Level Of Tone Research Articles

The combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on listeners’ perception of non-native lexical tones

Non-native lexical tone perception can be affected by listeners’ musical or linguistic experience, but it remains unclear of whether there will be combined effects and how these impacts will be modulated by different types of non-native tones. This study adopted an orthogonal design with four participant groups, namely, Mandarin-L1 monolinguals and Mandarin-L1 and Cantonese-L2 bilinguals with or without musical training, to investigate effects of bilingualism and musicianship on perception of non-native lexical tones. The closely matched four groups, each encompassing an equal number of 20 participants, attended a modified ABX discrimination task of lexical tones of Teochew, which was unknown to all participants and consists of multiple tone types of level tones, contour tones, and checked tones. The tone perceptual sensitivity index of d’ values and response times were calculated and compared using linear mixed-effects models. Results on tone sensitivity and response time revealed that all groups were more sensitive to contour tones than level tones, indicating the effect of native phonology of Mandarin tones on non-native tone perception. Besides, as compared to monolinguals, bilinguals obtained a higher d’ value when discriminating non-native tones, and musically trained bilinguals responded faster than their non-musician peers. It indicates that bilinguals enjoy a perceptual advantage in non-native tone perception, with musicianship further enhancing this advantage. This extends prior studies by showing that an L2 with a more intricate tone inventory than L1 could facilitate listeners’ non-native tone perception. The pedagogical implications were discussed.

Phrase prosody of a southern Russian dialect: Rogovatoe

This paper deals with the phrase intonation of the Southern Russian dialect spoken in the village of Rogovatoe, in the Starooskol’sky district of the Belgorod region. The study is devoted to the analysis of the prosodic structure of various communicative categories: statements, yes-no questions, wh-questions, non-finality, imperative, and vocative. Based on the examination of more than 7000 sentences, I argue that the dialect of Rogovatoe uses only two monotonal pitch accents — H* and L* — as opposed to three bitonal accents of Modern Standard Russian. I also postulate two final boundary tones — H% and L% — for this dialect, while no proof of a phonological distinction between the high and the low phrase accents was found. Finally, the idiom of Rogovatoe employs the phonological distinction between the high and the low initial boundary tone — %H and %L. Therefore, the prosodic system of this Southern Russian dialect is much more focused on the level tones than Modern Standard Russian utilizing predominantly contour (rising and falling) tones.

Phase I/II Study of a Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor Vaccine in Patients With NF2-Related Schwannomatosis.

The humanized antivascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab (Bev) is efficacious for the treatment of NF2-related schwannomatosis (NF2), previously known as neurofibromatosis type 2. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of a VEGF receptor (VEGFR) vaccine containing VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 peptides in patients with NF2 with progressive schwannomas (jRCTs031180184). VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 peptides were injected subcutaneously into infra-axillary and inguinal regions, once a week for 4 weeks and then once a month for 4 months. The primary end point was safety. Secondary end points included tolerability, hearing response, imaging response, and immunologic response. Sixteen patients with NF2 with progressive schwannomas completed treatment and were assessed. No severe vaccine-related adverse events occurred. Among the 13 patients with assessable hearing, word recognition score improved in five patients at 6 months and two at 12 months. Progression of average hearing level of pure tone was 0.168 dB/mo during the year of treatment period, whereas long-term progression was 0.364 dB/mo. Among all 16 patients, a partial response was observed in more than one schwannoma in four (including one in which Bev had not been effective), minor response in 5, and stable disease in 4. Both VEGFR1-specific and VEGFR2-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) were induced in 11 patients. Two years after vaccination, a radiologic response was achieved in nine of 20 assessable schwannomas. This study demonstrated the safety and preliminary efficacy of VEGFR peptide vaccination in patients with NF2. Memory-induced CTLs after VEGFR vaccination may persistently suppress tumor progression.

MÜASİR İNGİLİS DİLİNDƏ RƏSMİ VƏ QEYRİ-RƏSMİ YAZIŞMALARIN LİNQVİSTİK XÜSUSİYYƏTLƏRİ

Linguistic Features of Formal and Informal Letter Writing in Modern English Summary Letter writing is an important communication skill in both personal and professional settings. There are different types of letters, including informal letters to friends and family, and formal letters used in business and academic spheres. The article deals with understanding that the differences between informal and formal letters, the appropriate tone, language, and format are essential for effective letter writing. Formal and informal language serve different purposes. It`s important to know when formal or informal writing is expected as it helps a writer to connect with the reader or listener. Formal and informal English are two distinct styles of language usage that vary in their level of formality, vocabulary, sentence structure and tone. Key words: writing skills, formal letters, informal letters, abbrevations, jargons, audience

Investigation on the influence of the skin tone on hyperspectral imaging for free flap surgery

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a new emerging modality useful for the noncontact assessment of free flap perfusion. This measurement technique relies on the optical properties within the tissue. Since the optical properties of hemoglobin (Hb) and melanin overlap, the results of the perfusion assessment and other tissue-specific parameters are likely to be distorted by the melanin, especially at higher melanin concentrations. Many spectroscopic devices have been shown to struggle with a melanin related bias, which results in a clinical need to improve non-invasive perfusion assessment, especially for a more pigmented population. This study investigated the influence of skin tones on tissue indices measurements using HSI. In addition, other factors that might affect HSI, such as age, body mass index (BMI), sex or smoking habits, were also considered. Therefore, a prospective feasibility study was conducted, including 101 volunteers from whom tissue indices measurements were performed on 16 different body sites. Skin tone classification was performed using the Fitzpatrick skin type classification questionnaire, and the individual typology angle (ITA) acquired from the RGB images was calculated simultaneously with the measurements. Tissue indices provided by the used HSI-device were correlated to the possible influencing factors. The results show that a dark skin tone and, therefore, higher levels of pigmentation influence the HSI-derived tissue indices. In addition, possible physiological factors influencing the HSI-measurements were found. In conclusion, the HSI-based tissue indices can be used for perfusion assessment for people with lighter skin tone levels but show limitations in people with darker skin tones. Furthermore, it could be used for a more individual perfusion assessment if different physiological influencing factors are respected.

Musical Advantage in Lexical Tone Perception Hinges on Musical Instrument

Different musical instruments have different pitch processing demands. However, correlational studies have seldom considered the role of musical instruments in music-to-language transfer. Addressing this research gap could contribute to a nuanced understanding of music-to-language transfer. To this end, we investigated whether pitched musicians had a unique musical advantage in lexical tone perception relative to unpitched musicians and nonmusicians. Specifically, we compared Cantonese pitched musicians, unpitched musicians, and nonmusicians on Thai tone discrimination and sequence recall. In the Thai tone discrimination task, the pitched musicians outperformed the unpitched musicians and the nonmusicians. Moreover, the unpitched musicians and the nonmusicians performed similarly. In the Thai tone sequence recall task, both pitched and unpitched musicians recalled level tone sequences more accurately than the nonmusicians, but the pitched musicians showed the largest musical advantage. However, the three groups recalled contour tone sequences with similar accuracy. Collectively, the pitched musicians had a unique musical advantage in lexical tone discrimination and the largest musical advantage in level tone sequence recall. From a theoretical perspective, this study offers correlational evidence for the Precision element of the OPERA hypothesis. The choice of musical instrumental may matter for music-to-language transfer in lexical tone discrimination and level tone sequence recall.

Voice onset time in Angami

Abstract Angami has three-way laryngeal contrasts in stops, i.e., voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and voiceless aspirated. Apart from that, Angami also has four phonetically level tones. Due to the level nature of the lexical tones in Angami, consonantal perturbations could be investigated clearly. The results of the study showed that the extent of consonantal perturbation depended on the tonal categories. Voiceless consonantal perturbations were weaker as tone categories got higher. Conversely, voiced stop consonantal perturbations were weaker as tone categories got lower. This study also found a systematic relationship between tone height and VOT duration. High tones induced shorter VOT, while low tones induced longer VOT.

