Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Enemy within: how a killer hijacked one of nature’s oldest relationships – Mirage News

Researchers have discovered how a notorious pathogen may have hijacked one of natures most enduring mutual relationships.

The work sheds new light on a long-standing enigma about why plants possess genes that appear to be detrimental to their well-being.

Its long been known that the Mildew Locus O (MLO) gene causes the majority of major crops to be susceptible to the fungal leaf pathogen powdery mildew. Loss of the gene causes durable and robust resistance to the pathogen.

But if this gene is disadvantageous to the host, why has it been conserved throughout evolutionary history? Does this susceptibility factor also fulfil some other beneficial role?

In a joint project between the John Innes Centre and the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, scientists found that the MLO gene needed by the powdery mildew pathogens is also used by symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi that help plants obtain nutrients from the soil.

Mycorrhizal fungi are beneficial soil microorganisms that establish symbiotic interactions in plant roots and contribute to nutrient uptake. Powdery mildews are serious leaf fungal pathogens that infect many different plant genera and cause significant crop losses in agriculture.

Importantly, the MLO gene and mycorrhizal symbiosis appeared very early in the evolution of land plants, millions of years before the occurrence of powdery mildew fungi.

In this study, experiments showed that mycorrhizal colonisation was reduced in mutant plants of barley, wheat and Medicago truncatula which did not express the MLO gene. This was accompanied by a pronounced decrease in the expression of many key genes required for accommodation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inside plant cells. The findings suggest the primary role for MLO in flowering plants is in colonisation by the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and that this role has been appropriated by powdery mildew.

The MLO gene is present in a wide variety of plants including important crops such as rice, wheat and legumes. The results have important implications for crop improvement and for sustainable agriculture to enhance beneficial mycorrhizal interactions while reducing losses from disease.

The MLO gene has been widely studied for its role in powdery mildew resistance, although its ancestral role has remained elusive, explains first author Dr Catherine Jacott.

Since mycorrhizal fungi and powdery mildew respectively infect root and shoot, it may be possible to generate cereals that could fully support mycorrhiza while remaining non-hosts for powdery mildew.

Picture credit Henry Driver, commissioned by Essex County Council. Imagery from a three dimensional illuminated sculpture created in response, and celebrating Cressing Temple Barns grand history of grain storage. It uses images of symbiotic relationship between crop roots and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, where the root cells are colonised by the fungi, creating arbuscules which allow nutrient exchange with the plant.

Catherine Jacotts PhD was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Norwich Research Park Bioscience Doctoral Training Grants BB/J014524/1 and BB/M011216/1.

The John Innes Centre and the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology collaborate as part of the CAS-JIC Centre for Excellence in Plant and Microbial Sciences (CEPAMS).

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Enemy within: how a killer hijacked one of nature's oldest relationships - Mirage News

Physiology

Researchers identify genes related to cardiorespiratory function – The Medical News

How high altitudes affect people's breathing and its coordination with the heart beat is due to genetic differences say researchers.

Clear physiological differences have already been demonstrated between people living in the Himalayas and Andes compared with people living at sea level, revealing an evolutionary adaptation in the control of blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain and the rest of the body.

Now an international team led by Professor Aneta Stefanovska of Lancaster University has identified genes that are related to cardiorespiratory function during so-called acute periodic breathing. Their report is published in the Journal of Physiology.

Periodic breathing (PB) occurs in most humans at high altitudes and is characterized by periodic alternations between hyperventilation (too-fast breathing) and apnea (no breathing). The altered respiratory pattern due to PB is accompanied by changes in heart rate and blood flow.

Breathing, ECG of the heart and microvascular blood flow were simultaneously monitored for 30 minutes in 22 healthy male subjects, with the same measurements repeated under normal and low oxygen levels, both at real and simulated altitudes of up to 3800m.

As part of the experiment, the participants were also taken in a cable car to a high altitude laboratory at the top of Aiguille du Midi mountain in Chamonix in France and tested immediately on arrival and after six hours at this altitude of 3842m.

