Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Using The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus As A Model System To Assess Tolerance And Withdrawal To Alcohol, Jonathan Houghton Lindsay

Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol abuse induces many disorders including depression, metabolic syndrome, and sleep disturbances. The strong link between alcohol abuse and sleep problems, along with the close connection between sleep and circadian rhythms, led us to investigate ethanol’s effects on the circadian clock. Previous work has shown that acute ethanol blocks photic phase shifts in vivo and glutamatergic phase shifts in vitro. However, neural systems become tolerant to ethanol across different timeframes. Despite both ethanol tolerance and ethanol withdrawal syndrome being listed as criteria for developing alcohol use disorders, little is known about how ethanol tolerance and withdrawal induced hyperexcitability develop and …

Growth Regulation Of Pancreatic Cancer Cells And Their Normal Cells Of Origin By Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors, Mohammed Hussein Al-Wadei

Doctoral Dissertations

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality with a five-year survival rate of less than 5 %. It shows no symptoms until it has reached an advanced stage upon which it has metastasized to distant organs limiting therapeutic options. Several studies have identified smoking, alcohol, diabetes and pancreatitis as risk factors for pancreatic cancer. While smoking is a well-documented risk factor for this malignancy, there still remains a controversy on whether alcohol can act as a risk factor itself or cooperatively enhances the effects of other risk factors.

Previous reports provide evidence that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) …