Hermanas Inokaitis | Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (original) (raw)

Papers by Hermanas Inokaitis

Annals of Anatomy - Anatomischer Anzeiger

Intracardiac neurons (ICNs) have a pivotal role in the regulation of heart rhythm and myocardial ... more Intracardiac neurons (ICNs) have a pivotal role in the regulation of heart rhythm and myocardial contractility. However, comparative data about the precise distribution of the chemically phenotypically distinct ICNs in the heart as well as their interrelations within intracardiac ganglia (ICG) are limited. In this study, we employed the whole-mount approach to characterize immunohistochemically the porcine atrial ICG. We found that almost all, 99%, of ICNs express cholinergic neuronal marker in the adult pig. Some cholinergic ICNs were simultaneously positive for adrenergic (3.6%) or nitrergic (3.3%) neuronal markers as well. These biphenotypic adrenergic ICNs were more abundant within the right atrial ganglionated subplexi (sGPi), while the biphenotypic nitrergic ICNs were more numerous in the dorsal sGPi compared with the ventral sGPi. Non-cholinergic as well as entirely adrenergic and nitrergic ICNs were seldom and compiled respectively 0.1% and 0.4% of all intracardiac neuronal population. In contrast to neuronal somata, nerve fibres observed in the adult pig atrial sGPi were also positive for vesicular glutamate transporter 2 and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). Receptor protein for CGRP, CRLR, was found on cholinergic neuronal somata within ICG as well as the putative neuro-somatic contact sites with peptidergic and adrenergic nerve fibres. Morphological analysis of neuronal somata disclosed that the largest somata were nitrergic. This study demonstrates the scanty chemical variety of ICNs in the adult porcine atrial ICG that possess mainly cholinergic neuronal somata with the few adrenergic and nitrergic ones which are patchily distributed within sGPi. Inside the ICG, cholinergic ICNs are wrapped by a complex network of chemically diverse nerve terminals, some of which contain varicosities with probable passage type synapses.

Journal of Anatomy

The acknowledged hypothesis of the cause of arterial hypertension is the emerging disbalance in s... more The acknowledged hypothesis of the cause of arterial hypertension is the emerging disbalance in sympathetic and parasympathetic regulations of the cardiovascular system. This disbalance manifests in a disorder of sustainability of endogenous autonomic and sensory neural substances including calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP). This study aimed to examine neurochemical alterations of intrinsic cardiac ganglionated nerve plexus (GP) triggered by arterial hypertension during ageing in spontaneously hypertensive rats of juvenile (prehypertensive, 8–9 weeks), adult (early hypertensive, 12–18 weeks) and elderly (persistent hypertensive, 46–60 weeks) age in comparison with the age‐matched Wistar–Kyoto rats as controls. Parasympathetic, sympathetic and sensory neural structures of GP were analysed and evaluated morphometrically in tissue sections and whole‐mount cardiac preparations. Both the elevated blood pressure and the evident ultrasonic signs of heart failure were identified for sp...

Anatomical Record-advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, Nov 7, 2022

Autonomic Neuroscience, 2015

Biomedicines, Apr 29, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

[...]. Aim of and objectives of the study. The aim of the study: to identify limits and innervati... more [...]. Aim of and objectives of the study. The aim of the study: to identify limits and innervation of the sinoatrial node in hearts of mice, rabbits and pigs. Objectives: 1. To examine the distribution of pacemaker cells within the right atrium. 2. To examine the density of innervation within the sinoatrial node. 3. To examine the distribution of neuronal somata within the sinoatrial node. 4. To examine neurochemical properties of neurons within the sinoatrial node. 5. To compare the morphology of neurons within the sinoatrial node. [...]

