Cellular and Molecular Physiology Commons^™

Stretch Activation During Fatigue Improves Relative Force Production In Fast-Contracting Mouse Skeletal Muscle Fibers, Philip C. Woods

Masters Theses

Stretch activation (F_SA) is the delayed increase in fiber specific tension (force per cross-sectional area) following a rapid stretch and can improve muscle performance during repetitive cyclical contractions. Historically considered minimal in skeletal muscle, our recent work showed the ratio ofstretch- to calcium-activated specific tension (F_SA/F₀) increased from 10 to 40% with greater inorganic phosphate (Pi) levels in soleus muscle fibers (Straight et al., 2019). Given Pi increases with muscle fatigue, we hypothesize that F_SA helps maintain force generation during fatigue. To test this, F_SA, induced by a stretch of 0.5% …

Endothelial Cell Nrf2-Ko Attenuates Endothelial Function And Skeletal Muscle Antioxidant Capacity, Elizabeth J. Pekas, Cody P. Anderson, Michael F. Allen, Kollyn B. Jallen, Dong Gun Jin, Andres Benitez-Albiter, Christian D. Sanchez Tato, Lie Gao, Neha Dhyani, Tara L. Rudebush, Irving H. Zucker, Song-Young Park

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

INTRODUCTION: Endothelial cells line the inner surface of blood vessels and play a major role in modulating blood flow and gas exchange. Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be a contributor to cardiovascular disease development, and it is well-accepted that excessive reactive oxygen species (harmful molecules) likely contribute to endothelial dysfunction. The transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is considered the master regulator of cellular protection in response to elevated reactive oxygen species. Therefore, Nrf2 may be a potential therapeutic target to protect against endothelial dysfunction. However, the roles of endothelial cell-specific Nrf2 on endothelial function are not …

Impaired Hydrogen Sulfide Protein Expression In Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease, Dong Gun Jin, Kollyn B. Jallen, Liz Pekas, Song-Young Park

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

INTRODUCTION: Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a gaseous signaling molecule that serves various roles in the vasculature, such as upregulating angiogenesis, vascular smooth muscle relaxation, protecting endothelial function, and regulating redox balance. Despite H₂S’s positive impacts on vascular homeostasis, it is important to note that its actions depend on its concentrations. At high concentrations, H₂S has been reported to increase oxidative stress damage, such as oxidation of cysteine residues and lipid peroxidation. This may indicate that H₂S may act as a ‘double-edged sword’ in the field of vascular physiology. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) …

Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin Participates In The Host Response To Intra-Amniotic Inflammation Leading To Preterm Labor And Birth, Tomi Kanninen, Li Tao, Roberto Romero, Yi Xu, Marcia Arenas-Hernandez, Jose Galaz, Zhenjie Liu, Derek Miller, Dustyn Levenson, Jonathan M. Greenberg, Jonathan Panzer, Justin Padron, Kevin Theis, Nardhy Gomez-Lopez Phd

Medical Student Research Symposium

Objective: To determine if bacteria (Ureaplasma parvum and Sneathia spp.) associated with intra-amniotic infection can trigger the induction of cytokine Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) in vitro.

Material or subjects: Amniotic fluid and chorioamniotic membrane (CAM) were collected from women with sPTL who delivered at term (n=30) or preterm without intra-amniotic inflammation (n=34), with sterile intra-amniotic inflammation (SIAI, n=27), or with intra-amniotic infection (IAI, n=17). Amnion epithelial cells (AECs), Ureaplasma parvum, and Sneathia spp. were also utilized.

Methods: The expression of TSLP, TSLPR, and IL-7Rα was evaluated in amniotic fluid or CAM by …

Prevention Of Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity By A Coumestan Analogue, Psoralidin, Mujtaba H. Shah, Myia Aiges, Kota V. Ramana

Annual Research Symposium

Natural phenolic compound Psoralidin limits cardiotoxicity associated with Doxorubicin

Defining The Nuanced Nature Of Redox Biology In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily C. Reed, Adam J. Case

Journal Articles: Cellular & Integrative Physiology

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health disorder that arises after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Despite affecting around 7% of the population, there are currently no definitive biological signatures or biomarkers used in the diagnosis of PTSD. Thus, the search for clinically relevant and reproducible biomarkers has been a major focus of the field. With significant advances of large-scale multi-omic studies that include genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data, promising findings have been made, but the field still has fallen short. Amongst the possible biomarkers examined, one area is often overlooked, understudied, or inappropriately investigated: the field of …

Re-Engineering Cardio-Oncology Testing Using Biomimetic Heart Slice Cultures., Jessica Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

28% of drug withdrawal from the market are due to unforeseen disruptions in cardiomyocyte contractility and electrophysiology. The most commonly used platforms for drug testing are in vivo animal models and in vitro cell culture models. While both have been of paramount importance for the discovery and detection of many cardiotoxicities and mechanisms of action, they lack the ability to model an intact human myocardium. This work aims to establish cardiac tissue slices, which are 300-micron thin tissue sections taken from the left ventricular myocardium, as an alternative platform for cardio-oncology studies, specifically cardiotoxicity testing. Additionally, this work aims to …

Assessing The Role Of Integrins In Contact Guidance By Substratum Topography, Robin S. Hong

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

In this project, the effect of blocking integrin subunits on contact guidance of human periodontal ligament fibroblasts were assessed. Imaging was gathered through Timelapse imaging of live cells as well as immunohistochemistry of fixed cells at designated timepoints.

Engineering Of Ideal Systems For The Study And Direction Of Stem Cell Asymmetrical Division And Fate Determination, Martina Zamponi

Biomedical Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The cellular microenvironment varies significantly across tissues, and it is constituted by both resident cells and the macromolecules they are exposed to. Cues that the cells receive from the microenvironment, as well as the signaling transmitted to it, affect their physiology and behavior. This notion is valid in the context of stem cells, which are susceptible to biochemical and biomechanical signaling exchanged with the microenvironment, and which plays a fundamental role in establishing fate determination and cell differentiation events. The definition of the molecular mechanisms that drive stem cell asymmetrical division, and how these are modulated by microenvironmental signaling, is …

Expression Of Claudins In Gill And Opercular Membranes In Relation To Osmoregulation In Euryhaline Atlantic Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus, Allison Mcfarland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) are euryhaline teleosts, which means they can thrive in environments with varying salinities, ranging from concentrated seawater (SW) to dilute fresh water (FW) and thus survive in estuaries. To be able to maintain ionic and osmotic homeostasis in these diverse salinities, osmoregulatory organs like gill and opercular membrane must be able to adjust the permeability and transport of water and ions. The surface epithelia in these organs need to prevent the passive flux of ions and water in a drastically changing environment, while being able to switch between active ion secretion or uptake dependent upon environmental …

Location And Conformation Of Titin In Caenorhabditis Elegans Muscle, Gaberielle S. Prince

Theses and Dissertations

Striated muscles consist of contractile myofibrils that generate force. The repeating units (sarcomeres) of striated myofibrils contain thin & thick filaments composed of actin and myosin. In vertebrates, titin connects thin & thick filaments during myofibril assembly and produces passive tension. Invertebrate homologs of vertebrate titin are similar in structure molecularly. However, invertebrate titin homologs are smaller than vertebrate titin, and likely function differently within invertebrate muscles. Here, I used Ce-TTN-1, a titin homolog in the invertebrate roundworm C elegans. To visualize Ce-TTN-1 in C. elegans, I used Nested CRISPR gene editing to generate translational fusions of a red fluorescent …

The Role Of The Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 2 In Pancreatic Cancer: Mechanisms Of Tumor Immunosuppression And Intestinal Radioprotection, Carolina Garcia Garcia

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with dismal prognosis. The only curative option for patients is surgery, but over 80% of patients are not surgical candidates. Unfortunately, PDAC is resistant to the three remaining options. PDAC is characterized by a profoundly hypoxic and immunosuppressive stroma, which contributes to its therapeutic recalcitrance. Alpha-smooth muscle actin+ (αSMA+) cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most abundant stromal component, as well as mediators of stromal deposition. The hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF1 and HIF2) coordinate responses to hypoxia, yet, despite their known association to poor patient outcomes, their functions within the PDAC tumor microenvironment (TME) …

Effectiveness Of Adeno-Associated Virus In H9c2 Cardiomyoblast And Hek293t Cell Lines, Cristian Saenz, Andres J. Medina, Genaro A. Ramirez-Correa

MEDI 8127 Scholarly Activities Pre-Clerkship

Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) is a prevalent disease that affects many people throughout the world leading to issues such as diabetic cardiomyopathy. O-GlcNAcylation dysregulation, caused by increased levels of serum glucose, contributes to the pathophysiology of decreased cardiac function. O-GlcNAcylation modulates cardiac contraction by reacting with either serine or threonine residues. Our goal was to demonstrate the success of infection of adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9) carrying the gene of alpha-cardiac actin (ACTC) mutated at Thr326. Here we show the expression of the mutant ACTC T326D in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts and HEK293T cell lines. Expression in H9C2 cells was significantly increased …

From Young To Old: The Effects Of Sedentary-Aging And Exercise Interventions On Structural Plasticity Of Lumbar Motor Neurons, Nmj, And Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression, Alberto Felipe Cintron-Colon

Dissertations

Neuromuscular weakness has been associated with age progression. A possible reason is a disconnection between muscle and neuron, causing components from both the central and peripheral nervous systems to deteriorate. Exercise, however, has beneficial effects for both muscle and nervous tissue, inducing neuroprotection. Neurotrophic factors are powerful regulators of neuronal maintenance and synaptic strength. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a neurotrophic factor that has been shown to be a potent survival factor for somatic motor neurons that innervate skeletal muscle.

