There is a growing consensus as to the characteristics of conservative treatments for obesity. We will begin by describing these characteristics without attempting a precise definition. Conservative treatments can be characterized in a negative sense as treatments other than surgery or adjunctive instruments such as gastric balloons, very-low-calorie diets, or pharmacotherapy. They can be chara...

Introduction: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) plays a key role in the regulation of vascular tone and protection of blood vessels against endothelial dysfunction. Since the mechanism of salt impairing H2S-induced vascular relaxation is not fully clear, therefore this study was designed to investigate the role of potassium (K+) channels in the vasodilatory effects of exogenous H2S in rat aortic rings.&nb...

Most of the anticancer agents cannot be efficiently delivered into the brain tumor because of the existence of blood-brain tumor barrier (BTB). The objective of this study was to explore the effect of microbubble-enhanced diagnostic ultrasound (MEUS) on the BTB permeability and the possible mechanism. Glioma-bearing rats were randomized into three groups as follows: the microbubble-enhanced con...

The processing speed of many neuronal systems requires temporal coding. Recently, a temporal rank order code has been suggested that uses the temporal order of spikes, disregarding their precise timing. A rank order-coded spike pattern can be decoded by an array of synaptic weights and a postsynaptic desensitization process. We show that a multi-compartmental model of a cerebellar Purkinje cell...

Background Neuronal L-type voltage-gated calcium channels (LTCCs) have long been implicated in the regulation of excitability. This function appears to be related to the coupling of LTCC-mediated Ca influx to Ca-dependent conductances, such as KCa channels, e.g. KV2.x (SK), and nonspecific cation (CAN) channels. However, despite numerous data related to the molecular functioning of LTCCs, littl...