Spinal projecting neurons in rostral ventromedial medulla co-regulate motor and sympathetic tone

Many behaviors require the coordinated actions of somatic and autonomic functions. However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. By opto-stimulating different populations of descending spinal projecting neurons (SPNs) in anesthetized mice, we show that stimulation of excitatory SPNs in the rostral ventromedial medulla (rVMM) resulted in a simultaneous increase in somatomotor and sympathetic activities. Conversely, opto-stimulation of rVMM inhibitory SPNs decreased both activities. Anatomically, these SPNs innervate both sympathetic preganglionic neurons and motor-related regions in the spinal cord. Fiber-photometry recording indicated that the activities of rVMM SPNs correlate with different levels of muscle and sympathetic tone during distinct arousal states. Inhibiting rVMM excitatory SPNs reduced basal muscle and sympathetic tone, impairing locomotion initiation and high-speed performance. In contrast, silencing the inhibitory population abolished muscle atonia and sympathetic hypoactivity during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Together, these results identify rVMM SPNs as descending spinal projecting pathways controlling the tone of both the somatomotor and sympathetic systems.

Insights into The Prenatal and Postnatal Knowledge & Critical Observations of Parents with Children who Have Down Syndrome: A Single Center Study

Introduction: Down syndrome (DS) is one of the many genetic syndromes commonly confronted by pediatricians. These people commonly share a few features which include a low level of muscle tone (hypotonia), learning disabilities, and abnormalities of the cranium and facial parts. Aims and Objectives: To assess the pre and postnatal knowledge, of parents with Down syndrome children. Place and Duration of study: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Shifa International Hospital (SIH), by Final year medical students, in association with the Cytogenetics Department. between December 2019 to September 2021 Material and Methods: All the chidren diagnosed with Down Syndrome at the SIH and their parents were invited to participate in our study. Convenience sampling was used depending solely on the number of parents who had accepted our invitation. A total sample size of 35 was included, of which 15 agreed to participate. A detailed questionnaire having both close ended and open questions in English and Urdu was filled out by those parents who consented. Data was entered and analysed using SPSS version 24.0. pvalue ?0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Our results showed that 11 of the 15 DS children i.e., 73.3% were male and 4 out of 15 i.e., 26.6% were females. None of these children had siblings with the same disorder. 13 of the 15 cases (86.6%) were diagnosed post- natally only 2 cases (13.3%) pre-natally. All the cases i.e., 100% were diagnosed by a pediatrician and none were diagnosed by an obstetrician. Surprisingly increasing age of either parent seemed to increase the incidence of DS offspring. 60.0% (9 of the 15) of parents did not know the condition could be diagnosed prenatally. While 10 of 15 (66.6%) of them were aware of its general complications. Answering open ended questions parents identified the lack of awareness, special educational institutes, and presence of communication gap between them and doctors as some of the factors that hindered the welfare of DS children. Conclusion: Only one parent knew about DS complications pre-natally and only a few were aware that a pre-natal diagnosis could be formed. Postnatal knowledge of parents was sketchy also, especially regarding the future complications faced by DS children, Parents critically observed insufficient public awareness, societal taboos, paucity of local DS data and prenatal medical DS training, and consequently lack of govermnnental support required by special needs DS children in our country.

The effect of second-language learning experience on Korean listeners’ use of pitch cues in the perception of Cantonese tones

Past studies have found that the linguistic experience of previously-acquired languages, such as one’s native-language (L1) and second-language (L2) learning experience, modulates the perception of novel sounds from a third language (L3). Lexical tone in L3 is a good case for testing the influence of L1 or L2, as listeners with varying language backgrounds may use different pitch cues (pitch contour or height) in tone perception. The present study focuses on L2 learners of Mandarin whose L1 variety is either Seoul Korean (SK), a non-tonal stressless language, or Gyeongsang Korean (GK), a tonal pitch-accent language. Intermediate-to-advanced SK-speaking and GK-speaking L2 learners of Mandarin were recruited as target groups, and naive listeners of respective L1 varieties were recruited as control groups. The participants completed an AX forced-choice tone discrimination task. Four Cantonese tones, one rising tone and three level tones, were used. Contour–level and level–level tonal contrasts were target tone pairs, allowing for testing the primary use of pitch contour and pitch height, respectively. The results showed that the two groups of naive listeners had greater accuracy in discriminating level–level than contour–level tonal contrasts. In contrast, L2 learners, independent of their L1 varieties, showed higher accuracy in discriminating contour–level than level–level tonal contrasts. The L2 learners’ perceptual pattern is consistent with Mandarin listeners, as reported in previous work. Taken together, the findings provide evidence for a possible developmental change in which Korean-speaking L2 learners might have a perceptual cue shift from pitch height to pitch contour through their L2 experience in Mandarin. The findings about the role of L2 proficiency in Mandarin further supported the effect of L2 experience on learners’ increased use of pitch contour.

Piano cycles of Italian composers of the late 19th – first half of the 20th century: on the problem of programming.

The object of study in this article is the piano work of Italian composers of the late 19th – first half of the 20th centuries. The subject is programming in instrumental music, represented by the genre of the piano cycle. Based on the definition of programming and the classification of types, developed in the works of domestic musicologists M. Aranovsky, L. Kazantseva, Yu. Khokhlova, the author reveals the features of its implementation in the cycles of famous Italian composers F. Busoni, J. Malipiero, A. Casella, M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco, created during the historical period under study. Particular attention is paid to considering the issue of continuing the tradition of embodying programming in cycles, established by romantic composers, as well as identifying national features characteristic of Italian art as a whole. The article uses an integrated approach, including systemic-historical and comparative methods of analysis. The author also turned to the method of musical theoretical analysis. The novelty of the research lies in the development of one of the important and relevant areas of musicology associated with the synthesis of arts, within the framework of solving a specific problem: the implementation of various types of programming. The author’s special contribution to the development of this topic is the introduction into scientific circulation of new works of Italian masters that have not previously been studied, the consideration, using their example, of various types of programming in close connection with the tradition that has developed in European art, and the identification of ways to update it. The most important feature is the integrity of the cycles, which is formed at the emotional, figurative, stylistic, compositional, and tonal levels. A conclusion is drawn about the originality of the piano cycles of Italian composers, which is manifested in close connection with national art.

Characterizing inner-hair-cell specific dysfunction from spike-train-derived transduction functions using a phenomenological auditory-nerve model

The impact of outer-hair-cell damage on sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) has been extensively studied compared with inner-hair-cell (IHC) damage (e.g., stereocilial). Pre-clinical SNHL animal models provide unique data to directly address IHC-specific deficits (e.g., carboplatin-exposed chinchillas). Spike-train data (period histograms) to low sound level tones can be used to derive IHC-transduction functions by mapping instantaneous spike rates to corresponding sinusoidal pressure values (Horst et al., 2018). However, this approach depends on sensation level and spontaneous rate, which are both affected by IHC dysfunction. To better understand the effect of these dependencies, we used a phenomenological auditory-nerve (AN) model (Bruce et al., 2018) that provides parametric control over IHC and OHC dysfunction allowing exploration of optimal experimental design. Here, we explore the utility of spike-train-derived IHC-transduction functions in capturing parametric changes in IHC dysfunction as currently implemented in the AN model. We used unsupervised methods and information-theoretic approaches to quantify the dependency of transduction functions on IHC dysfunction. We also compared model findings with AN-fiber data recorded from carboplatin-exposed chinchillas. Preliminary findings suggest that transduction functions obtained from the AN model can capture IHC-specific dysfunction within specific regimes of controllable model parameters, thus showing promise for characterizing IHC dysfunction.

An Ongoing Tonal-Pattern Change: Lanzhou Dialect

The tonal-pattern of Lanzhou dialect is experiencing a change demonstrated in two aspects: a) Yin-ping 阴平 (T1a) has two variants, falling and level, and the former is being replaced by the latter; b) Shang-sheng 上声 (T2) and Qu-sheng 去声 (T3) are merging. We propose that the tonal change of T1a is partially a result of language contact, and the sandhi T1a from initial position of disyllabic combination also plays a role in extending the level tone to the citation T1a, the change of T1a then further triggers the merger of T2 and T3. Yet whether it is the change of sandhi T1a in the initial position or the change of the surface representation of citation T1a, or the merger of T2 and T3, all the directionality of tonal change is in line with the “clockwise tone shift circle” (Zhu et al. 2015; Yang and Xu 2019). We argue that tone changes are mainly due to internal factors. Although there are external stimuli, the path of tone change follows rules. The illustration of the ongoing tonal-pattern change in Lanzhou dialect will shed light on the understanding of the rules.

