This paper reviews some of our findings which have shown the usefulness of in vitro methods in the study of hypothalamic neurones. (1) Membrane current analyses of dispersed neurones of the rat preoptic and anterior hypothalamus (POA) during thermal stimulation have revealed that warm-sensitive neurones are endowed with a non-inactivating Na+ channel having a high Qjo in the hyperthermic range (35-41 °C). (2) A brain slice study has shown that neurones in the organum vasculosum lamina terminalis (OVLT) region have much higher sensitivity to PGE2 than POA neurones. This provides further evidence of a critical role of the OVLT in translation of blood-borne cytokine signals into brain signals for fever induction. (3) Local application of IL -1/9 and IFNa altered the activity of thermosensitive (TS) neurones and glucose responsive (GR) neurones in vitro in an appropriate way to produce fever and anorexia. While the responses to IL -1/9 required the local release of prostaglandins, the responses to IFNa were found to be mediated by opioid receptor mechanisms. (4) The responses of POA TS neurones and VMH GR neurones to IL -1/9 but not those to IFNa, were reversibly blocked by aMSII, an endogenous antipyretic peptide. Thus, immune cytokines and their related neuroactive substances may affect hypothalamic TS and GR neurones thereby producing elaborately regulated changes in homeostatic functions such as thermoregulation (fever) and feeding (anorexia), which are considered as host defence responses.
There is an increasing eviden ce linking dysbalance between various proinflammatory mediators and higher risk of cardiovascular events and pathologies. Likewise, some of the cardiovascular diseases lately ap peared to have an autoimmune component. Interleukin-1 (IL-1), a master regulator of diverse inflammatory processes in higher eukaryotes and the key player in numerous autoimmune disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus or systemic sclerosis, has recently been proved to be involved in development of several cardiovascular diseases as well. This report aims to give a summary on current knowledge about the IL-1 signaling pathways and about the implication of IL-1 and the IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) in some of the diseases of the cardiovascular system., B. Vicenová ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury