Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Epigenetics Of Sex Differences In The Brain, Margaret M. Mccarthy, Anthony P. Auger, Tracy L. Bale, Geert De Vries, Gregory A. Dunn, Nancy Forger, Elaine K. Murray, Bridget M. Nugent, Jaclyn M. Schwarz, Melinda E. Wilson
The Epigenetics Of Sex Differences In The Brain, Margaret M. Mccarthy, Anthony P. Auger, Tracy L. Bale, Geert De Vries, Gregory A. Dunn, Nancy Forger, Elaine K. Murray, Bridget M. Nugent, Jaclyn M. Schwarz, Melinda E. Wilson
Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications
Epigenetic changes in the nervous system are emerging as a critical component of enduring effects induced by early life experience, hormonal exposure, trauma and injury, or learning and memory. Sex differences in the brain are largely determined by steroid hormone exposure during a perinatal sensitive period that alters subsequent hormonal and nonhormonal responses throughout the lifespan. Steroid receptors are members of a nuclear receptor transcription factor superfamily and recruit multiple proteins that possess enzymatic activity relevant to epigenetic changes such as acetylation and methylation. Thus steroid hormones are uniquely poised to exert epigenetic effects on the developing nervous system to …
Neonatal Injury Alters Adult Pain Sensitivity By Increasing Opioid Tone In The Periaqueductal Gray, Jamie L. Laprairie, Anne Z. Murphy Phd
Neonatal Injury Alters Adult Pain Sensitivity By Increasing Opioid Tone In The Periaqueductal Gray, Jamie L. Laprairie, Anne Z. Murphy Phd
Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications
Studies in both rodents and humans have shown that acute inflammatory pain experienced during the perinatal period produces long-term decreases in pain sensitivity (hypoalgesia) (Grunau et al., 1994a , 2001 ; Ren et al., 2004 ; LaPrairie and Murphy, 2007 ). To date, the mechanisms underlying these long-term adaptations, however, have yet to be elucidated. The present studies tested the hypothesis that neonatal inflammatory pain induces an upregulation in endogenous opioid tone that is maintained into adulthood, and that this increase in opioid tone provides the underlying mechanism for the observed hypoalgesia. On the day of birth (P0), inflammatory pain …
Sex Differences In The Activation Of The Spinoparabrachial Circuit By Visceral Pain, Anne Z. Murphy Phd, Shelby K. Suckow, Malcolm Johns, Richard J. Traub
Sex Differences In The Activation Of The Spinoparabrachial Circuit By Visceral Pain, Anne Z. Murphy Phd, Shelby K. Suckow, Malcolm Johns, Richard J. Traub
Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications
Women are more sensitive to most noxious visceral stimuli, both in terms of intensity and frequency. The spinoparabrachial (spino-PBn) pathway is an essential neural circuit for the central relay of viscerosensitive information, but studies characterizing the anatomical and physiological characteristics of this pathway have only been conducted in males. Sex differences in the anatomical and/or physiological organization of the spino-PBn may contribute to the sexually dimorphic incidence rate for visceral pain syndromes. Retrograde labeling and colorectal distention (CRD) induced Fos expression was used to delineate the spino-PBn circuit in male and cycling female Sprague-Dawley rats. The ability of morphine to …
The Role Of The Periaqueductal Gray In The Modulation Of Pain In Males And Females: Are The Anatomy And Physiology Really That Different?, Dayna R. Loyd, Anne Z. Murphy Phd
The Role Of The Periaqueductal Gray In The Modulation Of Pain In Males And Females: Are The Anatomy And Physiology Really That Different?, Dayna R. Loyd, Anne Z. Murphy Phd
Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications
Anatomical and physiological studies conducted in the 1960s identified the periaqueductal gray (PAG) and its descending projections to the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) and spinal cord dorsal horn, as a primary anatomical pathway mediating opioid-based analgesia. Since these initial studies, the PAG-RVM-spinal cord pathway has been characterized anatomically and physiologically in a wide range of vertebrate species. Remarkably, the majority of these studies were conducted exclusively in males with the implicit assumption that the anatomy and physiology of this circuit were the same in females; however, this is not the case. It is well established that morphine administration produces greater …