Prior knowledge benefits older adults' tonal consolidation through talker generalization

Recent research indicated that post-training sleep facilitates memory consolidation and talker generalization in young adults' tone learning. For instance, a nap study showed the newly learned tonal contrast that relates to prior knowledge consolidated more rapidly than that does not after daytime naps. Notably, older adults' declarative memory consolidation is impaired with age-related changes in sleep architecture. The current study examines whether prior (contour-tone) knowledge benefits Mandarin-speaking older adults' Cantonese tone learning. Mandarin employs pitch contours (falling versus rising) to cue tones in signaling word identity. Besides pitch contours, Cantonese also utilizes pitch heights (higher versus lower) in level tones to encode word meanings. In the pilot phase (60 Mandarin-speaking older adults will be recruited with data collection ongoing), participants were trained to learn Cantonese contour-level and level-level contrasts in the evening or the morning. A novel word-object identification task was used in the training, followed by three tone identification tasks: a posttest immediately after training, a 12-h delayed posttest (a trained talker), and another delayed posttest (a novel talker). Aligned with the nap study, preliminary results suggested overnight sleep might enhance seniors' tone-related memory by promoting generalization across talkers in learning contour-level contrast owing to their prior contour-tone knowledge.

Phonetic adaptation in conversation: The case of Cantonese tone merging

Phonetic adaptation occurs when one interlocutor adjusts their speech to converge to or diverge from that of their conversation partner to enhance intelligibility. While most research investigates segmental adaptations, our study focuses on suprasegmentals, specifically Cantonese tone merging. Some Cantonese speakers (“mergers”) are found to merge certain lexical tones (e.g., mid-level Tone3 and low-level Tone6), which may cause confusions when interacting with non-merger speakers. Previous research has shown that a merger may unmerge a level tone pair (Tone3/Tone6) when shadowing a non-merger. However, still unclear is whether such changes result from automatic acoustic mimicking or reflect goal-oriented adaptations for intelligibility benefits. This study uses an unscripted conversation task involving a merger and a non-merger playing a video game, where productions of merged tones may cause confusions, thus motivating goal-oriented adaptations. Initial acoustic analyses focus on average F0 and F0 taken at 10 points along the contour in target Tone3 and Tone6 productions by mergers. Differences in these values for Tone3 versus Tone6 provide evidence that a merger is unmerging the tone pair. Preliminary results show increasing unmerging trends as the task progresses, suggesting progressive alignment toward a non-merger’s productions for intelligibility gains.

Increased reliance on temporal coding when target sound is softer than the background

Everyday environments often contain multiple concurrent sound sources that fluctuate over time. Normally hearing listeners can benefit from high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) in energetic dips of temporally fluctuating background sound, a phenomenon called dip-listening. Specialized mechanisms of dip-listening exist across the entire auditory pathway. Both the instantaneous fluctuating and the long-term overall SNR shape dip-listening. An unresolved issue regarding cortical mechanisms of dip-listening is how target perception remains invariant to overall SNR, specifically, across different tone levels with an ongoing fluctuating masker. Equivalent target detection over both positive and negative overall SNRs (SNR invariance) is reliably achieved in highly-trained listeners. Dip-listening is correlated with the ability to resolve temporal fine structure, which involves temporally-varying spike patterns. Thus the current work tests the hypothesis that at negative SNRs, neuronal readout mechanisms need to increasingly rely on decoding strategies based on temporal spike patterns, as opposed to spike count. Recordings from chronically implanted electrode arrays in core auditory cortex of trained and awake Mongolian gerbils that are engaged in a tone detection task in 10 Hz amplitude-modulated background sound reveal that rate-based decoding is not SNR-invariant, whereas temporal coding is informative at both negative and positive SNRs.

