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Exogenous Surfactant As A Delivery Vehicle For Intrapulmonary Therapeutics, Brandon J. Baer Oct 2021

Exogenous Surfactant As A Delivery Vehicle For Intrapulmonary Therapeutics, Brandon J. Baer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As an organ system, the lung has unique advantages and disadvantages for direct drug delivery. Its contact with the external environment allows for the airways to be easily accessible to intrapulmonary delivery. However, its complex structure, which divides into more narrow airways with each branch, can make direct delivery to the remote alveoli challenging. The objective of this thesis was to overcome this issue by using exogenous surfactant, a lipoprotein complex used to treat neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, as a carrier for pulmonary therapeutics. It was hypothesized that therapeutics administered with a surfactant vehicle would display enhanced delivery to the …


Evaluating Anesthetic Protocols For Non-Human Primate Functional Neuroimaging, Megha Verma Feb 2021

Evaluating Anesthetic Protocols For Non-Human Primate Functional Neuroimaging, Megha Verma

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to measure a proxy of neural activity in vivo with high spatial specificity. One subject can be followed for a long period of time to assess changes in functional brain organization. However, fMRI is extremely sensitive to motion. The challenges of training non-human primates to reduce motion in an MRI scanner motivate the study of anesthesia which is commonly used to substitute for this training. In this thesis, I compare three different commonly used anesthetic protocols: isoflurane, propofol-fentanyl in combination, and fentanyl alone, to test which of …


The Effects Of Maternal Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol And Cannabidiol Exposure On Fetal Heart Development In Mice, Gregory Robinson Dec 2020

The Effects Of Maternal Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol And Cannabidiol Exposure On Fetal Heart Development In Mice, Gregory Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Up to 22.6% of pregnant women consume cannabis during pregnancy despite the uncertainty of teratogenicity of the main ingredients in cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). This study tested the hypothesis that gestational THC and CBD exposure leads to heart abnormalities. Daily, oral THC exposure induced heart abnormalities in 68% of offspring with three main phenotypes including thickened semilunar valves, ventricular myocardial hypertrophy and hypoplastic coronary arteries in fetuses, and postnatal cardiac dysfunction. Altered gene expression of key cardiogenic regulators, increased proliferation, and reduced epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition were demonstrated implicating potential mechanisms responsible for these abnormalities. Also, maternal CBD exposure resulted …