The researchers found that orchestration between the participants' hearts and lungs, as measured by phase coherence, responded differently to periodic breathing depending on whether they had one of two specific genetic variants affecting the cardiorespiratory response to insufficient oxygen.

Chronic periodic breathing is generally seen as an unfavorable state, being associated with increased mortality in chronic heart failure, but in healthy people it may be an indication of better alertness to oxygen insufficiency at high altitudes.

Hypoxia, as well occurring during rapid ascents to high-altitudes, can also be a significant problem at sea-level, being a contributory factor in many health conditions including cancer, strokes, and heart attacks.

Professor Stefanovska said:

The similarities between hypoxia-induced PB at altitude, and the breathing characteristics observed in certain pathological states, provide an opportunity to further our understanding of the physiological processes involved in chronic hypoxic states that occur even when oxygen is abundant.

Considering living systems as collections of interacting oscillators whose dynamics is governed by multiple underlying open systems enables the observation of functional changes over time, and investigation of how they are altered in health and disease."

Source:

Journal reference:

Lancaster, G., et al. (2020) Relationship between cardiorespiratory phase coherence during hypoxia and genetic polymorphism in humans. Journal of Physiology. doi.org/10.1113/JP278829.

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Researchers identify genes related to cardiorespiratory function - The Medical News

Physiology

Research Roundup: Antibiotics Linked to Birth Defects and More – BioSpace

Every week there are numerous scientific studies published. Heres a look at some of the more interesting ones.

Some Antibiotics Prescribed During Pregnancy Linked to Birth Defects

Researchers at the University College London found that children of mothers prescribed macrolide antibiotics in the first trimester of pregnancy were at increased risk of major birth defects. The research was published in The BMJ. The birth defects include major malformations such as heart and genital defects, and four neurodevelopment disorders, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder.

Macrolide antibiotics are used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections and are among the most frequently prescribed antibiotics during pregnancy in Western countries, said Heng Fan, PhD candidate at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and lead author of the study. This work builds on previous evidence of rare but serious adverse outcomes of macrolide use, especially for unborn babies. These adverse outcomes were assumed to be associated with the arrhythmic effect of macrolides, and policy advice about their use in pregnancy varies.

The investigators analyzed data from 104,605 children born in the UK from 1990 to 2016 from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), with a median follow-up of 5.8 years after birth. An additional 82,314 children whose mothers were given macrolides or penicillins before pregnancy and 53,735 who were siblings of children in the study acted as control cohorts. Major malformations were seen in 186 children of 8,632 whose mothers received macrolides at any point during pregnancy and 1,666 of 95,973 children whose mothers were dosed with penicillins during pregnancy. The researchers concluded that macrolides during the first three months of pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of any major malformation compared to penicillin.

The Mediterranean Diets Key Ingredient for Extending Lifespan

The Mediterranean diet has been noted for being heart-healthy and potentially improving lifespanheavy on fish, fruits, vegetables, grains, olive oil and red wine. Much research suggested the resveratrol found in red wine was the major contributor, but new research suggests it is actually the fat found in olive oil that activated a pathway known to increase lifespan and prevent aging-related diseases. It appears that the fat gets stored in lipid droplets and when the fat is broken down during exercise or fasting, the signaling and health benefits occur.

What Facebook and Genomes Have in Common

Computational biologists at Carnegie Mellon University took an algorithm used to study social networks like Facebook and adapted it to identify how DNA and Proteins behave in communities inside the cell nucleus. Proximity is a factor, because genes controlled by the same regulatory proteins benefit from being close to each other, but others can be relatively far apart but drawn together via shared interests. The MOCHI algorithm analyzes the spatial arrangement of all the genes and transcription factor proteins in a nucleus based on genome-wide chromosome interactions and global gene regulatory networks.

A 3D Atomic Scale Map of the 2019 Coronavirus

Investigators at the University of Texas at Austin and the NIH created the first 3D atomic scale map of the 2019 novel coronavirus. They used AMETEK Gatans K3 camera to map part of the virus called the spike protein, which is how the virus penetrates the host cells. The breakthrough should allow for more rapid vaccine and therapy development.

