Physiology News Magazine

Download this issue
  • Home
  • Spring 2011 - Issue Number 82
  • Spring 2011 - Issue Number 82
  • Features

The ‘cost’ of breathing in heart failure

Heart failure patients develop a number of pulmonary abnormalities which increase the work and oxygen cost of breathing. Demands of the respiratory muscles are further accentuated during activities of daily living that require moderate exercise. In the face of limited cardiac reserve, heavily recruited respiratory muscles preferentially ‘steal’ blood flow from the working skeletal muscles. This phenomenon may be one mechanism that contributes to the enhanced perception of locomotor muscle fatigue commonly encountered in patients with heart failure.
  • Features

NO is pivotal in motor pathologies, but is it harmful or protective?

Dysregulation of the expression of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is a hallmark of many neuropathological conditions. Using a model of peripheral motor neuropathy, we demonstrated that NOS up-regulation delays nerve repair and evokes many of the changes that occur in damaged motoneurons. Therefore, NOS might be a pivotal target for the development of therapeutic tools for diverse neuropathies.
  • Features

NOS1, S-nitrosylation and cardiac contraction

Nitric oxide (NO) is a major regulator of cardiac contraction in both healthy and diseased hearts. NO is produced via enzymes termed nitric oxide synthase (NOS). The neuronal NOS (NOS1) isoform alters key cardiac proteins via post-translational modifications resulting in enhanced contractile function. Therefore, it provides a potential therapeutic target for clinic treatment and new drug development.

  • Features

What makes some axons more excitable than others?

Have you ever wondered why some motor axons may be activated before all others in a muscle as an electrical stimulus is increased? It could just be that the low threshold represents a quirk of anatomy and current flow, but it could also be that the excitability of the axon is greater than that of other axons innervating the muscle. The latter seems to be the case and a key factor seems to be the hyperpolarisation-activated current (Ih)
  • Features

A novel way to test human motoneurone behaviour during muscle fatigue
  • Features

Two arms as one: position and movement sense in an elbow-matching task

Masahiko Izumizaki and Uwe Proske have found that when subjects match the position of one unseen arm by placement of the other, sensory information coming from both arms is used to achieve the observed matching accuracy.

Menu Menu Search

Site search

Filter

Content Type