The role of breathy voice in Hmu tone perception

ABSTRACT: Previous studies on tone perception have mainly focused on the role of F 0, while there are few but increasing studies on the effect of non-modal phonation. This study investigates the role of non-modal phonation in perceiving the five level tones used in Hmu, in which the lowest level tone (T11) is often referred to as “breathy voice”. First, an acoustic analysis was conducted on those tones to determine the voice quality and whether breathiness is limited to specific tones, revealing that breathiness only co-occurs with T11. Second, a perception experiment was performed to investigate whether breathiness can influence T11 identification. Results show that identification scores significantly differ only for the pairs of two continua that involve T11. This suggests that, relative to other tones, native speakers rely on breathiness in T11 identification, which derives from the accompanying phonation in its production. These findings shed light on how, alongside F 0, non-modal phonation contributes to tone perception, which demonstrates a new kind for the role of phonation in tonal contrasts. Considering these results, it is thus necessary to incorporate phonation cues when defining tone. 摘要: 前人对声调感知的研究主要聚焦在 F 0的作用上，鲜有研究关注特殊嗓音 发声类型的影响。本文研究特殊嗓音发声类型在苗语五平调(低平调T11 通常被认为具有气嗓音)感知中的作用。本项研究首先通过声学分析确 定五个平调的嗓音质量，以及气嗓特性是否仅限于特定声调，结果显示 气嗓特性仅与T11共现。在此基础上，本文通过感知实验研究气嗓音是 否会影响T11的辨认，结果表明，辨认得分仅在那些包含T11的声调连 续统中存在显著性差异。这表明，与其他平调相比，母语者在T11的辨 认中依赖其在言语产生中伴随而来的气嗓音。本文研究发现阐明了特殊 嗓音发声类型如何与 F 0共同作用于声调感知，这为发声类型在声调对立 中的角色提供了一种新类型。综合上述结果，从言语感知的视角看，本 文认为在定义声调时加入发声线索是十分必要的。

Contractive function of mesenteric lymph nodes in obese rats

Over the past 50 years, the prevalence of obesity around the world has increased several times and has become a pandemic. The effect of obesity on the lymphatic system, which plays a key role in the regulation of fluid homeostasis, immune cell migration, antigen presentation, and resolution of inflammatory responses, is poorly understood, and there is no data on the contractile activity of the lymph nodes in obesity. The purpose of the research was to investigate the parameters and mechanisms of dysfunction of the contractile function of the mesenteric lymph nodes of rats in obesity caused by the feeding with the high-fat diet (HFD). Material and methods. The study was conducted on 50 male Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats aged 6 weeks were randomly divided into groups: a control group (n=10) fed a standard diet and a group of rats (n=40) kept on HFD (60% fat content by calorie value). Rats received food and water ad libitum for 16 weeks. Before the end of the experiment, four groups of HFD rats were formed: obesity resistant animals (HFD-OR, n=11), without additional interventions (HFD, n=10), rats which were administered dexamethasone three days before the study (HFD+Dexa, n=9), HFD followed by 8-week diet restriction (HFD+DR, n=9). At the end of the experiment, mesenteric lymph nodes (LNs) were taken from rats under anesthesia and their contractile function was studied in a myograph using 1400W, dynastat and Tempol. Results. LNs of control rats had a high level of tone and generated spontaneous high-amplitude phasic contractions. The LNs of HFD rats had a low initial tone, and rare low-amplitude phasic contractions were recorded in them. The parameters of contractile activity of the LNs of rats in HFD-OR and HFD+Dexa groups differed slightly from the corresponding parameters of the LNs of rats in the control group. Calorie restriction for 8 weeks in obese rats (HFD+DR) resulted in an increase in tone, frequency and amplitude of phasic contractions of the LNs compared to those in HFD rats. iNOS inhibition caused a significant increase in the tone, amplitude and frequency of phasic contractions of the LNs in the HFD group. An increase in the frequency of phasic contractions was observed only in the LNs of HFD+Dex and HFD+DR rats. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase 2 did not affect the contractile function of the LNs of rats of all groups, with the exception of animals from the HFD group (increase in the amplitude and frequency of phasic contractions). Tempol significantly increased the tone, frequency and amplitude of phasic contractions of the LNs in rats of the HFD group and increased the frequency of phasic contractions of the LNs of the HFD+DR rats. Conclusion. A high-fat diet leads to impaired contractile function of rat LNs and can create additional obstacles to the movement of lymph, promoting its leakage into surrounding tissues. Obesity is accompanied by the development of inflammation in the LNs and perinodal adipose tissue, which induces the expression of inducible NO synthase, cyclooxygenase-2 and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). NO, prostaglandins and ROS have an inhibitory effect on the SMC capsules of the LNs, leading to a decrease in tonic tension and a weakening of spontaneous phasic contractions. The reason for inhibition of LN contractile function is obesity, but not consumption of food high in fat. Transferring obese rats to a calorie-restricted diet results in a decrease in body weight and visceral fat mass and an improvement in LN contractile function.