How Lung Cancer Cells Suck Up Energy

Researchers working with human lung cancer cells discovered how they modulate their energy consumption based on their surroundings. In addition, they discovered how cancer cells override those factors to maximize their energy use. They identified a protein called TRIM21 that appears able to prevent the degradation of metabolic enzymes, resulting in cancer cells keeping their metabolism high. Being able to interrupt this pathway could lead to new approaches to cancer therapies.

New Hope for Muscular Dystrophy

Although there are now a couple therapies on the market for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DND), it is still incurable. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently identified a group of small molecules that might lead to new treatments. The compounds eased repression of a specific gene, utrophin, in mouse muscle cells. This allows the body to produce more utrophin protein, which can be substituted for dystrophin, the protein whose absence causes DMD.

Were trying to find therapies that will restore a patients muscle function without resorting to gene therapy, said Tejvir S. Khurana, the studys senior author and professor of Physiology. Increasing utrophin is a major focus of muscular dystrophy research. While, ideally, we would replace the missing dystrophin in patients, there are a number of technical and immunological problems associated with this approach.

One is simply that the dystrophin gene is the largest in the body, and cant be fit into the viruses used for gene therapy. Most approaches along those lines use truncated dystrophin genes or other means to introduce a partial dystrophin gene or gene product. The other problem is that because the human body of DMD patients doesnt have regular amounts or types of dystrophin, introducing dystrophin to the body often stimulates an immune response as the immune system reacts to it as an invader.

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Research Roundup: Antibiotics Linked to Birth Defects and More - BioSpace

Physiology

Study: Sugary drinks linked to lower levels of ‘good cholesterol’ – WCAX

NEW YORK (CBS) New research shows that sugary drinks can cause a lot more damage than just weight gain.

They're filled with calories and lack nutrients, yet sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, sports drinks and fruit-flavored drinks are the largest source of added sugars in the American diet. Now, new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association finds drinking more than 12 ounces of sugary drinks a day is linked to lower levels of so-called good cholesterol, or HDL cholesterol, and higher levels of triglycerides in middle aged and older adults.

"This is important because both of those findings have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease," said Dr Luke Laffin, a preventive cardiologist with the Cleveland Clinic.

Previous studies have shown the negative health effects of added sugars. Dr. Laffin says most of that data was related to weight gain. "This study shows that there is a more clear link or association between changes in cholesterol patterns, so lends to the theory that it's not just the weight gain that contributes, it actually changes physiology with respect to blood cholesterol," he said.

The American Heart Association recommends eliminating sugary drinks for better heart health and lower risk of heart attack and stroke. And, no surprise, water is preferred and healthiest.

"Really getting rid of those sugary drinks, starting with our kids, it's going to be helpful to setting those examples because the effect can be cumulative over a life time as well," Laffin said.

Low calorie sweetened drinks did not negatively impact blood lipids in the study, but researchers say that doesn't mean those drinks don't have other health consequences.

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Study: Sugary drinks linked to lower levels of 'good cholesterol' - WCAX

Physiology

SIUE’s Fernandez del Valle Committed to Optimizing Women’s Health – RiverBender.com

EDWARDSVILLE Which mode of exercise most effectively reduces cardiac fat in women? How can different modes of exercise improve cardiac function? These are among the questions Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles Maria Fernandez del Valle, PhD, is asking through her research aimed at optimizing womens health.

Fernandez del Valle is an assistant professor of exercise physiology in the School of Education, Health and Human Behaviors Department of Applied Health. She is a prime example of a teacher-scholar who has established effective multi-disciplinary collaborations and consistently involves undergraduate and graduate students in the Exercise Physiology Lab to pursue high impact research.

My research focuses on improving exercise prescription through different lines of study to help individuals optimize their health, Fernandez del Valle explained. Currently, were targeting women, and conducting research on cardiac fat and function to determine how different modes of exercise can help us improve both.

