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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Anatomy

Angiogenesis In Response To Varying Fiber Size In An Electrospun Scaffold In Vivo., Damien Brown Jul 2012

Angiogenesis In Response To Varying Fiber Size In An Electrospun Scaffold In Vivo., Damien Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Injury to the spinal cord results in partial or complete loss of sensory perception and motor function. After spinal cord injury (SCI), damaged tissue dies and a cavity will form. This cavity prevents the regeneration of tissue and any functional recovery. One way to address the cavity is the insertion of an electrospun scaffold that our lab has created. This provides a substrate for regenerating tissue to grow on, and it is thought that reestablishing the blood supply within the scaffold will allow cells necessary for regeneration to thrive. This could ultimately lead to meaningful recovery for patients who have …


Combining Electrospun Polydioxanone Scaffolds, Schwann Cells, And Matrigel To Improve Functional Recovery After A Complete Spinal Cord Transection In Rats, Ashok Kannan May 2012

Combining Electrospun Polydioxanone Scaffolds, Schwann Cells, And Matrigel To Improve Functional Recovery After A Complete Spinal Cord Transection In Rats, Ashok Kannan

Theses and Dissertations

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has presented itself as a multifaceted pathology that is largely inhibitory to regeneration, and therefore to functional recovery, even though spinal cord neurons have been found to be innately regenerative. Thus, having identified the key players in the inhibition of this innate regeneration, SCI researchers have focused on two major types of approaches: (1) blocking inhibitory cues and (2) promoting innate regeneration. Schwann cells (SCs) have long been shown to promote and enhance functional recovery after SCI through providing supplemental myelination and trophic and tropic factors to regenerating axons, though singular approaches rarely address the complex …


Inhibition Of Injury-Induced Cell Proliferation In The Dentate Gyrus Impairs Cognitive Recovery Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Teresa Daniels Apr 2012

Inhibition Of Injury-Induced Cell Proliferation In The Dentate Gyrus Impairs Cognitive Recovery Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Teresa Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces a robust cellular proliferative response among neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/NPCs) in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. This proliferative effect is thought to contribute to the innate cognitive recovery observed following TBI. Inhibition of hippocampal neurogenesis impairs cognitive function. Furthermore, enhancement of injury-induced hippocampal neurogenesis via intraventricular administration of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) improves cognitive function in animals following TBI. In this experiment, we investigated the direct association between injury-induced hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive recovery utilizing an antimitotic agent, arabinofuranosyl cytidine (Ara-C). In this study, adult rats received a moderate lateral fluid percussion injury …


The Effect Of Minocycline Treatment On Cell Proliferation And Neurogenesis In The Hippocampus In Young And Aged Brains Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Ashley Harvin Apr 2012

The Effect Of Minocycline Treatment On Cell Proliferation And Neurogenesis In The Hippocampus In Young And Aged Brains Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Ashley Harvin

Theses and Dissertations

Following traumatic brain injury, there is an enhanced cell proliferative and neurogenic response in the young adult hippocampus, which may be associated with innate cognitive recovery. However, in the aged brain, an increased level of inflammatory cell responses was observed following injury concomitant to decreased hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive recovery in the aging population. This suggests that excessive inflammation produced in the injured aging brain has a detrimental effect on neurogenesis and cognitive function. In this study, we examined the effect of anti-inflammatory treatment with minocycline on cell proliferation and generation of new neurons in the dentate gyrus (DG) of …


The Role Of Sulfatide In The Development And Maintenance Of The Nodal And Paranodal Domains In The Peripheral Nervous System, Heather Herman Apr 2012

The Role Of Sulfatide In The Development And Maintenance Of The Nodal And Paranodal Domains In The Peripheral Nervous System, Heather Herman

Theses and Dissertations

Sulfatide is a galactolipid and a major lipid component of the myelin sheath. Its production is catalyzed by the enzyme cerebroside sulfotransferase (CST). To determine the functions of sulfatide, the gene encoding CST was genetically disrupted resulting in mice incapable of sulfatide synthesis. Using these mice, it has been shown in the central nervous system (CNS) that sulfatide is essential for normal myelin synthesis and stability even though the onset of myelination is not impaired. Additionally, proper initial clustering of paranodal proteins and cluster maintenance of nodal proteins is impaired suggesting that paranodal domains are important for long-term node stability. …


