phenomena within the vitreous cavity, but, so far, only advection due to the slow overall fluid ux from the anterior to the posterior segments of the eye has been accounted for, while fluid motion due to eye rotations, even if it is generally believed to play an important role, has been invariably disregarded. Some recent contributions have pointed out the importance of accounting for the real vitreous cavity shape in studying uid motion induced by eye rotations. Modelling the vitreous cavity as a deformed sphere, showed that the flow field displays very complex three- dimensional characteristics to which effective fluid mixing is likely to be associated. The purpose of the thesis is to model numerically the motion of the liqueed vitreous within the vitreous cavity induced by different eye movements. Create the model in the Comsol interface, compare the results with theoretical, experimental measurements and do some ow visualizations. Finally show the dependence of the streaming intensity from the amplitude of rotations and the Womersley number .
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