Unsatisfied with a meta-analysis that concluded exercise didnt have a significant effect as a strategy to reduce cardiac fat, Fernandez del Valle is investigating further for the benefit of womens health.

I want to improve the way we prescribe exercise, she said. We need a larger sample size to clearly see data trends, but early indications show that we can have a high impact on cardiac fat around the heart with resistance training alone. The implication then would be that obese women should do resistance training to target more internal fat rather than the fat you see on the outside. Because, internal fat is what I linked to the development of metabolic and cardiac diseases.

Two of Fernandez del Valles primary collaborators are Jon Klingensmith, PhD, assistant professor in the SIUE School of Engineerings Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Pamela Woodard, PhD, with the Washington University School of Medicine.

Upon meeting Dr. Fernandez del Valle when we both arrived at SIUE, I was excited to learn of her expertise in obesity and her research in how to reduce the fat around our internal organs, Klingensmith said. Our interdisciplinary collaboration has opened new avenues of study at SIUE, including the use of cardiac MRI to quantify and map cardiac fat, and the development of ultrasound-based algorithms for identification of cardiac fat. These efforts would not be possible for either of us alone. The interdisciplinary nature of the work allows us to pursue ideas and funding that otherwise wouldnt be available.

Fernandez del Valle is also an active research mentor for multiple undergraduate and graduate students, most of whom have earned competitive research awards and Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) accolades.

We can teach in the classroom and explain concepts, but when students are in a lab, I can see their faces and how it just clicks that oh, now thats what this means and this is connecting with this, Fernandez del Valle said. Without my collaborators and students assistance, this work would not be possible. It involves human subjects, assessment training and implementation, data reporting and much more.

Working in Dr. Fernandez del Valles lab has helped me connect with people, said graduate student and research assistant JaiLin Allen. Working with her has helped me gain not only experience in exercise physiology and knowing how the body works, but also how to tie in that experience with personal interactions and my future career.

Before working in this lab, I wasnt sure what I wanted to do post-graduation, added graduate student and research assistant Paige Davis. Now, I know I want to work in a research lab at a college or government agency. I love the mix of human interaction and data entry, and how everything comes together to achieve interesting results.

The SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior prepares students in a wide range of fields including community and public health, exercise science, nutrition, instructional technology, psychology, speech-language pathology and audiology, educational administration, and teaching. Faculty members engage in leading-edge research, which enhances teaching and enriches the educational experience. The School supports the community through on-campus clinics, outreach to children and families, and a focused commitment to enhancing individual lives across the region.

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SIUE's Fernandez del Valle Committed to Optimizing Women's Health - RiverBender.com

Physiology

Blame it on your genes – a genetic mutation reduces the ability to exercise – Yahoo News

It's easier for some people to exercise than others. (Getty Images)

Its long been thought that some people find exercising easier than others.

While some will happily jog off to the gym, others are left daunted by the prospect of doing anything that might cause perspiration or shortness of breath.

This might not just be a theory after all.

Scientists have found a link between certain genes and a persons ability to exercise efficiently.

Read more: Vogue Williams shared post-baby exercise tips

The research, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, discovered a genetic mutation in some people which made it harder for them to workout.

The genetic mutation can affect cellular oxygen sensing which is linked to a persons ability to exercise effectively.

The team involved in the research - which included researchers from King's College London - found that people with the gene had reduced rate of growth, persistent low blood sugar, a limited exercise capacity and a very high number of red blood cell.

In order to try to figure out why people with a limited exercise capacity behaved the way they did, the researchers tested one case study.

Read more: The top rated fitness trackers

After numerous tests - which included a genetic analysis and high-altitude testing - the scientists discovered that the mutated gene in question was the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene.

The VHL gene plays an important role in our genetic make up, primarily because it helps our cells survive when our ability to take in oxygen is reduced.

The scientists found that the VHL gene was impaired in some people who struggle to exercise.

Thats because this gene is linked to the mitochondria and when the mitochondria isnt firing on all cylinders - which is the case in people with a mutated VHL - then it makes it harder to exercise.

