PURPOSE: To evaluate the expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and its receptor, GDNF family receptor alpha subunit 1 (GFRα-1) in the pelvic (middle third) vagina and, particularly, in the paravaginal ganglia of nulliparous and primiparous rabbits. METHODS: Chinchilla-breed female rabbits were used. Primiparas were killed on postpartum day 3 and nulliparas upon reaching a similar age. The vaginal tracts were processed for histological analyses or frozen for Western blot assays. We measured the ganglionic area, the Abercrombie-corrected number of paravaginal neurons, the cross-sectional area of the neuronal somata, and the number of satellite glial cells (SGCs) per neuron. The relative expression of both GDNF and GFRα-1 were assessed by Western blotting, and the immunostaining was semiquantitated. Unpaired two-tailed Student t -test or Wilcoxon test was used to identify statistically significant differences (P≤0.05) between the groups. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrated that the ganglionic area, neuronal soma size, Abercrombie-corrected number of neurons, and number of SGCs per neuron were similar in nulliparas and primiparas. The relative expression of both GDNF and GFRα-1 was similar. Immunostaining for both GDNF and GFRα-1 was observed in several vaginal layers, and no differences were detected regarding GDNF and GFRα-1 immunostaining between the 2 groups. In the paravaginal ganglia, the expression of GDNF was increased in neurons, while that of GFRα-1 was augmented in the SGCs of primiparous rabbits. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest an ongoing regenerative process related to the recovery of neuronal soma size in the paravaginal ganglia, in which GDNF and GFRα-1 could be involved in cross-talk between neurons and SGCs.
Blotting, Western ; Carisoprodol ; Female ; Ganglia ; Ganglion Cysts ; Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Humans ; Nerve Growth Factors ; Neuroglia ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Neurons ; Postpartum Period ; Rabbits ; Reproduction ; Vagina

An open, prostective, randomized multicenter clinical trial randomly allocated successive patient who were scheduled for a surgical procedure for serious intra-abdominal infections to receive either treatment CM (ceftazidine plus metronidazole) or monotherapy with treatment IC (imipenem/cilastatin). Out of 90 eligible patients, 87 were clinically evaluable of which 71 were clinically and bacteriologically evaluable (CBE). Cases allocated to each treatment group were comparable as to age, sex, diagnostic group distribution, mean APACHE II scores, and bacteriologic evaluability. Among the 87 clinically evaluable patients, there were 4 (9.1%) and 2 (4.7%) treatment failures among those who received treatments CM and IC respectively (p=0.486). For all eligible patients, the mean fever days was 2.07, mean treatment days was 6.01, and mean hospital days was 11.57, and was not significantly different between the two treatment groups. Among clinically evaluable cases, the mean APACHE II scores of patients with succesful outcomes (5.8) was very significantly lower (p=0.000) than that of patients whose treatment failed (13.8). This was also true for CBE cases. Logistic regression analysis showed that among six variables (diagnostic group, APACHE II score, antibiotic used, fever days, hospital days and treatment days) only the APACHE II score signficantly contributed to treatment failure (p=0.001).

Human ; Cilastatin ; Imipenem ; Metronidazole ; Drug Combinations ; Sex Distribution ; Age Distribution ; Intraabdominal Infections ; Anti-bacterial Agents

No abstract available.