This study aims to evaluate changes in structural plasticity of motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord and …

Effects Of Chronic Stress On Safety Processing And Physiology In The Medial Prefrontal-Amygdala-Basal Forebrain Circuit, Itamar S. Grunfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chronic stress increases generalization of fear to non-threatening cues, a key symptom in numerous psychiatric mood disorders. However, the mechanisms through which stress impacts safety learning remain poorly understood. To probe the relationship between stress and safety learning, this dissertation employed multiple behaviors, in conjunction with in-vivo multisite physiology during explicit safety and fear discrimination learning. In Chapter 1, I outline the role of chronic stress in driving neurological adaptations that result in generalized fear and highlight how this occurs because of impaired safety cue encoding. In Chapter 2, I show that chronic stress in the form of social defeat …

Biochemistry Of Trehalose Accumulation In The Spring Field Cricket, Gryllus Veletis, Alyssa R. Stephens

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The freeze tolerant spring field cricket, Gryllus veletis, accumulates trehalose in the blood and tissues during cold acclimation. Trehalose is the main blood sugar in insects, thus its blood concentration is tightly regulated, and trehalose is readily metabolized. How do crickets modify their metabolism to accumulate trehalose in their hemolymph and tissues? I hypothesized that trehalose production, transport, and consumption were modified during the cold acclimation to facilitate trehalose accumulation. Trehalose and the trehalose-specific transporter, TRET-1, are distributed among all tissues, and trehalose accumulates in the hemolymph, fat body, Malpighian tubules, and gut. Trehalose production increases during cold acclimation …

Science, Physiology, And Nutrition For The Nonscientist, Judi S. Morrill

Open Educational Resources

A wonderful blend of physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, genetics, biology, evolution, chemistry--what we all need to know as informed citizens. A basic knowledge of the life sciences and how our bodies work--to promote our own good health, especially as we're bombarded with misleading advertisements, soundbites, and the like. DNA fingerprinting, calorie requirements, dietary advice, genetic engineering (including gene editing with CRISPR cas9)--all in an easy-to understand book.

Psychological Trauma Alters T-Lymphocyte Inflammation And Redox Through Sympathetic Mechanisms, Safwan K. Elkhatib

Theses & Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating psychiatric disorder characterized by distinctive symptom clusters, including intrusive memories (i.e., flashbacks), avoidance of related stimuli, affective changes, and hyperarousal. Strikingly, patients with PTSD face a significantly increased risk for a number of inflammation-driven pathologies, ranging from cardiovascular to autoimmune disease. Yet, the exact etiology of this increased risk remains unknown. The immune system is known to be strongly influenced by the sympathetic nervous system, and sympathetic overactivity is a hallmark of PTSD. Lymphoid organs, such as the spleen, are richly innervated by sympathetic nerve fibers which terminate near adaptive immune …

Preparation Of Proteins And Peptides From Heat-Stabilized Defatted Rice Bran Via Solid State Fermentation And Investigating For Skin Health, Ali A. Bisly

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heat-stabilized defatted rice bran (HDRB) is an abundant and inexpensive agro-industrial by-product of rice milling and rice oil extraction process. Furthermore, HDRB is a potential source of proteins. However, the direct protein extraction has low yield of protein due to the impact of heat stabilization and oil extraction process which made the HDRB proteins bound and interact with other components. This research is based on using solid-state fermentation (SSF), which is a natural and cost-effective approach to facilitate protein extraction from HDRB using Bacillus subtilis (natto) Takahashi as a microorganism.

Response surface methodology (RSM) analysis was used with Box-Behnken design …

The Impact Of Excess Nutrients, Fatty Acids Or Glucose, On Bewo Placental Trophoblast Metabolic Function, Zachary Jw Easton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

An adverse intrauterine environment high in circulating nutrients in pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity and diabetes mellitus has been well linked with the development of metabolic health disorders in the exposed offspring. Impairments in placental development, mitochondrial respiration, and nutrient processing are thought to specifically underlie the in-utero programming of these metabolic diseases. In these “at-risk” pregnancies a maternal diet high in fat as well as poor glycemic control have been highlighted to be important regulators of placental metabolic functions (including the transport, storage, and oxidation of dietary nutrients), and consequently regulators of offspring metabolic health outcomes. However, the independent …