Read more: Experts say we should walk during our lunch breaks

Dr Federico Formenti, School of Basic & Medical Biosciences, one of the leading authors of the study, said: The discovery of this mutation and the associated phenotype is exciting because it enables a deeper understanding of human physiology, especially in terms of how the human body senses and responds to reduced oxygen availability.

Story continues

It also goes a long way to explain why some people can train and run a marathon whilst others would struggle with training, even if they were mentally motivated enough to complete it.

More research will need to be done in order to determine just how much this gene can affect people, but its a great step in the right direction for the study of human physiology.

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Blame it on your genes - a genetic mutation reduces the ability to exercise - Yahoo News

Physiology

My True Self Partners With The Winters Group to Launch The Physiology of Inclusion(TM) – Daily Record-News

EASTSOUND, Wash., Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --To support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) leaders in restoring their health and being physically prepared for the challenges that come their way, My True Self is partnering with The Winters Group, Inc. to launch The Physiology of Inclusion.

The Physiology of Inclusion is a whole-body system to improve physical, mental and emotional health so that DEI executives, practitioners and advocates can lead inclusively. This system comprises the three foundational elements of eating, sleeping and exercising that precede the three enabling elements necessary for enacting inclusion, thinking, being and interacting.

"Executives, administrators, and managers face the difficult challenge of leading organizations and teams through economic uncertainty, increased competition, and growing division in society," said Carter. "The Physiology of Inclusion is like Navy Seal Training for the DEI leader to prepare them physically, mentally and emotionally to succeed in these polarizing times."

"We are excited to partner with My True Self on this very important program. Too often we hear about the emotional, mental and physical toll DEI can take on a person's health and ability to stay in the fight," said Mary-Frances Winters, President and Founder of The Winters Group, Inc. "We must do the work to prioritize our well-being if we're truly going to be effective in shifting organizational cultures and influencing systems."

Gigi Carter is founder of My True Self, PLLC, a socially conscious wellness coaching and consulting practice. My True Self helps individuals, families, businesses, and organizations establish goals and create customized action plans towards sustainable wellness. Carter is author of The Plant-Based Workplace and co-author of the children's book The Spinach in My Teeth.

The Winters Group, Inc. is a global diversity and inclusion consulting firm. For over three decades, The Winters Group has supported leaders and organizations with developing transformative, sustainable solutions for equity and inclusion.

Contact: Gigi Carter (601) 201-5486 or 234839@email4pr.com

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My True Self Partners With The Winters Group to Launch The Physiology of Inclusion(TM) - Daily Record-News

Physiology

A Hot Topic for Cold Weather Warfighter – DVIDS

The International Congress on Soldiers Physical Performance (ICSPP) is held once every three years and attracts scientists, practitioners, and military leaders from all over the world. This sentinel meeting is known for exceptional content regarding applied, operationally relevant military human performance research. The theme for ICSPP 2020 was Optimizing the Winter Soldier and was held February 1114 in Quebec City, Canada.Modern conflicts have taken our armed forces around the globe and placed them in diverse climates ranging from oppressive heat and humidity to freezing temperatures. Mr. Jay Heaney, Thermal Physiologist and Deputy Director of the Naval Health Research Centers (NHRC) Warfighter Performance Department, presented his teams work assessing the physical and neurocognitive responses to cold water immersion and rewarming. These findings, which are the culmination of data collected over a five year period, directly informs practice and policy for military operations in the austere environment. The Thermal Physiology Team in NHRCs Warfighter Performance Department seeks to broaden the understanding of the physiological effects of harsh environmental temperatures. The goal is to develop evidence-based solutions to manage heat and cold stress while protecting warfighter health and maximizing performance.

