| 1. |
- Brito, H. O., et al.
(author)
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Female Sex Hormones Influence the Febrile Response Induced by Lipopolysaccharide, Cytokines and Prostaglandins but not by Interleukin-1 beta in Rats
- 2016
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In: Journal of neuroendocrinology (Print). - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0953-8194 .- 1365-2826. ; 28:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There are differences in the immune response, and particularly fever, between males and females. In the present study, we investigated how the febrile responses induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and different endogenous pyrogens were affected by female gonadal hormones. The febrile response to i.p. injection of LPS (50g/kg) was 40% lower in female rats compared to male or ovariectomised (OVX) female rats. Accordingly, oestrogen replacement in OVX animals reduced LPS-induced fever. Treatment with the prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor indomethacin (2mg/kg, i.p. 30min before) reduced the febrile response induced by LPS in both OVX (88%) and sham-operated (71%) rats. In line with the enhanced fever in OVX rats, there was increased expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the hypothalamus and elevated levels of prostaglandin E-2 (PGE(2)). In addition, OVX rats were hyper-responsive to PGE(2) injected i.c.v. By contrast to the enhanced fever in response to LPS and PGE(2), the febrile response induced by i.c.v. injection of interleukin (IL)-1 was unaffected by ovariectomy, whereas the responses induced by tumour necrosis factor (TNF)- and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1 were completely abrogated. These results suggest that the mediators involved in the febrile response in females are similar to males, although the reduction of female hormones may decrease the responsiveness of some mediators such as TNF- and MIP-1. Compensatory mechanisms may be activated in females after ovariectomy such as an augmented synthesis of COX-2 and PGE(2).
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| 2. |
- Mendoza-Coto, A., et al.
(author)
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Exploring quantum quasicrystal patterns : A variational study
- 2022
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In: Physical Review B. - : American Physical Society (APS). - 2469-9950 .- 2469-9969. ; 105:13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We study the emergence of quasicrystal configurations in the ground-state phase diagram of bosonic systems interacting through pair potentials of Lifshitz???s type. By using a variational mean-field approach, we determine the relevant features of the corresponding potential interaction kind stabilizing such quasicrystalline states in two dimensions. Unlike their classical counterpart, in which the interplay between only two wave vectors determines the resulting symmetries of the solutions, the quantum picture relates in a more complex way to the instabilities of the excitation spectrum. Moreover, the quantum quasicrystal patterns are found to emerge as the ground state with no need of moderate thermal fluctuations. The study extends to the exploration of the excitation properties and the possible existence of superquasicrystals, i.e., supersolidlike quasicrystalline states in which the long-range nonperiodic density profile coexists with a nonzero superfluid fraction. Our calculations suggest that, in an intermediate region between the homogeneous superfluid and the normal quasicrystal phases, these exotic states indeed exist at zero temperature. Comparison with full numerical simulations provides a solid verification of the variational approach adopted in this paper.
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