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 10,007 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The regulation of water balance in the brain is crucial. A disruption in this equilibrium causes an increase in brain water content that significantly contributes to the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury, hydrocephalus, and a variety of neurological disorders. The discovery of the aquaporin (AQP) family of membrane water channels has provided important new insights into the physiology and pathology of brain water homeostasis. A number of recent studies are described in the review that demonstrated the important role of AQP1 and AQP4 in brain water balance and cerebral edema. Phenotypic analyses of AQP deficient mice have allowed us to explore the role of these membrane water channels in the mechanisms of cytotoxic edema, vasogenic edema, and CSF production. These studies indicate that AQP4 plays significant role in the development of cytotoxic edema and the absorption of excess brain water resulting from vasogenic edema. They also have demonstrated the role of AQP1 in CSF production and maintenance of steady-state ICP. The ability to modulate water flux through AQP deletion has provided new insights into brain water homeostasis and suggested a number of new research directions. However, these efforts have not yet translated to the treatment human clinical diseases. These advances will require the development of AQP inhibitors and activators to establish the benefit modulating the function of these water channels.
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PMID:Aquaporins: role in cerebral edema and brain water balance. 1761 77

Elemental selenium is one of the dominant selenium species in soil, but the mechanism of its uptake by plants is still unclear. In this study, nanoparticles of elemental selenium (SeNPs) with different sizes were prepared, and their uptake and transformation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were analyzed in hydroponic experiments by HPLC-ICP-MS. We found that the SeNPs can be absorbed by wheat seedlings, and the process is energy independent. The addition of aquaporins inhibitor caused 92.5 and 93.4% inhibition of chemosynthesized SeNPs (CheSeNPs) and biosynthesized SeNPs (BioSeNPs) absorption by wheat roots, respectively. The 40 nm SeNPs uptake by wheat roots was 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold higher than that of 140 and 240 nm, respectively. The rate of SeNPs uptake in wheat was much slower than that of selenite [Se (IV)], and CheSeNPs were more efficiently absorbed than BioSeNPs. The SeNPs were rapidly oxidized to Se (IV) and converted to organic forms [selenocystine (SeCys2), se-methyl-selenocysteine (MeSeCys), and selenomethionine (SeMet)] after they were absorbed by wheat roots. Additionally, we demonstrated that the aquaporin function in some way is related to the absorption of SeNPs. The particle size and synthesis method of the SeNPs affected their uptake rates by plants. Taken together, our results provide a deep understanding of the SeNPs uptake mechanism in plants.
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PMID:Absorption and Bio-Transformation of Selenium Nanoparticles by Wheat Seedlings (Triticum aestivum L.). 2986 60