Laboratory Investigation (2010) 90, 970-984; doi: 10.1038/labinvest. 2010.94; published online 10 May 2010″
“Smoking affects a widespread network of neuronal functions by altering the properties of acetylcholinergic transmission. Recent studies show that nicotine consumption affects ascending auditory pathways and alters auditory attention, particularly in men. Here we show that smoking affects language lateralization in a sex-specific way. We assessed brain asymmetries of 90 healthy, right-handed participants using a classic consonant-vowel syllable dichotic listening paradigm in a 2 x 3 experimental design with sex (male, female) and

smoking status (non-smoker, light smoker, heavy smoker) as between-subject factors. Our results revealed that male smokers had a significantly less lateralized selleck screening library response pattern compared to the other groups due to a decreased response rate of their right ear. This finding suggests a group-specific impairment of the speech dominant

left hemisphere. In addition, decreased overall response Selleck 3 Methyladenine accuracy was observed in male smokers compared to the other experimental groups. Similar adverse effects of smoking were not detected in women. Further, a significant negative correlation was detected between the severity of nicotine dependency and response accuracy in male bur not in female smokers. Taken together, these results show that smoking modulates functional brain lateralization significantly and in a sexually dimorphic manner. Given that some psychiatric disorders

have been associated with altered brain asymmetries and increased smoking prevalence, nicotinergic effects need to be specifically investigated in this context in future studies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Diabetes is increasing in the world and causes severe cardiovascular complications. Diabetes-induced limb ischemia leads to foot amputation and therapeutic remedies are urgently needed. Here we report that local injection of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) prestimulated with epidermal growth factor (EGF) restored blood flow and vasculogenesis in the ischemic hind-limb of type II diabetic (db(-)/db(-)) mice. Bone marrow cells from db(-)/db(-) mice the are altered as evidenced by increased oxidative stress and reduced Akt and adhesion molecules when compared with control (db(-)/db(+)). Femoral artery ligation-induced ischemia was performed in the hind-limb of db(-)/db(-) and db(-)/db(+) mice for 28 days. Enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-MSCs stimulated +/- exogenous EGF for 24 h were injected locally into the ischemic muscle. Blood flow measured with MoorLDI-Laser and microangiography assessed with X-ray showed 100% recovery in db(-)/db(+) compared to 50% recovery in db(-)/db(-) mice.