Brain research
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The aim of the present study was to investigate whether local application of octreotide, an analogue of somatostatin, suppresses the glutamate-evoked activities of Adelta and C primary afferent fibers innervating dorsal hairy skin of the rat in vivo. The single unit activity of Adelta and C afferent fibers was recorded in isolated filaments from the dorsal cutaneous branches of the T9-T12 spinal nerves. Changes in discharge relative to baseline during injection of glutamate (0.3mM, 10microL) into the receptive field with pretreatment by octreotide (20microM, 10microL) were compared with injection after pretreatment with normal saline. ⋯ The discharge rates during injection of glutamate after octreotide pretreatment were significantly lower than after normal saline pretreatment. The suppressive effect of octreotide was reversed by the somatostatin receptor antagonist cyclo-somatostatin. These results suggest that interactions between excitatory amino acid and inhibitory neuropeptides may contribute to sensory signaling in the peripheral nervous system.
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Disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and/or the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB) is thought to be one of the major pathophysiological consequences of meningitis and contributes to the development of adverse neurological outcomes. In order to clarify this hypothesis further, we sequentially quantified the permeability of these barriers with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement using gadolinium-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) in rats with various experimentally-induced meningitis. Meningeal inflammation was elicited by an intracisternal injection of interleukin (IL)-1beta, prostaglandin (PG) E(2), or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). ⋯ On the other hand, no significant changes in signal intensity of the brain parenchymal areas due to IL-1beta injection were observed. The findings suggest that the permeability of the BCSFB can be evaluated quantitatively by calculating the GER. MRI with Gd-DTPA provides a useful method to monitor the change in the permeability to the brain barriers.
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The effect of subcutaneous injection of glutamate on the mechanical sensitivity of rat facial cutaneous mechanoreceptors was examined. Individual facial mechanoreceptors were recorded in the trigeminal ganglion of anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. An electronic von Frey hair was used to measure the mechanical threshold (MT) of the afferent fibers at baseline and following subcutaneous injection of glutamate (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1M; 10microl) or glutamate (0, 0.1M) plus the competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (APV; 0.01M). ⋯ APV blocked the mechanical sensitization of the afferent fibers treated by glutamate 0.1M in both sexes with a lower effect in females at a 10-20minute post-injection. Subcutaneous injection of glutamate mechanically sensitizes rat facial cutaneous mechanoreceptors through activation of peripheral NMDA receptors. Peripheral NMDA receptor antagonists may be considered for craniofacial pain.
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Distinct expression of cold receptors (TRPM8 and TRPA1) in the rat nodose-petrosal ganglion complex.
TRPM8 and TRPA1 are cold-activated transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channels. TRPM8 is activated by moderate cooling, while TRPA1 is activated by extreme, noxious cold temperatures. These cold receptors are expressed in different subpopulations of primary afferent neurons. ⋯ We retrogradely labeled cranial nerve X with Fast Blue (fluorescent dye) and found TRPM8 transcripts in the jugular-vagal ganglion but not the NG neurons. TRPA1 transcripts were not detected in TRPM8-expressing neurons but were present in the subpopulation of TRPV1-expressing visceral sensory neurons. Taken together, these findings support that in the vagal system the expression of cold-activated TRP channels differs between nodose- and jugular-ganglion neurons suggesting different mechanisms of cold-transduction and that the TRPA1 distribution is consistent with its proposed function as a cold-sensing receptor in the visceral system.
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Recently we introduced a robust measure, integrated local correlation (ILC), of local connectivity in the brain using fMRI data which reflects the temporal correlation of brain activity in every voxel neighborhood. The current work studies ILC in fMRI data obtained in the absence and presence of sevoflurane anesthesia (0%, 2%, and 1% end-tidal concentration, respectively) administered to healthy volunteers. ILC was determined specifically in regions of the default mode network (DMN) to address local changes in each state. ⋯ By contrast, ILC remained attenuated prefrontally in the 1% condition, which indicates uncoupling of the frontal areas of DMN during light anesthesia. These results confirm widespread anesthetic-induced cortical suppression but also demonstrate that the local connectivity of the prefrontal cortex is rapidly reduced by sevoflurane. It remains to be seen whether these alterations arise locally as a direct consequence of anesthetic action on local neurons or are driven by distant changes in oscillations and activity elsewhere in the brain.