IMMUNOINFLAMMATORY PROCESSES IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS

HighlightsThe article describes the main pathogenetic aspects of atherogenesis and focuses on the role of low-intensity inflammation in this process. Moreover, the article presents data on the possibilities of predicting cardiovascular outcomes in patients using a number of pro-inflammatory markers, and on the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory therapy in this cohort of patients. AbstractChronic low-intensity inflammation is currently considered one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The initiation and progression of atherosclerosis are associated with an inflammatory response to endothelial damage, accompanied by an increase in number of pro-inflammatory markers blood circulation. The atherogenic effect of the main risk factors for atherosclerosis, such as hypertension, smoking, increased dietary fat intake, physical inactivity and obesity, as well as psychological and emotional factors and sleep disturbance, is mostly carried out through these mechanisms. In addition, proinflammatory cytokines blood levels increase is associated with sympathetic tone level increase under these risk factors influence.The article describes the relevant atherogenesis mechanisms and the results of large clinical trials studying the relationship between inflammatory activity, assessed by the levels of various pro-inflammatory markers, and the risk of cardiovascular complications. Data regarding the use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as canakinumab, anakinra, tocilizumab, colchicine to treat patients with coronary artery disease are given. The efficacy of nano-immunotherapy, when powerful anti-inflammatory agents are target delivered to atherosclerotic plaques using nanoparticles, is considered, as well as the anti-inflammatory effect of renal denervation due to the sympatholytic activity of this procedure.

The Role of Potassium Channels in the Regulation of the Transport Function of Rats Lymph Nodes during Inflammation

Lymph formed in tissues necessarily passes through lymph nodes (LN), which not only perform an immune function, but also take part in lymph flow through rhythmic high-amplitude contractions. During inflammation, inducible NO synthase (iNOS) is expressed in the lymph nodes, which promotes relaxation of the LN capsule. This study examined the role of KATP- and BKCa-channels in sepsis-induced LN remodeling. Sepsis was induced in rats by cecal ligation-puncture surgery. After 12 and 24 h, mesenteric LN were removed and examined in a myograph. KATP-channels were activated by pinacidil and blocked by glibenclamide. BKCa-channels blocked TEA and activated NS 1619. The strength of tonic contraction of the LN under the action of activators and blockers was assessed. LN of septic rats named low level of tone during standard stretching. Pinacidil led to greater relaxation of LN in septic rats compared to the control group; the effect of glibenclamide was accompanied by an increase in tone. Pinacidil combined with glibenclamide did not lead to significant changes in LN tone. The use of NS 1619 was accompanied by relaxation of the LN; in the LN of septic rats, the effect was more pronounced. TEA (3 mM) led to an increase in LN tone; the LN of septic rats responded to the use of TEA with a greater contraction. We concluded that NO produced by expressed iNOS in animals with sepsis directly or indirectly activates KATP- and BKCa-channels of smooth muscle cells of the capsule in the LN, which leading to hyperpolarization of the smooth muscle cell membrane and their relaxation, which that promotes relaxation of the LN capsule and their hypertrophy of LN. In the future, KATP- and BKCa-channels of smooth muscle cells of the lymph node LN capsule may be a potential target for therapeutic intervention to correct the immune response by slowing down or accelerating the flow of lymph through the LN.