The team presented several talks on the impact of exposure to cold water and cold air temperature on cognitive performance. As military operations transition to frigid environments, NHRC is investigating both cognitive and physical performance issues. One innovative approach being used in these investigations is mobile electroencephalography (EEG) while performing cognitive tasks. Thus far, this technique has provided unique insights to neurocognitive elements of human performance in cold environments, with delays in cognitive response observed when body temperature decreases, explains Mr. Heaney. Exposure to environmental stressors, such as freezing cold water can cause physiological and cognitive deterioration leading to decreased performance. For the warfighter, this reduces capabilities and effectiveness, which can then lead to compromised missions.At the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, training is conducted to prepare both warfighters and the medical personnel who care for them to operate in cold environments. During the three week course, students are taught the deleterious effects of accidental hypothermia as part of their training. Students are taught best practices on how to quickly and effectively rewarm following a ten minute ice water immersion exercise, which facilitates return to operational tasks.

While it is well know that many warfighters exhibit functional limitations resulting from exposure to cold environments, the specific reasons for such impairments are not well delineated. To better understand the underlying causes, NHRCs Warfighter Performance team used EEG hardware and other signal processing techniques to assess participants while in the frigid water. Cognitive results paired with EEG recordings provided valuable information on warfighters neurocognitive responses during cold water immersion and rewarming.

One of the lead scientists of the Thermal Physiology Team, Dr. Doug Jones, not only manages the study but invests his work on a personal level. During his time away from the lab, he spends his weekends in the winter volunteering as an alpine ski patroller for the Snow Valley Mountain Patrol, where he has seen firsthand, the effects of hypothermia. This work has allowed me to blend my passion for the mountains and cold environments with ground-breaking research to identify specific performance impairments that warfighters are encountering in cold operational settings, comments Dr. Jones. At this time, NHRCs Warfighter Performance Department is the only research group that has been able to collect high quality EEG data in the field during cold environmental conditions.

NHRCs mission is to optimize the operational readiness and health of our armed forces and families by conducting research, development, testing and evaluation informing Department of Defense (DoD) policy. NHRC supports military mission readiness with research and development that delivers high-value, high-impact solutions to the health and readiness challenges our military population faces on the battlefield, at sea, on foreign shores, and at home. NHRCs team of distinguished scientists and researchers consists of active duty service members, federal civil service employees and contractors, whose expertise includes physiology, microbiology, psychology, epidemiology, and biomedical engineering.

-NHRC-

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A Hot Topic for Cold Weather Warfighter - DVIDS

Physiology

Finding the sex factor in immunity – Pursuit

We know men and women have different constitutions and physiology, and this is likely why men and women are more or less susceptible to different diseases.

Women, for example, are more prone to autoimmune diseases like arthritis and lupus where the immune system attacks healthy cells.

We also know men are more prone to metabolic diseases where there are problems in how food is converted into energy, resulting in conditions like obesity, high blood pressure or high blood sugar levels. This makes men more susceptible to diseases like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

While this suggested that men and women have differences in their immune systems, there was little specific proof for that, until now.

In research published in Nature, Melbourne scientists have uncovered the clearest evidence yet of how men and womens immune systems operate differently.

It provides researchers with a new roadmap to look for the precise cellular and molecular mechanisms at work in men and women.

It also opens up the possibility of future drugs tailored to men or women to treat metabolic and immune diseases, as well as the secondary illnesses associated with them, like cancer.

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The focus of the study, led by researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and University of Melbourne, was to understand why men are more prone to obesity and metabolic diseases than women.

It was already well known that when a high fat diet is fed to mice, the males become obese much faster than the females. In a bid to work out why, researchers minutely examined the body fat of mice.

Body fat, or what we call the adipose, isnt just fat, says senior researcher on the study Professor Axel Kallies at the Peter Doherty Institute.

It is actually an organ that plays an important role in making hormones and messenger molecules to regulate metabolism. So we looked at every cell type we could think of by isolating them from the adipose and comparing males and females.

What they found completely surprised them. They discovered that the immune systems operating in the body fat of males and females were starkly different.

The male mice had many more and different types of white blood cells called Regulatory T cells (Treg cells). Indeed, males had three to four times as many Tregs cells as females.

These cells play a crucial role in limiting the otherwise harmful inflammation that is triggered when our immune system is alerted to an infection.

