Papers by Carmen Romero Grimaldi
Introducción: Como resultado del perfeccionamiento continuo del Sistema Nacional de Educación, se... more Introducción: Como resultado del perfeccionamiento continuo del Sistema Nacional de Educación, se ha producido en nuestro país una profunda re-conceptualización de los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, teniendo un particular impacto el ámbito investigativo. En este contexto, el presente estudio, persigue evaluar y analizar tanto los conocimientos básicos investigativos por parte de los estudiantes de enfermería, como las destrezas y capacidades de análisis, solución de problemas, argumentación y comparación de experiencias que adquieren los estudiantes al finalizar el estudio. Metodología: El estudio adoptó una metodología de investigación de carácter exploratorio y descriptivo seguido por una estrategia de campo, dirigida a la recolección de información primaria. Las técnicas e instrumentos aplicados fueron de orden cuantitativo (cuestionario pre-test y post-test entre otros) y cualitativo (grupos de discusiones y audio-video grabaciones). Resultados: El procesamiento, y posterior...
Predictive model for the preparedness level of the family caregiver
International Journal of Nursing Practice
BackgroundMany caregivers are insufficiently prepared, and little is known about measures that ca... more BackgroundMany caregivers are insufficiently prepared, and little is known about measures that can be employed to enhance their preparedness.AimThe aim of this study was to explore the factors associated with caregiver preparedness and establish a predictive model including the relationship between preparedness, burden, resilience and anxiety.DesignA cross‐sectional design was used.MethodsThe sample included 172 family caregivers who were selected from one private hospital and daytime nursing centres. Caregivers were recruited from 2018 to 2019; they completed assessments for caregiver preparedness, anxiety, resilience and burden. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with preparedness.ResultsPreparedness was significantly associated with high levels of resilience and a low level of burden, while it was not associated with anxiety. Caregivers' gender, experience and cohabitation status were the main predictors. Resilience is an ex...
Fomento de la investigación en estudiantes de Grado a través del artículo científico
Conference proceedings CIVINEDU 2020: 4th International Virtual Conference on Educational Research and Innovation September 23-24, 2020, 2020, ISBN 978-84-09-22966-6, págs. 739-741, 2020
The Degree Final Project for Implementing Quality and Efficiency in the European Higher Education Area
The Academic Magazine as an Effective Tool in the Integrated Learning Process
Teaching Innovation Project: Developing Research Skills and Abilities in Nursing Students
A Student Journal as a Tool in the Learning Process
Introduction: As a result of the continuous development of National System of Education, a deeply... more Introduction: As a result of the continuous development of National System of Education, a deeply reconceptualization of the processes of teaching-learning has taken place in our country, having a particular impact on investigation area. In this context, the aim of the current study is to evaluate and analyze so much the basic knowledge of nursing students, as the skills and abilities to analyze, solution of problems, argumentation and comparison of experiences acquired by the students after finishing the study. Methodology: The study took an investigation methodology of exploratory and descriptive character followed by a field strategy, aimed at the compilation of primary information. The techniques and instruments applied were of quantitative order (pre-test and post-test questonnaire among others) and qualitative (discussion groups and audio-video recordings). Results: The processing, and later analysis of the obtained results, allowed it to identify the previous and subsequent k...
Final Degree Projects: Interventions for the Improvement in Tutoring, Evaluation, Performation and Exposition
Teaching Innovation Project: Interactive Intra-University Network for the Exchange of Scientific-Academic. A Dissemination Strategy for Increasing to Teaching-Learning Process of the Nursing Students
Development and psychometric testing of the Spanish version of the Caregiver Preparedness Scale
Nursing Open, 2020
AimTo psychometrically test the Spanish version of the Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS) and doc... more AimTo psychometrically test the Spanish version of the Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS) and document the preparedness level of caregivers.DesignA descriptive and validation study.MethodPurposive sampling method was used to select 171 family caregivers Spain. The scale was cross‐culturally adapted through a process that included translation, comparison with versions in other languages and back‐translation, review, pre‐testing and validity, and reliability tests.ResultsThe Spanish family caregivers are mainly female (79%) and married (75%). The Spanish version of the CPS presents changes with respect to the original. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the single‐factor model. Analysis of internal consistency yielded a Cronbach's α of 0.89. Significant correlations (p < .01) with other scales supported convergent validity. A descriptive analysis of the validated scale showed average levels of preparation (2.16 out of 4). Caregivers felt better prepared to attend to the pat...
Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2015
hronic pain frequently coexists with other disorders such as anxiety, depression, or learning and... more hronic pain frequently coexists with other disorders such as anxiety, depression, or learning and memory deficits. This co-occurrence might manifest if chronic pain were to precipitate neuroplastic changes in supraspinal structures that lead to these pain-related disorders. The hippocampus is a key brain area recently implicated in the affective and cognitive impairment associated with chronic pain. Indeed, data from patients experiencing pain suggest that functional disturbances in frontohippocampal connectivity are a relevant cause of pain-related working memory deficits 1,2 ; moreover, elderly patients who suffer from chronic pain appear to have a smaller hippocampus. Other studies in animal models of neuropathic pain have identified the hippocampal abnormalities associated with short-term 4 and recognition memory deficits, 5 as well as deficits in long-term potentiation. In addition, animals in which neuropathic pain is induced seem to be unable to extinguish contextual fear and show enhanced depressiveand anxiety-like behavior. One process that seems to mediate memory formation, as well as recognition of dangerous and stressful signals, is hippocampal neurogenesis. This process appears to occur in virtually all mammalian species, including humans, and we now know that the new cells generated in the hippocampus (neuroblasts) are incorporated into the granule cell layer, attaining the morphologic and biochemical characteristics of neurons. Thus, chronic pain might impair the generation of these new neurons, impeding appropriate learning and memory and thereby contributing to the development of mood disorders. Furthermore, recent data highlight a specific link between neurogenesis and neuropathic pain, with researchers showing that neuropathic pain decreases the number of neuroblasts and that it impairs the neurogenesis associated with enriched environments. The effects of pain on the survival and differentiation of newborn cells, however, still remain unknown, and the possible influence of stress on the neurogenic effects of pain is still to be demonstrated. Stress consistently has been shown to be a factor that contributes to the maintenance and amplification of the severity of pain. However, most reports related to such BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic pain often suffer from affective disorders and cognitive decline, which significantly impairs their quality of life. In addition, many of these patients also experience stress unrelated to their illness, which can aggravate their symptoms. These nociceptive inputs are received by the hippocampus, in which maladaptive neuroplastic changes may occur in the conditions of chronic pain. The hippocampus is a structure involved in emotionality, learning, and memory, and the proliferating cells in the granular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus respond to chronic pain by slowing their turnover. However, whether the maturation, survival, and integration of newborn cells in the hippocampus are affected by chronic pain remains unclear. In addition, it is unknown whether an added stress may increase this effect. METHODS: We have evaluated the proliferation, differentiation, and survival of newborn hippocampal cells in a rat model of neuropathic pain (chronic constriction injury), with or without stress (chronic immobilization), by assessing the incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine into proliferating cells and immunostaining. RESULTS: The data obtained indicated that there was a decrease in the number of proliferating cells 8 days after nerve injury in animals subjected to neuropathic pain, an effect that was exacerbated by stress. Moreover, 4 weeks after nerve injury, neuropathic pain was associated with a loss of neuroblasts and the reduced survival of new mature neurons in the hippocampal granular layer, phenomena that also were increased by stress. By contrast, the rate of differentiation was not affected in this paradigm. CONCLUSIONS: Neuropathic pain negatively influences hippocampal neurogenesis (proliferation and survival), and this effect is exacerbated by stress. These neuroplastic changes may account for the affective and cognitive impairment seen in patients with chronic pain.