There is no united opinion on the influence of hormones on the muscle fatigue and recovery. Some ... more There is no united opinion on the influence of hormones on the muscle fatigue and recovery. Some sources of literature state that for women fatigue comes out later than for men, other sources deny any gender differences. (Clark, 1986; Hunter & Enoka, 2001; Clark et al., 2003). Certain scientific publications maintain the fact that creatin kinasis activity for women after an eccentric physical load was lower than that for men (Staron et al., 1992). Other scientific works point to the fact, that no differences in creatin kinasis activity between genders can be observed (Tiidus, 1999). Research on animals show that muscle damage after a physical load for females is lower (Stupka et al., 2000). A presumption was made, that these differences are caused by the female hormone – estradiol (Tiidus, 1999). Gender influence for the muscle damage relying on creatin kinasis activity test is not enough studied on human beings (Amelink, 1988). Therefore we framed a hypothesis that subjection of wo...

Histology and Histopathology, Mar 31, 2022

Persistent arterial hypertension leads to structural and functional remodeling of the heart resul... more Persistent arterial hypertension leads to structural and functional remodeling of the heart resulting in myocardial ischemia, fibrosis, hypertrophy, and eventually heart failure. Previous studies have shown that individual neurons composing the intracardiac ganglia are hypertrophied in the failing human, dog, and rat hearts, indicating that this process involves changes in cardiac innervation. However, despite a wealth of data on changes in intrinsic cardiac ganglionated plexus (GP) in late-stage disease models, little is known about the effects of hypertension on cardiac innervation during the early onset of heart failure development. Thus, we examined the impact of early hypertension on the structural organization of the intrinsic cardiac ganglionated plexus in juvenile (8-9 weeks) and adult (12-18 weeks) spontaneously hypertensive (SH) and age-matched Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. GP was studied using a combination of immunofluorescence confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy in whole-mount preparations and tissue sections. Here, we report intrinsic cardiac GP of SH rats to display multiple structural alterations: (i) a decrease in the intracardiac neuronal number, (ii) a marked reduction in axonal diameters and their proportion within intracardiac nerves, (iii) an increased density of myocardial nerve fibers, and (iv) neuropathic abnormalities in cardiac glial cells. These findings represent early neurological changes of the intrinsic ganglionated plexus of the heart introduced by early-onset arterial hypertension in young adult SH rats.

International conference: Vita Scientia. Vilnius, January 3, 2018, 2018

Self-supporting, shapeable hydrogels that consist of self-assembling synthetic peptides mimic the... more Self-supporting, shapeable hydrogels that consist of self-assembling synthetic peptides mimic the structural blocks of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Although they have been developed for regenerative medicine purposes, with a potential of grafting into patients without transplantation from organ donors, this class of materials are attractive as scaffolds for advanced cell culture/ in vitro tissue applications. In the present study, we have combined a series of peptides with functional motives (collagen, fibronectin, and laminin-like) for promoting granule layer-like organization of primary cerebellar cells and for controlling the cell attachment, neuritogenesis, cluster size and organization. We show that the micro/nanofabricated hydrogel scaffolds are applicable as multiwell plate inserts helping to analyse cell migration, differentiation, proliferation, adhesion, ultimately forming organotypic cell culture and artificial tissue structures

Mokslinė vadovė prof. dr. Neringa Paužienė (Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universitetas, biomedicinos... more Mokslinė vadovė prof. dr. Neringa Paužienė (Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universitetas, biomedicinos mokslai, biologija-01B) Disertacija ginama Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universiteto Medicinos akademijos biologijos mokslo krypties taryboje: Pirmininkas prof. dr. Edgaras Stankevičius (Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universitetas, biomedicina, biologija-01B) Nariai: dr. Regina Mačianskienė (Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universitetas, biomedicinos mokslai, biologija-01B) prof. habil. dr. Zygmunt Mackevič (Valstybinio mokslinių tyrimų instituto Inovatyvios medicinos centras, biomedicinos mokslai, biologija-01B) prof. dr. Rimantas Jankauskas (Vilniaus universitetas, biomedicinos mokslai, medicina-06B) prof. dr. Andres Arend (Tartu universitetas, biomedicinos mokslai, medicina-06B) Disertacija ginama 2016 m. rugpjūčio 25 d. 13 val. viešame biologijos mokslo krypties tarybos posėdyje Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universiteto prof. J. Žilinsko auditorijoje. Adresas: A. Mickevičiaus g. 9, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lietuva.