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They also found that males had a unique type of stromal cell. These are the cells that make up the connective tissue that shape organs.

Not only did we discover dramatic differences in Treg cells, we also discovered a stromal cell type that responds directly to testosterone and is specific to males, says study lead author Dr Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar.

This was surprising because past research on key organs involved in the immune system the lymph nodes, spleen and blood had found no difference in Tregs cells between males and females.

When they delved further to understand why males had so many more Treg cells in their body fat, they discovered the male-specific stromal cells. It is these stromal cells that create the environments, or niches, for Treg cells to adapt to specific organs, like body fat.

In this way, stromal cells influence how the immune system in an organ develops, and in body fat these stromal cells are different between males and females.

The team also found that male fat contained many more pro-inflammatory cytokines the immune system messenger molecules that allow different cells to communicate with each other and are important in triggering an immune response and inflammation.

This is probably the most striking and clear finding that goes toward explaining the differences in male and female immune systems, says Professor Kallies.

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In an earlier study we biopsied human adipose tissue and found the same type of Treg cells as we find in mice, so there is every reason to believe that similar systems are at play.

We now have a fairly complete picture at the molecular, cellular and hormonal level of what is going on, and it may well apply in different parts of the body, though the details of how it works may vary from organ to organ.

For example, instead of the stroma cell niche in body fat resulting in differences in Treg cells between men and women, in other organs the stroma may impact the female and male immune systems in a different way.

Professor Kallies says the findings show that male body fat is more primed to inflammation than female body fat. That may explain why men are more susceptible to obesity and metabolic diseases, which are associated with high levels of inflammation.

Professor Kallies suggests that the higher levels of Treg cells in men are an adaption to try and control this stronger inflammation.

If men didnt have this different Treg cell mechanism in place then they would be even worse off than they are now when it comes to metabolic diseases.

The interaction, via messenger molecules, between stroma cells and the immune system and how this differs between males and females represent a new target for research and possible new drugs, says Professor Kallies.

Read more

It means we have a more informed way of targeting these metabolic and autoimmune diseases, and the secondary conditions they are associated with like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

But the other key implication is that it underlines the urgent need for medical research to end the bias towards investigating only male physiology, and end the under-representation of women in clinical trials.

A 2018 study reported that between 1997 and 2000, of the ten prescription drugs the US Food and Drug Administration suspended because of severe side effects, eight caused greater health risks in women.

It is just outrageous that you can have drugs being tested only on male animals and clinical trials only including males when we know the metabolism of men and women is different, says Professor Kallies.

We need to be taking into account the differences between males and females from the very start of research.

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Physiology

Pioneer Neuroscientists Believed the Mind Is More Than the Brain – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

In a podcast discussion with Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talks about how many famous neuroscientist became dualiststhat is, they concluded that there is something about human beings that goes beyond matterbased on observations they made during their work [4:24 min].

A partial transcript follows:

04:24 | Wilder Penfield on the soul and the spirit

Robert J. Marks: What did the research of one of your fellow neurosurgeons, in history, Wilder Penfield, tell us about the soul and the spirit?

Michael Egnor: Wilder Penfield (18911976) was one of many neuroscientists who was a dualist. In fact, many of the greatest neuroscientist in history have been dualists

04:47 | What is a dualist?

Robert J. Marks: Could you just briefly, in a sentence, explain what a dualist is again?

Michael Egnor: Sure. A dualist is someone who believes that some aspect of the mind is not material. That is, that there is something above and beyond brain matter that constitutes the human mind.

Sherrington (right), who was really the original pioneer of neuroscience, worked back near the beginning of the twentieth century was a dualist, as was Dr. Penfield, whom I will talk about momentarily.

Note: Charles Scott Sherrington (18571952) won the Nobel Prize, along with Edgar Adrian, for Physiology or Medicine in 1932. His investigations of nearly every aspect of mammalian nervous function directly influenced the development of brain surgery and the treatment of such nervous disorders as paralysis and atrophy. Sherrington coined the term synapse to denote the point at which the nervous impulse is transmitted from one nerve cell to another. Britannica

If it is mind that we are searching the brain, then we are supposing the brain to be much more than a telephone-exchange. We are supposing it to be a telephone-exchange along with subscribers as well.

