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A man is not a rat is not a mouse

To the narrow minded, the most interesting functions of small rodents are the mechanisms by which they resist our efforts to eradicate them. In a broader perspective, rodent models are of immense importance for scientific progress in most biomedical areas. The advent in recent decades of categorical conclusions from countless experiments in genetically modified organisms has served only to underscore the importance of these models. However, the increasing prevalence of investigations in small animals, mice in particular, has also centred much attention on the process of extrapolating results from animal to man, i.e., the translational aspects of physiological studies. Ultimately, the results or implications of most animal experiments should be confirmed in human subjects to assess potential benefits. In addition, several categories of experiments can only be performed in humans. Acta Physiologica is a preferred place of publication of the results of such types of investigations. During the last couple of years, the journal has published several special issues and supplements; in 2010, a special issue with 16 individual contributions was dedicated to human integrative physiology (Hellsten & Saltin 2010). However, the cornerstone element of publication is the issue consisting of individually submitted manuscripts representing many different subspecialties. In these regular issues of original studies and individual reviews, reports of new investigations in humans and/or new studies of human material are found in every issue of the Acta. On average, the studies of humans make up a full 33% of the titles. In the regular issues, reports in the category of exercise continue to be prominent; more than half of the papers on humans over the last couple of years are dealing with exercise one way or another. Naturally, the diverse roles of the CNS in relation to exercise are prevalent topics. It is well known that a single, extended exercise session is followed by hypotension (Bernardi et al. 1997, Murrell et al. 2007) and reduction in left ventricular function (Shave et al. 2004, Hart et al. 2006) lasting for up to 24 h (Shave et al. 2004). Assessing baroreceptor-mediated control of blood pressure and heart rate by a neck suction device, Hart et al. (2010) demonstrated that baroreceptor resetting contributes to hemodynamic after-effects of prolonged exercise (Fig. 1). Regular exercise is generally beneficial in health and disease (Cox 2006, Green et al. 2011, Teixeira-Lemos et al. 2011), but the mechanisms are partly unknown. Using the method of heart rate recovery after exercise [percentage decrease during 1 min, (Polonia et al. 2006)], Edwards et al. (2011) reported that in moderately hypertensive patients increased parasympathetic tone is associated with the blood pressure reducing effect of participation for 3 months in an exercise program. In a more sedentary situation, Wallin et al. (2010) found a positive relationship between breathing and sympathetic activity, and an inverse coupling of breathing to cardiac output and heart rate, thereby associating the process of respiration with ‘tonic’ cardiovascular function; absence in women of the these phenomena demonstrates fundamental differences in basic blood pressure regulation between men and women. Training and exercise can have adverse effects. Focal hand dystonia (musician’s dystonia, writer’s cramp) is a disease which often, but not always, is related to extended, repetitive motor activity (Rosenkranz et al. 2005). Cortical spatial de-differentiation is possibly involved (Weise et al. 2006). Studying the muscle activity of the arm by EMG and transcranial magnetic stimulation, Boyadjian et al. (2011) found a change in proximo-distal facilitation in the dystonic patients; i.e., compared to control, the cortical excitability was increased in the dystonic patients when the proximal muscle of the arm was activated concomitant with small muscles of the hand, adding complexity to the hypothesis about the diseased cortical excitability patterns. With regard to the peripheral vascular beds, the effects of adrenaline were investigated by Gjested et al. (and reported under the title: Effects of adrenaline on lactate, glucose, lipid and protein metabolism in the placebo controlled bilaterally perfused human leg!). They performed simultaneous, bilateral infusions into the femoral arteries, one with adrenaline and the other with placebo, and showed marked increases in lactate release and lipolysis because of the adrenaline. Muscle fatigue has been investigated by several groups (Seifert & Petersen 2010, Crivelli et al. 2011), and cerebral blood flow and oxygenation have been investigated under hypobaric, hypoxic, sedentary conditions (Pagani et al. 2011) and in relation to exercise (Billaut et al. 2010, Rasmussen et al. 2010). Notably, a number of articles have focused on or included studies of pathophysiological events (ten Brinke et al. 2010, Iacobelli et al. 2010, Lalande et al. 2010, Merry et al. 2010, Boyadjian et al. 2011, Edwards et al. 2011). Genomics, including manipulations of genes in rodents and other organisms, have generated an explosion of information and arrays of mindboggling results; however, the concomitant progress in genetic medicine Acta Physiol 2012, 204, 145–147