ACE2 and ACE mRNA levels were measured by real-time PCR in laser microdissected renal biopsies from 13 diabetic and 8 control patients. ACE2 mRNA was significantly reduced by more than half in both the glomeruli and proximal tubules of the diabetic patients compared to controls, but ACE mRNA was increased in both compartments. There was a significant parallel decrease in ACE2 protein expression, determined by immunohistochemistry, in proximal tubules, a pattern not found in 12 patients with focal glomerulosclerosis or 10 patients with chronic allograft nephropathy.
Our results suggest that the kidney disease of patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with a reduction in ACE2 gene and protein expression and this may contribute to the progression of renal injury.”
“False memories are ubiquitous and often to our detriment. Yet, certain pathologies, including anterior temporal lobe dementia and autism, can lead to literal recall and thus greater resistance to false memories. This inspired us to reduce false memories by temporarily inhibiting the left anterior temporal lobe, using
low frequency magnetic pulse stimulation. This site has been implicated in semantic memory and conceptual labelling. After active stimulation, participants in the sham/TMS group had 36% fewer false memories than they had with sham stimulation, and intact veridical memory. This is comparable to the improvement that people with autism and semantic dementia show over “”normal”" individuals. This finding suggests a potential method for reducing certain types of false memories. Crown Copyright (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Functional neuroimaging studies investigating sex differences in visuospatial processing traditionally focus on mental rotation tasks in adults,
as it is a consistently robust finding, with a limited number of studies examining tasks 3 tapping visuospatial skills at a more basic level. Furthermore, fewer studies have examined this issue in conjunction with investigating whether differences exist in younger populations. Therefore, functional neuroimaging was used to examine whether sex-based differences exist and/or develop during childhood. Thirty-two participants, matched on performance, participated in this study. Overall, both groups showed overlapping activation in bilateral superior parietal lobe, extrastriate cortex, and cerebellum; differences between the sexes showed that males had significantly greater activation in right lingual gyrus and cerebellum. Formal comparisons between age groups revealed that older males show engagement of left hemisphere regions, while females show greater bilateral (R > L) engagement of regions traditionally associated with visuospatial processing.