Biology, 2021

Simple Summary Upper respiratory tract viral infections are among the most common diseases. The b... more Simple Summary Upper respiratory tract viral infections are among the most common diseases. The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from direct invasion of pathogens. However, the cells share their content with other cells in small nanovesicles called exosomes that can travel long distances and cross biological barriers. Therefore, virus-infected cell extracellular vesicles (EVs) might transmit inflammatory signals or even viral particles to other cells. If they would carry such signals or particles to the central nervous system, it might cause neuroinflammation. However, the migration and impact of virus-primed airway cell EVs on the brain have not been studied yet. Therefore, the study aimed to track airway EVs from the respiratory tract to the brain and determine how infection-primed particles affect microglia—the cells responsible for immune response in the brain. The study revealed that airway cell EVs enter the brain within an hour and gather in microglia. Interestingly, ma...

Journal of Morphology, 2021

Intrinsic cardiac neurons (ICNs) are crucial cells in the neural regulation of heart rhythm, myoc... more Intrinsic cardiac neurons (ICNs) are crucial cells in the neural regulation of heart rhythm, myocardial contractility, and coronary blood flow. Intrinsic cardiac neurons exhibit diversity in their morphology and neurotransmitters that probably are age-dependent. Therefore, neuroanatomical heart studies have been currently focused on the identification of chemical phenotypes of ICNs to disclose their possible functions in heart neural regulation. Employing whole-mount immunohistochemistry, we examined ICNs from atria of the newborn pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) as ICNs at this stage of development have never been neurochemically characterized so far. We found that the majority of the examined ICNs (> 60 %) were of cholinergic phenotype. Biphenotypic neuronal somata (NS), i.e. simultaneously positive for two neuronal markers, were also rather common and distributed evenly within the sampled ganglia. Simultaneous positivity for cholinergic and adrenergic neuromarkers was specific in 16.4 %, for cholinergic and nitrergic - in 3.5% of the examined NS. Purely either adrenergic or nitrergic ICNs were were observed at 13% and 3.1%, correspondingly. Purely adrenergic and nitrergic NS were the most frequent in the ventral left atrial subplexus. Similarly to neuronal phenotype, sizes of NS also varied depending on the atrial region providing insights into their functional implications. Axons, but not NS, positive for classic sensory neuronal markers (vesicular glutamate transporter 2 and calcitonin gene-related peptide) were identified within epicardiac nerves and ganglia. Moreover, a substantial number of ICNs could not be attributed to any phenotype as they were not immunoreactive for antisera used in this study. Numerous dendrites with putative peptidergic and adrenergic contacts on cholinergic NS contributed to neuropil of ganglia. Our observations demonstrate that intrinsic cardiac ganglionated plexus is not fully developed in the newborn pig despite of dense network of neuronal processes and numerous signs of neural contacts within ganglia. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Viral infections induce exosomes containing viral material and inflammatory factors. During respi... more Viral infections induce exosomes containing viral material and inflammatory factors. During respiratory tract infection, exosomes can easily cross the blood-brain barrier and transmit the inflammatory signal to the brain; however, such a hypothesis has no experimental evidence. The study investigated whether exosomes from virus mimetic poly (I:C)-primed airway cells enter the brain and interact with brain immune cells microglia. Airway cells were isolated from Wistar rats and BALB/c mice; microglial cell cultures - from Wistar rats. Exosomes from poly (I:C)-stimulated airway cell culture medium were isolated by precipitation, visualised by transmission electron microscopy, and evaluated by nanoparticle analyser; exosomal markers CD81 and CD9 were determined by ELISA. For in vitro and in vivo tracking, exosomes were loaded with Alexa Fluor 555-labelled RNA. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were evaluated by DCFDA fluo-rescence and mitochondrial superoxide - by MitoSOX. The...