Neuroscience
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Peripheral-nerve injuries are a common clinical problem and often result in long-term functional deficits. Reconstruction of peripheral-nerve defects is currently undertaken with nerve autografts. However, there is a limited availability of nerves that can be sacrificed and the functional recovery is never 100% satisfactory. ⋯ Motor function also showed that functional recovery occurred earlier in animals receiving G-CSF+VEGF-treatment. The gastrocnemius muscle showed an increase in weight and in the levels of creatine phosphokinase, suggesting an improvement of reinnervation and muscle activity. These results suggest that these two factors acted synergistically and optimized the nerve repair potential, improving regeneration after a transection lesion.
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Intracerebral microinjection is a commonly used technique for local delivery of biologically active agents. However, it is known that mechanical injury of the cortex can induce spreading depression (SD), a wave of transient cellular depolarization. ⋯ Number of SWDs decreased substantially for at least 90 min after the sham injections which induced cortical SD but remained unchanged if SD was not triggered by microinjection. These findings suggest that SD induced by intracortical microinjection may contribute to long-term suppression of non-convulsive epileptic activity after this experimental procedure.
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Small oligomeric beta amyloid (Aβ(1-42)) injected 45 min prior to single-trial bead discrimination training resulted in impaired learning in day-old chickens. A new experimental protocol was used where the injections of drugs were at times around the time of injection of Aβ. It was found that the Na(+) levels of the saline used to dissolve Aβ affected cognitive impairment. ⋯ The drugs (made up in 154 mM sodium chloride) were injected before, at the same time or after the injection of Aβ and although all drugs prevented Aβ-induced disruption of learning when given in the same injection as Aβ, some injected before could prevent Aβ disrupting learning, whereas others could rescue learning ability when given after Aβ injection. These results are interpreted in the light of possible actions of noradrenaline on microglia and various processes: astrocytic metabolism, cerebral microcirculation, and removal of Aβ away from the site of injection. The possible importance of hypernatremia and hyponatremia in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease is discussed.
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The present study was conducted to correlate rotenone-induced neurotoxicity with cellular and molecular modifications in neuronal and neuronal supportive cells in rat brain regions. Rotenone was administered (3, 6 and 12 μg/μl) intranigrally in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. After the 7th day of rotenone treatment, specific protein markers for neuronal cells - tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), astroglial cells - glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), microglial cells - CD11b/c, and Iba-1 were evaluated by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence in the striatum (STR) and mid brain (MB). ⋯ It may be suggested that astroglial activation and apoptosis play an important role in rotenone-induced neurotoxicity. MB appeared as more sensitive than STR toward rotenone-induced cell toxicity. The astroglial cells emerged as more susceptible than neuronal and microglial cells to rotenone in STR.
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The axonal development of serotonin (5-HT)-, noradrenaline (NA)-, or tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-containing monoaminergic neurons is affected by rearing conditions during the juvenile period. Impaired monoaminergic axonal development is implicated in the pathophysiology of emotional and cognitive dysfunction. On the other hand, exercise may have beneficial effects on emotional and learning performance in adults. ⋯ The density of monoaminergic axons in the dentate gyrus and CA3 of the hippocampus was not affected by either EI or EI+R. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of voluntary running may be because of the modulation of monoaminergic axonal morphology. Our findings will hopefully provide the basis for future research into the beneficial effects of voluntary exercise during the juvenile period on brain development and emotional and cognitive performance.