Michael Egnor: And there was John Eccles in the 1960s, a Nobel Laureate who was a passionate dualist. (John Eccles, below, in 1963, CC by 3.0)

Note: John Eccles (19031997) won the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1963, along with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley. Eccless research, which was based largely on the findings of Hodgkin and Huxley, settled a long-standing controversy over whether nerve cells communicate with each other by chemical or by electric means. His work had a profound influence on the medical treatment of nervous diseases and research on kidney, heart, and brain function. Britannica

We regard promissory materialism to be as superstition without rational foundation. The more we discover between mental phenomena and the more wonderful do both the brain events and the mental phenomena become. Promissory materialism is simply religious belief held by dogmatic materialism.

Michael Egnor: Other neuroscientists like Roger Sperry and Benjamin Libet, these are neuroscientists of the top rank who were dualists.

Robert J. Marks: And its interesting that they maintained this position because of their neurosurgery experience

Note: Roger Sperry (19131994) won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel. His studies demonstrated that the left side of the brain is normally dominant for analytical and verbal tasks, while the right hemisphere assumes dominance in spatial tasks, music, and certain other areas. The surgical and experimental techniques Sperry developed from the late 1940s laid the groundwork for much more specialized explorations of the mental functions carried out in different areas of the brain. Britannica

When the brain is whole, the unified consciousness of the left and right hemispheres adds up to more than the individual properties of the separate hemispheres.

See also: Four researchers whose work sheds light on the reality of the mind, where you will find a discussion of the work of Benjamin Libet (19162007).

Show Notes

00:46 | Introducing Dr. Michael Egnor, Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook

01:18 | Non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA)01:58 | Is there a soul?02:42 | The soul vs. the spirit04:24 | Wilder Penfield on the soul and the spirit04:47 | What is a dualist?06:47 | Open brain operations08:25 | Penfields first line of reasoning for dualism09:56 | Penfields second line of reasoning11:14 | Penfields third line of reasoning

Note: In the earlier part of the discussion, Dr. Egnor talked about the difference between soul and spirit, noting that, loosely speaking, the soul is the principle of life in a body and the spirit refers more to the immaterial aspects of the soul, which are the ability to reason and the ability to make decisions based on reason. A partial transcript is available here.

Next: Wilder Penfield offered three reasons for believing the mind is not merely the brain

Here are some of Michael Egnors thoughts on theories of consciousness:

Tam Hunt offers some ideas at Scientific American but his dismissal of objectivity is cause for concern. There is a better way. Hunt is right that the scientific study of consciousness using merely third-person objective data is flawedit is the idiotic flaw of behaviorismbut the notion that objective data needs scare quotes opens the door to a deconstruction of our knowledge of the natural world that is every bit as idiotic and dangerous as the crude materialist objectification of consciousness.

Why eliminative materialism cannot be a good theory of the mind. Thinking that the mind is simply the brain, no more and no less, involves a hopeless contradiction. How can you have a proposition that the mind doesnt exist? That means propositions dont exist and that means, in turn, that you dont have a proposition.

Why the mind cannot just emerge from the brain. The mind cannot emerge from the brain if the two have no qualities in common. In his continuing discussion with Robert J. Marks, Michael Egnor argues that emergence of the mind from the brain is not possible because no properties of the mind have any overlap with the properties of brain. Thought and matter are not similar in any way. Matter has extension in space and mass; thoughts have no extension in space and no mass.

and

The minds reality is consistent with neuroscience. A neglected dualist theory offers some insights. Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor thinks that the explanation of the relationship of the mind to the brain that best fits todays neuroscience is that certain powers, particularly the intellect and will, are not generated by matter but are immaterial. However, other properties of the mind, like perception, memory and imagination are physical, generated by brain matter.

See more here:
Pioneer Neuroscientists Believed the Mind Is More Than the Brain - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence