Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Michael J. Petris. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Last two leaves of Table of Contents misnumbered v, vi instead of x, xi. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2008. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until November 30, 2010. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-162)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until November 30, 2010. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-162)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-74). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Sc.(Zoology and Entomology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

Orientador: Débora Simões de Almeida Colombari / Banca: Colin Summers / Banca: José Antunes-Rodrigues / Banca: Marco Antonio Peliky Fontes / Banca: Juliana Irani Fratucci De Gobbi / Resumo: É de extrema importância para o funcionamento do organismo a manutenção da osmolaridade e volume dos líquidos corporais. O sistema nervoso central (SNC) tem um papel fundamental para esta manuntenção. O núcleo do trato solitário (NTS) é o sítio primário das aferências cardiovasculares e de osmorreceptores periféricos e se projeta à areas prosencefálicas envolvidas com a regulação cardiovascular e do equilíbrio hidroeletrolítico. Desta forma, o NTS pode fazer a ligação entre as aferências viscerais e o SNC e participar dos ajustes necessários a regulação da osmolaridade e da volemia. A maior porção dos neurônios do grupamento catelocaminérgicos A2 do bulbo está localizada na porção comissural no NTS (NTScom). Assim, os objetivos deste estudo foram: a) estudar os efeitos na pressão arterial, na ingestão de água e na excreção renal subsequentes a administração de NaCl 2 M, estímulo osmótico agudo, em ratos com lesão seletiva dos neurônios A2 do NTScom; b) estudar os efeitos na expressão da proteína c-FOS subsequente a administração de NaCl 2 M, em ratos com lesão seletiva dos neurônios A2 do NTScom, c) estudar alterações na expressão de RNAm no NTS após a administração de NaCl 2 M, d) estudar os efeitos na pressão arterial subsequentes a hemorragia hipotensiva, em ratos com lesão seletiva dos neurônios A2 do NTScom. Ratos Holtzman (280-320 g) ou ratos Sprague-Dawley (230-280 g) foram utilizados neste estudo. Para a lesão seletiva dos neurônios A2 do NTScom ou lesão fictícia (LF), os animais foram submetidos a uma craniotomia parcial e a superfície dorsal do bulbo foi exposta. A lesão seletiva dos neurônios noradredérgicos foi realizada por meio da injeção no... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The central nervous system has an important role controlling the mechanisms involved in the regulation of body fluid osmolality. The nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) is the primary site of cardiovascular and peripheral osmoreceptors afferents and projects to prosencephalic areas involved in hydroelectrolytic balance and cardiovascular regulation. The great part of the catecholaminergic neurons of the A2 group is located in the commissural part of the NTS (NTScom). Thus, the aims of this study were: a) to verify the effects in the arterial pressure, water intake and renal excretion observed after intragastric (ig) 2 M NaCl in rats with lesion of the A2 neurons of the NTScom, b) to verify the effects in the c-Fos expression after ig 2 M NaCl in rats with lesion of the A2 neurons of the NTScom, c) to study changes in gene expression on NTS after ig 2 M NaCl, d) to study the effects in arterial pressure after hypotensive hemorrhage in rats with lesion of the A2 neurons of the NTScom.Male Holtzman rats (280-320 g) or Sprague-Dawley (250-280 g) were used. For the A2 lesion of the NTScom, a partial craniotomy of the occipital bone was performed, and the dorsal surface of the brainstem was exposed. The lesion was performed by the injection of the toxine anti-dopamine-β-hydroxylase-saporin into the NTScom to destroy A2 neurons in this region. Sham lesioned rats anti-IgG-saporin was injected into the NTScom. We observed that in A2 lesioned rats, ig 2 M NaCl induced a vasopressin dependent-pressor response, for at least 60 min. The water intake induced by sodium overload was also incremented in A2 lesioned rats, however the natriuresis and dieresis after 2 M NaCl were similar in both groups. After 2 M NaCl... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Basal cells (BCs) are multipotent tissue-specific stem cells of a variety of organs including the skin, digestive and respiratory tract. BCs are broadly identified by expression of Krt5, Krt14 and the transcription factor p63. In the adult airways, BCs are not only important for normal maintenance but also crucial for epithelial repair after injury. However, the embryonic origin of these adult stem cells remains elusive. Previous reports showed that p63+ cells appear early during airway development, but these do not express markers of adult BCs, raising the question whether these cells represent BC precursors. Moreover, little was known whether embryonic BCs have an impact in the adult pool of progenitors that mediate responses of the lung to injury or pulmonary diseases. The goal of this thesis is to address these gaps of knowledge using a variety of technologies, including functional and lineage tracing analysis in vivo in mouse genetic models, injury modeling, high-throughput profiling and gene regulation approaches. This thesis is to comprehensively characterize airway BCs in development, injury-repair, and homeostasis. These studies revealed a previously unrecognized broader role of embryonic p63+ cells in the establishment of the stem cell pools of the lung pre and postnatally. Surprisingly, lineage analysis showed that early in development these cells were able to generate all epithelial cell types of the airways and alveolar compartment. However, as development proceeds, they underwent two sequential lineage segregation events to finally generate two regionally distinct adult stem cell pools. One of these became the well-known BCs that populate extrapulmonary airways through an undescribed maturation process from the perinatal stage to adulthood, and the other was identified as a rare stem cell pool in the pseudostratified epithelium of intrapulmonary airways which maintained immature and quiescent throughout lifetime. Moreover, the latter responded uniquely to lung injury induced by H1N1 viral infection. Recent studies have demonstrated that BC-like p63+ Krt5+ cell clusters (“Krt5+ pods”) are ectopically present in the areas of severe alveolar injury by H1N1 viral infection. The presence of these pods has been associated with pathological scars in several human pulmonary diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, their cellular origin has been intensely debated. This thesis showed that this rare progenitor pool is established during embryonic development when airways are still branching. Further characterization demonstrated a p63 gene dosage dependency in the specification/maintenance of this rare progenitor pool. By utilizing multiple lineage-tracing lines, an underappreciated diversity of this pool was revealed by showing a novel subpopulation carrying secretory lineage marker spatially restricted to intrapulmonary airways. Further molecular characterization and genetic manipulation of this rare progenitor pool may provide valuable cues to understand the pathogenesis about pulmonary disorders and to develop effective therapies. Moreover, the molecular signatures of tracheal embryonic E18.5 preBCs and adult TrBCs were generated through high-throughput profiling, which provided hints about the genetic regulation of airway BC maturation process and generated potential molecular landmarks for the in vitro ES/iPS cell differentiation towards airway BCs. In addition, single cell RNA-sequencing analyses revealed heterogeneity of adult BCs in the tracheal and esophageal epithelia. Lastly, candidate master regulators of their differentiation programs in homeostatic and metaplastic states were identified through unbiased systems biology algorithms, which will be further validated in functional assays in the near future. Taken together, the studies in this thesis comprehensively characterized airway BCs in development, injury-repair and homeostasis. This thesis work showed the newly identified p63+ airway progenitors before E10.5 are multipotent for all lung epithelial lineages and this multipotency gets restricted to proximal fate at E10.5. In the adult injury-repair, this thesis work for the first time revealed that the H1N1-induced Krt5+ pods are generated by bronchial p63+ Krt5- progenitors, which originate from a subpopulation of E13.5 intrapulmonary p63+ progenitors. At homeostasis, this thesis work uncovered a previously underappreciated heterogeneity of BCs in both airways and esophagus, and provided molecular foundations for further explorations into the mechanistic perspectives of BC cellular identity maintenance.

This study was performed under the motivation to find a scheme that could describe the complex behavior of cardiovascular homeostasis. This is hypothesized to be manifested in a thermodynamic description of the cardiovascular system (CVS). Seen from a thermodynamic framework, the mechanics of blood flow can be gauged in similar terms as metabolic exchange at the capillaries - thereby providing a holistic and novel perspective on overall CVS function. Entropy generation, a thermodynamic calculation, represents lost work and is hypothesized to reveal something about the "optimal" state of the CVS. In particular, it is hypothesized that the CVS state that generates minimal entropy, given certain constraints, will be physiologically preferred and that cardiovascular control operates to find this state. This will be tested by first proposing a method to calculate entropy generation in the CVS, and secondly characterizing entropy generation across unique CVS states by simulation of a mathematical model.