Life Sciences Commons^™

Neuromodulation By Endogenous Interlukin-1Β In Hippocampus Of The Murine Brain: Regulation Of Neuronal Excitation, Spandita Seouli Dutta

Dissertations - ALL

The pro-inflammatory cytokine, Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), is well known for its ability to initiate and propagate inflammatory responses at sites of infection and tissue injury. Paradoxically at odds with this classic view, it is now clear that IL-1β signaling modulates a number of physiological functions in the central nervous system. In this regard, IL-1β is involved in sleep and body fluid regulation in the basal forebrain and hypothalamus, respectively, and plasticity changes that underlie cognition in the hippocampus. Evidence from a previous study in my laboratory further suggests that IL-1β regulates the innate seizure threshold, which arguably is a reflection of …

The Role Of The Circadian Clock Protein Rev-Erba In Neuroinflammation & Synaptic Health, Percy Griffin

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Circadian rhythms are cycles of physiological activity that are conserved across all of life’s taxa – ranging from cyanobacteria to humans - due to their importance. They are conserved to allow organisms to maximize their capacity to obtain resources in their environment. In mammals, light and dark input into the retina is the strongest synchronizer of circadian rhythms. On the molecular level, this tightly regulated transcriptional-translational feedback loop is orchestrated by proteins with cyclical expression. The loss of these proteins has functional consequences on human health and diseases.

Recently, associations have been made between circadian proteins and a host of …

The Association Of Aerobic Fitness With Resting State Functional Connectivity And Verbal Learning And Memory In Healthy Young Adults, Kyle Joseph Jennette

Theses and Dissertations

The beneficial effects of exercise and cardiopulmonary fitness on general health, quality of life, and reduction of mortality are well known in older adults. There is evidence to support the positive effects of exercise and aerobic fitness on psychiatric and neurocognitive function in children, adults, and older adults. Indeed, many studies have explored the positive effects of aerobic fitness on slowing cognitive decline associated with normal and pathological aging. However, comparatively fewer empirical studies in the literature exist to support and understand the effects of aerobic fitness on the developing brain, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood, especially as it …

Shaped By The Environment: The Influence Of Childhood Trauma Exposure, Individual Socioeconomic Position, And Neighborhood Disadvantage On Brain Morphology, Elisabeth Kathleen Webb

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between an individual’s socioeconomic position (SEP) and their overall physical and mental health has been well demonstrated. Far less is known about how area-level factors, such as neighborhood disadvantage, “get under the skin”. Previous research indicates lower SEP and childhood trauma negatively effects brain structure and function. The hippocampus, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are particularly vulnerable to adversity. The current study investigated how individual SEP, childhood trauma, and neighborhood disadvantage impact these structures. Two-hundred and fifteen individuals were recruited from an Emergency Department in southeastern Wisconsin. Two-weeks post-traumatic injury, participants completed a structural magnetic resonance imaging …

Optogenetic Interrogation Of Hippocampal Circuit Stabilization, Laurel Watkins De Jong

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the response of excitatory and inhibitory populations to varying input is vital to understanding how a brain region transforms information. Optogenetics - the combined use of optics and genetics to control the activity of proteins, provides neuroscientists with a tool to interrogate neuronal circuits with high spatio-temporal resolution and targeted cell specificity. This thesis examines the effects of optogenetic manipulations on hippocampal circuit responses. The hippocampus is a structure required for the formation and retention of episodic memories and is comprised of anatomically distinct subregions including cornu ammonis 3 (CA3) and cornu ammonis 1 (CA1). Both regions, despite differences …

Expression Analyses Of Hippocampal And Cortical Proteins In A Rat Model For Alzheimer’S Disease, Rangon Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has no cure. Using a rat AD model, we identified aberrantly expressed proteins during pre-pathology as potential biomarkers. The expression of certain biomarkers was reversed by diazoxide, a repurposed hypertension drug. These results suggest that drug repurposing at an early stage of AD has therapeutic potential.

Sexually Dimorphic Alterations In Brain Morphology Of Astrocyte Conditional System Xc- Knockout Mice, Gabrielle Emily Samulewicz

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Astrocytes play a vital role in orchestrating the precise brain wiring that occurs during development and are essential for maintaining homeostasis into adulthood. The cystine/glutamate antiporter, system xc-, in the central nervous system is especially abundant in astrocytes and itself is known to contribute importantly to the basal extracellular glutamate concentration as well as the intracellular and extracellular glutathione levels, either of which, if perturbed, could alter brain development and/or contribute to degeneration. Thus, to determine whether loss of astrocyte system xc- might alter brain morphology, I studied a conditional astrocyte system xc- knockout mouse (AcKO). Tissue was harvested from …

Levels Of Parp1-Immunoreactivity In The Human Brain In Major Depressive Disorder, Aamir Shaikh

Undergraduate Honors Theses

MDD is a severe and debilitating disorder that is associated with a growing global economic burden due to reduced workplace productivity along with increased healthcare resource utilization. Furthermore, depression markedly enhances the risk for suicide, mortality that is especially worrisome given that 30% of depressed individuals have an inadequate response to current antidepressants. This inadequacy of antidepressants necessitates the discovery of a better understanding of the pathobiology of MDD. Most current antidepressants work through monoamine neurotransmitters, and their relative efficacy in depression led to the now dated monoamine-deficiency hypothesis. The limited usefulness of antidepressants has led to a reinvigorated search …

Divergence In Neuronal Calcium Dysregulation In Brain Aging And Animal Models Of Ad, Adam Ghoweri

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences

Neuronal calcium dysregulation first garnered attention during the mid-1980’s as a key factor in brain aging, which led to the formulation of the Ca²⁺ hypothesis of brain aging and dementia. Indeed, many Ca²⁺-dependent cellular processes that change with age, including an increase in the afterhyperpolarization, a decrease in long-term potentiation, an increased susceptibility to long-term depression, and a reduction in short-term synaptic plasticity, have been identified. It was later determined that increased intracellular Ca²⁺ with age was due to increased Ca²⁺ channel density, elevated release from intracellular Ca²⁺ stores, and decreased Ca²⁺ buffering …

The Dysregulation Of Circadian Rhythms And Its Relation To Hippocampal Neurodegenerative Disease, John Patrick Mccauley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Circadian rhythms modulate body temperature, sleep-wake cycles and cognitive functions like learning and memory. Interestingly, patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s disease and brain insults like traumatic brain injury experience dysregulated circadian rhythms and learning and memory deficiencies as a symptom. The core molecular machinery that establishes these rhythms relies on the activation of positive and negative transcriptional-translational feedback loops within the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Subordinate circadian oscillators distributed throughout the peripheral and central nervous system follow the rhythmic activity of the SCN. One of these, the hippocampus, is mostly involved in regulating memory formation and recall. Experimental …