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
The subventricular zone of the rodent brain retains the capacity of generating new neurons in adu... more The subventricular zone of the rodent brain retains the capacity of generating new neurons in adulthood. The newly formed neuroblasts migrate rostrally toward the olfactory bulb, where they differentiate as granular and periglomerular interneurons. The reported presence of differentiated neurons expressing the neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in the periphery of the neurogenic region and the organization of their varicose axons as a network in which the precursors are immersed raised the hypothesis that endogenous nitric oxide (NO) may participate in the control of neurogenesis in the subventricular zone. Systemic administration of the NOS inhibitors Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester or 7-nitroindazole to adult mice produced a dose- and time-dependent increase in the number of mitotic cells in the subventricular zone, rostral migratory stream, and olfactory bulb, but not in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, without affecting apoptosis. In the subventricular zone, t...
Stem Cells, 2011
Neural precursor cells (NPCs) are activated in central nervous system injury. However, despite be... more Neural precursor cells (NPCs) are activated in central nervous system injury. However, despite being multipotential, their progeny differentiates into astrocytes rather than neurons in situ. We have investigated the role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the generation of non-neurogenic conditions. Cultured mouse subventricular zone NPCs exposed to differentiating conditions for 4 days generated approximately 50% astrocytes and 30% neuroblasts. Inhibition of EGFR with 4-(3-chloroanilino)-6,7-dimethoxyquinazoline significantly increased the number of neuroblasts and decreased that of astrocytes. The same effects were observed upon treatment with the metalloprotease inhibitor galardin, N-[(2R)-2-(hydroxamidocarbonylmethyl)-4-methylpentanoyl]-L-tryptophan methylamide (GM 6001), which prevented endogenous transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) release. These results suggested that metalloprotease-dependent EGFR-ligand shedding maintained EGFR activation and favored gliogenesis...
Stem Cells, 2006
Nitric oxide (NO) inhibits proliferation of subventricular zone (SVZ) neural precursor cells in a... more Nitric oxide (NO) inhibits proliferation of subventricular zone (SVZ) neural precursor cells in adult mice in vivo under physiological conditions. The mechanisms underlying this NO effect have now been investigated using SVZ-derived neural stem cells, which generate neurospheres in vitro when stimulated by epidermal growth factor (EGF). In these cultures, NO donors decreased the number of newly formed neurospheres as well as their size, which indicates that NO was acting on the neurosphere-forming neural stem cells and the daughter neural progenitors. The effect of NO was cytostatic, not proapoptotic, and did not involve cGMP synthesis. Neurosphere cells expressed the neuronal and endothelial isoforms of NO synthase (NOS) and produced NO in culture. Inhibition of NOS activity by Nω-nitro-l-arginine methylester (l-NAME) promoted neurosphere formation and growth, thus revealing an autocrine/paracrine action of NO on the neural precursor cells. Both exogenous and endogenous NO impaired...
Molecular Psychiatry, 2013
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subgenual cingulated gyrus (SCG) is a promising new technique... more Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subgenual cingulated gyrus (SCG) is a promising new technique that may provide sustained remission in resistant major depressive disorder (MDD). Initial studies reported a significant early improvement in patients, followed by a decline within the first month of treatment, an unexpected phenomenon attributed to potential placebo effects or a physiological response to probe insertion that remains poorly understood. Here we characterized the behavioural antidepressantlike effect of DBS in the rat medial prefrontal cortex, focusing on modifications to rodent SCG correlate (prelimbic and infralimbic (IL) cortex). In addition, we evaluated the early outcome of DBS in the SCG of eight patients with resistant MDD involved in a clinical trial. We found similar antidepressant-like effects in rats implanted with electrodes, irrespective of whether they received electrical brain stimulation or not. This effect was due to regional inflammation, as it was temporally correlated with an increase of glialfibrillary-acidic-protein immunoreactivity, and it was blocked by anti-inflammatory drugs. Indeed, inflammatory mediators and neuronal p11 expression also changed. Furthermore, a retrospective study indicated that the early response of MDD patients subjected to DBS was poorer when they received anti-inflammatory drugs. Our study demonstrates that electrode implantation up to the IL cortex is sufficient to produce an antidepressant-like effect of a similar magnitude to that observed in rats receiving brain stimulation. Moreover, both preclinical and clinical findings suggest that the use of anti-inflammatory drugs after electrode implantation may attenuate the early anti-depressive response in patients who are subjected to DBS.
Age‐dependent effect of nitric oxide on subventricular zone and olfactory bulb neural precursor proliferation
Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2007
Nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) is developmentally regulated in the embryonic brain, where NO pa... more Nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) is developmentally regulated in the embryonic brain, where NO participates in cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation. In adults, NO inhibits neurogenesis under physiological conditions. This work investigates whether the NO action is preserved all along development up to adulthood or whether its effects in adults are a new feature acquired during brain maturation. The relationship between nitrergic neurons and precursors, as well as the functional consequences of pharmacological NOS inhibition, were comparatively analyzed in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and olfactory bulb (OB) of postnatal (P7) and adult (>P60) mouse brains. The SVZ was markedly reduced between P7 and adults, and, at both ages, neurons expressing neuronal NOS (nNOS) were found in its striatal limits. In postnatal mice, these nitrergic neurons contained PSA‐NCAM, and their projections were scarce, whereas, in adults, mature nitrergic neurons, devoid of PSA‐NCAM, present...
P.2.a.016 Electrode implantation produces an early response to deep brain stimulation in depression: potential role of regional neuroinflammation
European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2013
European Journal of Neuroscience, 2006
The ability to generate new neurons during the course of adult life is preserved in the subventri... more The ability to generate new neurons during the course of adult life is preserved in the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in the mammalian brain. These two regions constitute specifically regulated neurogenic niches, and provide newborn neurons involved in olfactory and spatial learning, respectively. Nitric oxide (NO) is a negative regulator of neurogenesis in the subventricular zone, whereas its role in the dentate gyrus remains controversial. Using systemic administration of NO synthase (NOS) inhibitors to chronically inhibit NO production, we increased neural precursor proliferation in the subventricular zone as well as neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb, without modifying the number of mitotic cells or the granular cell layer thickness in the dentate gyrus. The same treatment specifically improved olfactory learning performance, whereas spatial learning and memory was unchanged, thus demonstrating that olfactory memory is closely associated with the level of ongoing neurogenesis in the subventricular zone-olfactory bulb. The anatomical specificity of the NOS inhibitor actions was not due to differences in the availability of NO, as demonstrated by immunohistochemical detection of neuronal NOS and S-nitrosylated proteins in both regions. Remarkably, the distinct NO sensitivity might result from a differential expression of epidermal growth factor receptor in precursor cells in both regions, as the proliferative effect of NOS inhibitors in the subventricular zone was restricted to the cells that expressed this receptor.
Papel del óxido nítrico endógeno en el control de la neurogénesis en el cerebro de ratón adulto y postnatal
La zona subventricular (SVZ) y el giro dentado del hipocampo, son las dos regiones del cerebro de... more La zona subventricular (SVZ) y el giro dentado del hipocampo, son las dos regiones del cerebro del raton adulto que mantienen la capacidad de generar nuevas neuronas durante toda la vida del animal (Llois y Alvarez-Buylla, 1994; Altman y Das, 1965). Los precursores neuronales de la SVZ migran tangencialmente a lo largo del camino migratorio rostral (RMS) hacia el bulbo olfatorio (OB), donde se diferencian en interneuronas granulares y periglomerulares. Las de DG prolfieran en el limite de la capa de celulas granulares (GCL) y el hilus, en la llamada zona subgranular y se diferencian en la GCL adyacente. El NO, en el sistema nervioso central es sintetizada por neuronas que expresan NO sintasa neuronal. Entre otras muchas funciones, esta molecula, ejerce una accion antiproliferativa en celulas neurales in vitro (Murillo-Carretero et al., 2002) y en el sistema nervioso en desarrollo (Kuzin et al., 1996; Peunova et al., 2001; Plachta et al., 2003). En el cerebro del raton adulto existen...
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Papers by Carmen Romero Grimaldi