Search results for " brain"

Plasma Hyperosmolality Prolongs QTc Interval and Increases Risk for Atrial Fibrillation in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

2020

Introduction: Hyperosmotic therapy with mannitol is frequently used for treatment cerebral edema, and 320 mOsm/kg H2O has been recommended as a high limit for therapeutic plasma osmolality. However, plasma hyperosmolality may impair cardiac function, increasing the risk of cardiac events. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between changes in plasma osmolality and electrocardiographic variables and cardiac arrhythmia in patients treated for isolated traumatic brain injury (iTBI). Methods: Adult iTBI patients requiring mannitol infusion following cerebral edema, and with a Glasgow Coma Score below 8, were included. Plasma osmolality was measured with Osmometr 800 CLG. Spatial Q…

Multiple sclerosis patient-derived CSF induces transcriptional changes in proliferating oligodendrocyte progenitors.

2014

Background: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is in contact with brain parenchyma and ventricles, and its composition might influence the cellular physiology of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) thereby contributing to multiple sclerosis (MS) disease pathogenesis. Objective: To identify the transcriptional changes that distinguish the transcriptional response induced in proliferating rat OPCs upon exposure to CSF from primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) or relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients and other neurological controls. Methods: We performed gene microarray analysis of OPCs exposed to CSF from neurological controls, or definitive RRMS or PPMS disease course. R…

Brain and Cancer: The Protective Role of Erythropoietin

2005

Erythropoietin (Epo) is a pleiotropic agent, that is to say, it can act on several cell types in different ways. An independent system Epo/Epo receptor (EpoR) was detected in brain, leading to the hypothesis that this hormone could be involved in cerebral functions. Epo/EpoR expression changes during ontogenesis, thus indicating the importance of this system in neurodevelopment. Moreover, the hypoxia-induced production of Epo in the adult brain suggests that it could exert a neurotrophic and neuroprotective effect in case of brain injury. Epo could also influence neuro- transmission, inducing neurotransmitters (NT) release. Epo therapy in anemic cancer patients is still a controversial issu…

Lineage-reprogramming of Pericyte-derived Cells of the Adult Human Brain into Induced Neurons

2014

Direct lineage-reprogramming of non-neuronal cells into induced neurons (iNs) may provide insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying neurogenesis and enable new strategies for in vitro modeling or repairing the diseased brain. Identifying brain-resident non-neuronal cell types amenable to direct conversion into iNs might allow for launching such an approach in situ, i.e. within the damaged brain tissue. Here we describe a protocol developed in the attempt of identifying cells derived from the adult human brain that fulfill this premise. This protocol involves: (1) the culturing of human cells from the cerebral cortex obtained from adult human brain biopsies; (2) the in vitro expansio…

Nicotinic Receptors in Human Brain

1994

A vast knowledge is currently available on the molecular biology and the pharmacology of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) (Sargent, 1993). Only few attempts have been made to approach the expression of nAChRs at the level of functional systems, considering the different cell types involved and their connectivity. This aspect is of particular importance in order to evaluate nAChR expression under pathological conditions. Histochemical techniques have proven to be useful since immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization can be performed on human autopsy tissue and allow for a cell type-specific localization of nAChR proteins and nAChR …

The effect of cadmium on brain cells in culture

2009

Cadmium is a long-living heavy metal, abundantly present in the environment, which accumulates in the body. In this study, we investigated the effects of cadmium on the expression of molecular chaperones, and of certain cell-specific proteins, in a variety of brain cell types in culture, namely primary cultures of rat cortical neurons and astrocytes, a brain capillary endothelial cell line (RB4E.B cells), and pheochromocytoma cells (PC12), induced or not to differentiate by NGF treatment. The metal induces a dose-dependent increase of Hsp70 in all cell types. Responses to the metal are cell-specific in the case of Hsc70 and Hsp90: i) in astrocytes, as well as in PC12 cells, cadmium has no s…

ÜBER DIE AUTOXYDATION EMULGIERTER GEHIRNPHOSPHATIDE UND MENSCHLICHER HIRNGEWEBSHOMOGENATE UND DEN NACHWEIS DABEI GEBILDETER PEROXYDE

1959

Hunting for the high-affinity state of G-protein-coupled receptors with agonist tracers: Theoretical and practical considerations for positron emissi…

2019

Abstract The concept of the high‐affinity state postulates that a certain subset of G‐protein‐coupled receptors is primarily responsible for receptor signaling in the living brain. Assessing the abundance of this subset is thus potentially highly relevant for studies concerning the responses of neurotransmission to pharmacological or physiological stimuli and the dysregulation of neurotransmission in neurological or psychiatric disorders. The high‐affinity state is preferentially recognized by agonists in vitro. For this reason, agonist tracers have been developed as tools for the noninvasive imaging of the high‐affinity state with positron emission tomography (PET). This review provides an…

The isolated perfused rat brain as a model for studying drugs acting on the CNS

1974

An isolated perfused brain preparation is regarded as offering some important advantages over intact animals or tissue slices for studying drug effects on the CNS. The rat is by far the most suitable laboratory animal for this technique because of low cost, ease of preparation and extensive literature available for comparative purposes. In this paper various preparation techniques and perfusion systems for an isolated rat brain are reported. Investigations are presented proving the viability of the isolated perfused rat brain for more than seven hours and its suitability for studies on cerebral metabolism. Until now this preparation has been successfully used for pharmacological investigati…

Comparison of the effects of chloral hydrate and trichlorethanol on the EEG of the isolated perfused rat brain.

1973

An isolated perfused rat brain preparation was used to compare the effects of chloral hydrate and its metabolite trichloroethanol on the EEG. The concentrations of chloral hydrate and trichloroethanol in the perfusion medium ranged from 1.5 to 5.5 mM. 5, 10, 15, and 30 min after the beginning of the perfusions EEG-recordings were taken. The recordings were evaluated both by a descriptive method and by a simple quantitative appraoch, counting the waves with an amplitude greater than 50 microvolts and averaging this value for a period of 1 sec. The following results were obtained: Both drugs exhibited CNS depressant activity. Between 5 and 10 min of perfusion the effect of trichloroethanol wa…