Shared Resistance To Aging And Als In Neuromuscular Junctions Of Specific Muscles, Gregorio Valdez, Juan C. Tapia, Jeff W. Lichtman, Michael A. Fox, Joshua R. Sanes Jan 2012

Shared Resistance To Aging And Als In Neuromuscular Junctions Of Specific Muscles, Gregorio Valdez, Juan C. Tapia, Jeff W. Lichtman, Michael A. Fox, Joshua R. Sanes

Anatomy and Neurobiology Publications

Normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases both lead to structural and functional alterations in synapses. Comparison of synapses that are generally similar but respond differently to insults could provide the basis for discovering mechanisms that underlie susceptibility or resistance to damage. Here, we analyzed skeletal neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) in 16 mouse muscles to seek such differences. We find that muscles respond in one of three ways to aging. In some, including most limb and trunk muscles, age-related alterations to NMJs are progressive and extensive during the second postnatal year. NMJs in other muscles, such as extraocular muscles, are strikingly resistant to …


Optogenetic Stimulation Of The Corticothalamic Pathway Affects Relay Cells And Gabaergic Neurons Differently In The Mouse Visual Thalamus, Chris W. D. Jurgens, Karen A. Bell, A. Rory Mcquiston, William Guido Jan 2012

Optogenetic Stimulation Of The Corticothalamic Pathway Affects Relay Cells And Gabaergic Neurons Differently In The Mouse Visual Thalamus, Chris W. D. Jurgens, Karen A. Bell, A. Rory Mcquiston, William Guido

Anatomy and Neurobiology Publications

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) serves as the primary conduit of retinal information to visual cortex. In addition to retinal input, dLGN receives a large feedback projection from layer VI of visual cortex. Such input modulates thalamic signal transmission in different ways that range from gain control to synchronizing network activity in a stimulus-specific manner. However, the mechanisms underlying such modulation have been difficult to study, in part because of the complex circuitry and diverse cell types this pathway innervates. To address this and overcome some of the technical limitations inherent in studying the corticothalamic (CT) pathway, we adopted …


Early Hearing-Impairment Results In Crossmodal Reorganization Of Ferret Core Auditory Cortex, M. Alex Meredith, Brian L. Allman Jan 2012

Early Hearing-Impairment Results In Crossmodal Reorganization Of Ferret Core Auditory Cortex, M. Alex Meredith, Brian L. Allman

Anatomy and Neurobiology Publications

Numerous investigations of cortical crossmodal plasticity, most often in congenital or early-deaf subjects, have indicated that secondary auditory cortical areas reorganize to exhibit visual responsiveness while the core auditory regions are largely spared. However, a recent study of adult-deafened ferrets demonstrated that core auditory cortex was reorganized by the somatosensory modality. Because adult animals have matured beyond their critical period of sensory development and plasticity, it was not known if adult-deafening and early-deafening would generate the same crossmodal results. The present study used young, ototoxically-lesioned ferrets () that, after maturation (avg. = 173 days old), showed significant hearing deficits (avg. …


Group I Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors On Selective Cellular Subtypes In Epileptogenic Malformed Cortex, William Bruch Jan 2012

Group I Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors On Selective Cellular Subtypes In Epileptogenic Malformed Cortex, William Bruch

Theses and Dissertations

Cortical malformations from altered development are common causes of human epilepsy. The cellular mechanisms responsible for the epileptic state of cortex remain unclear and a significant portion of these cases do not respond to treatment. Previous electrophysiological recordings in the Jacobs lab in a rat polymicrogyria model indicated an increased response to group I metabotropic glutamate receptor agonists in the region adjacent to the malformation (PMZ). In addition there was a novel response in low threshold spiking (LTS) interneurons via mGluR5 activation. To determine whether cell specific expression of these receptors was altered in malformed cortex immunohistochemical stains were performed …