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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Functional And Anatomical Characterization Of Descending Periaqueductal Gray (Pag) Projections And Their Role In Pain Modulation, Jose Gabriel Grajales
Functional And Anatomical Characterization Of Descending Periaqueductal Gray (Pag) Projections And Their Role In Pain Modulation, Jose Gabriel Grajales
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Endogenous analgesic pathways embody a potential target for the development for chronic pain therapies. Previous studies have demonstrated the role of the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) in descending pain modulation. It has been proposed that tonic GABAergic neurotransmission at the level of the vlPAG serves to inhibit efferent excitatory projections that mediate descending analgesia. Disinhibition of these projection neurons allows subsequent activation of rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) neurons that inhibit nociception at the level of the spinal cord. However, lack of cell-type specificity in these studies has prevented the determination of the role of specific subsets of vlPAG neurons in …
The Role Of Neuronal Atp-Sensitive Potassium Channels In Learning And Memory, Shaul Vladimir Yahil
The Role Of Neuronal Atp-Sensitive Potassium Channels In Learning And Memory, Shaul Vladimir Yahil
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels link cellular metabolism and membrane excitability in many tissues, including brain and pancreas. Gain-of-function (GOF) mutations to KATP channels cause neonatal diabetes, with some patients exhibiting developmental delay, epilepsy, and neonatal diabetes (DEND) syndrome. Diabetic symptoms have been attributed to loss of membrane excitability and insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells, though the origin of neurological deficits and the effects of neuronal KATP-GOF mutations more generally remain elusive. In this dissertation, I will present evidence that mice expressing KATP-GOF mutations pan-neuronally (nKATP-GOF) demonstrated sensorimotor and cognitive deficits, whereas hippocampus-specific hKATP-GOF mice exhibited predominantly learning and memory deficits. …
Exploring Β-Cell Function And Heterogeneity In Obese Sm/J Mice, Mario Alejandro Miranda
Exploring Β-Cell Function And Heterogeneity In Obese Sm/J Mice, Mario Alejandro Miranda
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Pancreatic β-cells perform glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, a process required to maintain systemic glucose homeostasis. Obesity promotes glycemic and inflammatory stress, causing β-cell death and dysfunction, resulting in diabetes. Efforts to improve β-cell function in obesity have been hampered by observations that β-cells are highly heterogeneous, varying in morphology, function, and gene expression. There is great need to understand the breadth of β-cell heterogeneity in health and obesity to improve diabetic therapies.High fat-fed SM/J mice spontaneously transition from hyperglycemic-obese to normoglycemic-obese with age, providing a unique opportunity to study β-cell adaptation. Here, we show that as they resolve hyperglycemia, obese SM/J …
Retinal Ganglion Cells Underlying Visual Perception And Predation In Mice, Keith Patrick Johnson
Retinal Ganglion Cells Underlying Visual Perception And Predation In Mice, Keith Patrick Johnson
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole source of visual information to the brain. In mice, more than 40 RGC types send signals to more than 50 brain areas. RGCs that perform nonlinear operations to extract specific visual features (e.g., the motion of an object against a background) are called feature detectors. Those that linearly integrate local changes in light inten-sity are known as pixel encoders. Most mouse RGC types are feature detectors. In the first part of my dissertation, I discovered a pixel encoder RGC type in mice, the PixON-RGC. I revealed how the unique …
Functional And Skeletal Muscle Impairments In Progressive Diabetic Ckd, Daniel Bittel
Functional And Skeletal Muscle Impairments In Progressive Diabetic Ckd, Daniel Bittel
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
1-in-3 persons with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) develop chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is characterized by progressive renal dysfunction leading to end-stage renal disease. In response to elevated blood glucose and systemic inflammation of diabetes, a process of active thickening of the renal glomerular basement membrane ensues with concomitant damage to the structural supports (podocytes) of the kidneyճ filtration barrier. This results in impaired renal filtration. The metabolic sequelea of T2DM and CKD also, synergistically, alter skeletal muscleճ degradative pathways, satellite cell function (muscle reparative cells), and mitochondrial health (muscle energetic machinery) -- resulting in muscle breakdown, poor muscle quality, …
Effects Of Resistance Exercise On Postprandial Metabolism In Obese Men With Prediabetes, Adam Bittel
Effects Of Resistance Exercise On Postprandial Metabolism In Obese Men With Prediabetes, Adam Bittel
Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Prediabetes is a metabolic condition defined by elevated fasting (impaired fasting glucose (IFG)) and/or postprandial (impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)) glucose. Prediabetes affects nearly 86 million adults in the United States, with most (up to 70%) progressing to type 2 diabetes within as little as one year. Recent studies have indicated that elevated post-prandial glycemia and hypertriglyceridemia are early indicators of prediabetes, and are major risk factors for complications of prediabetes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, elevated blood pressure, and obesity. Resistance exercise is a central component of exercise recommendations for individuals with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, but the effect …