Vol 24, No 4 (2024)

Monocytes are circulating blood cells derived from bone marrow. They are the body’s first line of defense against pathogens and are involved in immune responses against viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites invasion. For a long time, monocytes were considered a homogeneous group of cells, but then by means of flow cytometry development it was shown that they can be divided into three subpopulations according to surface molecules CD14 and CD16 expression: classical (CD14⁺⁺CD16^–), proinflammatory (CD14⁺CD16⁺⁺) and intermediate (CD14⁺⁺CD16⁺). This review focuses on various mechanisms of an implementation of the functional activity of various monocytes subpopulations and their impairment in various viral diseases, bacterial infections and sepsis.

BACKGROUND: The risk of complex neurological disorders after surgical correction of spinal deformity raises the question of the need for special measures for their postoperative treatment. This requires a more detailed study of the mechanisms of interaction between the motor sensory and autonomic structures of the nervous system.

AIM: The aim of the study is to search for a simple and informative method of testing the level of balance of the states of the motor and nociceptive systems in patients with spinal deformity of various etiologies in the conditions of its surgical treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the results of electromiographic and esthesiometric examinations of 87 patients (30 male, 57 female) aged 15.6 ± 0.6 years with spinal deformities of various etiologies was carried out.

RESULTS: The scatterograms of the paired values of the electromyogram amplitude at the maximum voluntary tension m. tibialis anterior and the heat pain perception thresholds are best approximated by a polynomial of the third degree. But the approximation is acceptable only for electromyographic patterns with an unsaturated structure in the preoperative period. The nonlinear nature of the coupling of the intensity of the electrical activity of the muscle with the heat pain perception threshold contains a significant linear component. After surgical correction of spinal deformity, the approximation quality is reduced to a state of random noise. The reason for this is: postoperative increase in nociceptive activity and the consequences of anesthetic support.

CONCLUSIONS: In patients with spinal deformity, there is a correlation between the levels of voluntary muscle activity and the settings of the nociceptive system, expressed in the values of the heat pain thresholds. The nature of the coupling is expressed in the inverse relationship between the pain threshold and the amplitude of the electromyogram at maximum arbitrary voltage. This type of dependence is quite consistent with well-known physiological phenomena. The maximum severity of this interconnectedness for unsaturated patterns of the electromyogram indicates that the condition for its manifestation is a specific regime of stem centers that regulate the posture-tonic activity of muscles in patients with axial skeleton disorders.

BACKGROUND: Despite the rapid increase in the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, there are still no effective drugs for its treatment, therefore, the development of non-drug approaches is an extremely urgent task, which this study is aimed at solving.

AIM: To estimate experimentally the therapeutic effects of hypoxic postconditioning using intermittent normobaric hypoxia in a model of post-traumatic stress disorder-like pathology in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the rat model of post-traumatic stress disorder “stress–restress”, the effects of three postconditioning regimes were investigated: three 5-min episodes of hypoxia with 9% oxygen interspaced with 15-min intervals of normoxia (reoxygenation) per day for 3 days after pathogenic stress (hypoxia/normoxia mode); three 5-min episodes of 9% hypoxia interspaced with 3-min intervals of hyperoxia with 30% oxygen in the mixture, per day for 3 days (hypoxia/hyperoxia mode); five 5-min episodes of 12% hypoxia and 3-min 30% O₂ hyperoxia per day for 9 days (hypoxia/hyperoxia mode, prolonged). Animal behavior, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function and indices of general blood analysis were analysed.

RESULTS: All the modes of normobaric postconditioning to a greater or lesser extent had a corrective effect on the manifestation of pathological symptomatology; however, triple hypoxia/hyperoxia postconditioning was more effective than other modes in terms of the totality of protective and absence of side effects.

CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that postconditioning using intermittent normobaric hypoxia/hyperoxia for the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders in humans, including post-traumatic stress disorder, may be a promising approach.

BACKGROUND: Leukocyte myeloperoxidase catalyzes the formation of HOCl, which, by oxidizing and chlorinating biomolecules, contributes to the development of oxidative/halogenative stress. The latter in hyperglycemia may interfere with wound healing in patients with diabetes mellitus complications.

AIM: Evaluation of the concentration of markers of oxidative/halogenative stress and NETosis in the blood of experimental rats with hyperglycemia, its correction with lactoferrin, as well as elucidation of the effect of this multifunctional protein on skin wound healing.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the experimental modeling of hyperglycemia, the animals were injected once with streptozotocin at a dosage of 43 mg/kg body weight. Blood samples were collected from the tail vein of anesthetized animals. Glucose was measured by the electrochemical method. Markers of oxidative/halogenative stress were detected by the immunoenzymatic and spectrophotometric methods.

RESULTS: It was shown that in rats with streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia, a “prophylactic+therapeutic” supplementation of lactoferrin (at a dose of 250 mg/kg on days 5, 3, and 1 before and days 2, 4, 6, and 8 after streptozotocin injection) significantly decreased blood concentration of glucose (fasting), myeloperoxidase, chlorinated ceruloplasmin, complexes of myeloperoxidase/DNA, and also prevented the decrease in thiols (SH-groups) and the activity of erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase. Moreover, lactoferrin administered according to the above regimen to rats with experimental hyperglycemia promoted wound healing, which was manifested by a 28% decrease in the wound area compared to the control animals.

CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained indicate that lactoferrin has an ability in a hyperglycemia model in animals to reduce not only the hyperglycemia level, but also to prevent the development of oxidative/halogenative stress and NETosis, which leads to improved wound healing.

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue after a viral infection is common, and physical weakness is accompanied by cognitive impairment, leading to a decrease in the individual’s quality of life, loss of working capacity and, as a result, depression. Effective treatment methods have not yet been developed.

AIM: Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the possibility of fatigue correction with a recombinant cytokine IL-1 receptor antagonist in an experimental model of post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The work was performed on male Wistar rats; experimental chronic fatigue syndrome was induced by a single injection of polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid. We analyzed changes in behavioral reactions, the level of physical activity (degree of fatigue), changes in lactate concentration in blood and the expression of IL-1β, IL-10, INFα, 5-HTT, TLR3 genes in hypothalamus, and also assessed the splenocytes cytotoxic and proliferative activity.

RESULTS: Medication of IL-1 receptor antagonist leads to improved physical activity, a decrease in the concentration of lactat in the blood serum and a decrease in anxiety compared to untreated animals, which may indicate a milder course of chronic fatigue syndrome during the period of its maximum manifestations. Inhibition of peripheral cells of the immune system after administration of polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid and correction of this parameter with IL-1 receptor antagonist were shown. On the 10th day of the experiment, all parameters in the group of treated rats normalized and only TLR3 expression still remained elevated at the level of untreated rats which is regarded as activation of reparation processes.

CONCLUSIONS: The obtained data indicate that the use of the recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist alleviates the manifestations of post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome in rats and completes the pathological process at an earlier date. With a recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist is included in the treatment regimen for chronic fatigue syndrome in humans, positive results can also be expected.

The article presents the events associated with the opening of the Scientific and Experimental Biological Station in Koltushi. The events of one of Pavlov’s informal visits to the Biostation on September 26, 1929, to celebrate his 80th anniversary, are reconstructed from discovered archival photographs. The stories of Pavlov’s closest collaborators are told – a participant in the event described, physiologist Stanislav N. Vyrzhikovsky (1892–1937), the first head of the Pavlov Biostation and Pyotr M. Elagin (1879–1937), head of the dog kennel at the Biostation. After the murder of S.M. Kirov (December 1, 1934), the “Kirov Stream” descended on Leningrad in March 1935, sending out “superfluous people” called by the new government – church ministers, former tsarist officers, representatives of the nobility and merchant class. The former captain of the tsarist army, nobleman P.M. Elagin, was exiled from Leningrad with his family. Pavlov, who held Elagin in high esteem, achieved his return from exile. “As long as Pavlov is alive, they will not touch me,” the head of the Biological Station, former lieutenant of the tsarist army, nobleman S.N. Vyrzhikovsky, reassured his wife. On February 27, 1936, Ivan Petrovich died... In her memoirs, M.K. Petrova wrote, without naming names, about about two “suspicious employees” of the Biostation, expelled after Pavlov’s death. Today, few people know that these memoirs were about Elagin and Vyrzhikovsky, who died during the political repressions of 1937, whose names are good to remember in Pavlov’s anniversary year (1849–2024).