Neurology Commons^™

Pharmacological Studies Of Nicotine And Galantamine Effects On Age Associated Memory Impairment And The Neurotrophic System In Aged Female Rats, Kristen L. French

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Nicotine and Galantamine were studied for their pharmacological effects on age associated memory impairment (AAMI) and the neurotrophin system in the aged female F344 rat. Nicotine was found to have dose dependent effects on cognition in the 24 month old rat. A low dose of nicotine improved both working and reference memory (WM, RM) performance on the water radial arm maze and also improved the ability of aged rats to handle an increasing WM load. A high dose did not improve WM and caused deficits in RM, and high cotinine levels in these subjects correlated with worse performance. Nicotine treatment …

The Cns Role Of Toll-Like Receptor 4 In Innate Neuroimmunity And Painful Neuropathy, Flobert Y. Tanga, Nancy Nutile-Mcmenemy, Joyce A. Deleo

Dartmouth Scholarship

Neuropathic pain remains a prevalent and persistent clinical problem because of our incomplete understanding of its pathogenesis. This study demonstrates for the first time, to our knowledge, a critical role for CNS innate immunity by means of microglial Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the induction phase of behavioral hypersensitivity in a mouse and rat model of neuropathy. We hypothesized that after L5 nerve transection, CNS neuroimmune activation and subsequent cytokine expression are triggered by the stimulation of microglial membrane-bound TLR4. To test this hypothesis, experiments were undertaken to assess tactile and thermal hypersensitivity in genetically altered (i.e., TLR4 knockout and …

Functions Of The Rat's Temporal Association Cortex In Higher Perceptual Functions, Summer L. Maki

The Corinthian

The role of the rodent temporal cortex in relational perception was investigated. Eighteen Long Evans rats were separated into three surgical groups (sham, partial striate, and Te2/3) and trained on a preoperative and postoperative discrimination task. The rats were then presented a series of relational judgement trials consisting of both between category judgments and within category judgments. It was hypothesized that the rats with Te2/3 lesions would perform as well as controls on the preoperative and postoperative discrimination task, but show a considerable behavioral dysfunction on the tests of visual relational perception. The results showed no differences across groups in …

Global Cns Gene Transfer For A Childhood Neurogenetic Enzyme Deficiency: Canavan Disease., Paola Leone, Christopher G Janson, Scott J Mcphee, Matthew J During

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

The neurogenetic prototypic disease on which we chose to test our gene therapy strategy is Canavan disease (CD). CD is an autosomal recessive leukodystrophy associated with spongiform degeneration of the brain. At present the disease is uniformly fatal in affected probands. CD is characterized by mutations in the aspartoacylase (ASPA) gene, resulting in loss of enzyme activity. In this review, recent evidence is summarized on the etiology and possible treatments for CD. In particular, we discuss two gene delivery systems representing recent advances in both viral and liposome technology: a novel cationic liposome-polymer-DNA (LPD) complex, DCChol/DOPE-protamine, as well as recombinant …

Lead Activation Of A Developmentally Regulated Calcium Channel In Rat Hippocampal Nerve Terminals, Troy E. Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

Low level lead (Pb²⁺) exposure may produce lasting deficits in learning and memory by altering calcium (Ca²⁺) dependent processes. Isolated presynaptic nerve terminals from rat hippocampus were loaded with the intracellular (Ca²⁺) indicator Fura-2. The changes in cytoplasmic free calcium ([Ca²⁺]_i) were measured by stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy following depolarization with elevated potassium on a millisecond time scale (Lentzner et al., 1992). Depolarization promoted a rapid increase in Ca²⁺_i which occured in two kinetically distinguishable phases: a fast component, representing the activity of rapidly inactivating Ca²⁺ channels (τ …

Transplantation Of The Mammalian Pineal Gland: Studies Of Survival, Revascularization, Reinnervation And Recovery Of Function, Wutian Wu

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

The survival, revascularization, reinnervation, and recovery of function of transplanted newborn rat pineal glands were studied following grafting into four different locations in pinealectomized rats. These locations were the third cerebral ventricle, in situ (where the pineal gland is normally located), the renal capsule, and the anterior chamber of the eye.

Pinealocytes in the grafts maintained high metabolic activity as evidenced by the presence of euchromatic nuclei, prominent nucleoli, infolded nuclear envelopes, numerous mitochondria and Golgi apparati, and relatively abundant endoplasmic reticulum and ribosomes. In addition, morphological correlates of two putative secretory processes were observed in the grafts. The first …