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  • Autumn 2010 - Issue Number 80
  • Autumn 2010 - Issue Number 80
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Electrical synapses synchronize motor output for tadpole swimming

In the vertebrate brain, electrical synapses can synchronize activity in populations of neurons with similar roles. The strength of these synapses is not fixed, however, and may be regulated under different behavioural or developmental circumstances. In hatchling Xenopus laevis tadpoles, neighbouring motoneurons controlling the segmented swimming muscles are synchronized by electrical synapses, but as development proceeds coupling is turned down to allow more flexibility in motor output.
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Lymphatic vessels – absorptive sumps or leaky pumps?

Lymphatic vessels, the absorptive vessels of the body, are responsible for catching fluid filtered from capillaries and returning it to the bloodstream, a process necessary for life. A commonly espoused hypothesis for their success is that the lymphatic vessel wall is impermeable to solute that has already entered from the tissue through the initial lymphatics. Contrary to this textbook view, recent studies demonstrate that lymphatic vessels are surprisingly leaky.
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‘Sensible to feeling as to sight’(1) Some recent progress on mechanosensory transduction in mammals

Our understanding of the molecular basis of sensory excitation by mechanical stimulation in mammals remains rudimentary, despite its fundamental role in touch sensation, and blood pressure and movement control. But recent advances in the little roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, have provided clues that have led to evidence for a surprising candidate for a possible component of the transducer.
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Generation of complex neuronal behaviour in a mammalian nervous system

Our understanding of motor patterns within mammalian neuronal networks has been limited by our ability to record activity in a large number of neurons simultaneously. We have used imaging techniques to explore a relatively simple mammalian neural network, the enteric nervous system, to determine how activity in different classes of neurons produces a complex motor behaviour.
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Can growth hormone strengthen the connective tissue of muscle and tendon?

Growth hormone (GH) doping is motivated by its presumed muscle anabolic properties, but paradoxically human studies show no effect of GH supplementation on contractile muscle protein synthesis. We demonstrated that GH supplementation increases connective tissue collagen synthesis in human muscle and tendon, without affecting muscle myofibrillar protein synthesis. Thus, GH supplementation potentially reinforces the supporting connective tissue and could make muscles and tendons less prone to injuries.
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HIT to get fit: metabolic adaptations to low-volume high-intensity interval training

Low-volume high-intensity interval training (HIT) induces metabolic adaptations that resemble traditional endurance training despite a reduced total exercise volume and time commitment. HIT may therefore represent a time-efficient exercise strategy to improve health. It remains to be determined whether this form of training elicits all of the benefits associated with high-volume continuous exercise, and whether low-volume HIT can be safely and effectively implemented in the general population and persons with chronic diseases.

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