Search results for " potential"
showing 10 items of 2713 documents
Involvement of cholinergic nicotinic receptors in the menthol-induced gastric relaxation.
2014
We have previously demonstrated that menthol reduces murine gastric tone in part through a neural mechanism, involving adrenergic pathways and reduction of ongoing release of acetylcholine from enteric nerves. In the present study we aimed to verify whether the gastric relaxation to menthol may be triggered by interaction with neural receptors or ionic channels proteins, such as transient receptor potential (TRP)-melastatin8 (TRPM8), TRP-ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), 5-hydroxytriptamine 3 (5-HT3) receptor or cholinergic nicotinic receptors. Spontaneous mechanical activity was detected in vitro as changes in intraluminal pressure from isolated mouse stomach. Menthol (0.3-30 mM) induced gastric relaxati…
Choline is a Selective Agonist of α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in the Rat Brain Neurons
1998
In the present study, we demonstrate that choline, a precursor of acetylcholine (ACh) and a product of acetylcholine hydrolysis by acetylcholinesterase (AChE), acts as an efficient and relatively selective agonist of alpha7-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) in neurons cultured from the rat hippocampus, olfactory bulb and thalamus as well as in PC12 cells. Choline was able to activate postsynaptic and presynaptic alpha7 nAChRs, with the latter action resulting in the release of other neurotransmitters. Although choline was approximately one order of magnitude less potent than ACh (EC50 of 1.6 mM for choline and 0.13 mM for ACh), it acted as a full agonist at alpha7 nAChRs.…
Modulatory effects of the novel TrkB receptor agonist 7,8-dihydroxyflavone on synaptic transmission and intrinsic neuronal excitability in mouse visu…
2013
7,8-Dihydroxyflavone (7,8 DHF) is a new recently identified TrkB receptor agonist, which possesses a potent neurotrophic activity and shares many physiological properties with the neurotrophin "Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor" (BDNF). However, its precise mechanism of action at the cellular level has not been clarified yet. In the present study we explored the effects of this agent on synaptic and intrinsic neuronal properties by performing whole-cell patch clamp recordings from layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons. Incubation of acute cortical slices with 7,8-DHF (20 µM) for 30 min caused a selective reduction in the strength of GABAergic inhibition. The amplitude of evoked inhibitory postsynapti…
Postnatal alterations of the inhibitory synaptic responses recorded from cortical pyramidal neurons in the Lis1/sLis1 mutant mouse
2006
Mutations in the mouse Lis1 gene produce severe alterations in the developing cortex. We have examined some electrophysiological responses of cortical pyramidal neurons during the early postnatal development of Lis/sLis1 mutant mice. In P7 and P30 Lis1/sLis1 neurons we detected a lower frequency and slower decay phase of mIPSCs, and at P30 the mIPSCs amplitude and the action potential duration were reduced. Zolpidem (an agonist of GABAA receptors containing the alpha1 subunit) neither modified the amplitude nor the decay time of mIPSCs at P7 in Lis1/sLis1 neurons, whereas it increased the decay time at P30. The levels of GABAA receptor alpha1 subunit mRNA were reduced in the Lis1/sLis1 brai…
α7 Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and modulation of gabaergic synaptic transmission in the hippocampus
2000
The present report provides new findings regarding modulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transmission by alpha7 nicotinic receptor activity in CA1 interneurons of rat hippocampal slices. Recordings were obtained from tight-seal cell-attached patches of the CA1 interneurons, and agonists were delivered to the neurons via a modified U-tube. Application for 6 s of the alpha7 nicotinic receptor-selective agonist choline (or =1 mM) to all CA1 interneurons tested triggered action potentials that were detected as fast current transients. The activity triggered by choline terminated well before the end of the agonist pulse, was blocked by the alpha7 nicotinic receptor antagonist methyllycaco…
GABAA agonist muscimol ameliorates learning/memory deficits in streptozocin-induced Alzheimer’s disease non-transgenic rat model
2015
Background: GABAergic inhibitory action regulates learning/memory processes and contributes to neurotransmission (Gong et al., 2009). Existing evidence suggests GABAergic system is involved in pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) via inhibitory interneuron deficits (Verret et al., 2012) and decrease in functional GABAA receptors (Limon et al., 2012). In vitro, GABA and muscimol (GABAA receptor agonist) blocked neuronal death induced by Aβ in rat hippocampal and cortical neurons (Paula-Lima et al., 2005). Our concept: low doses of muscimol may prevent learning/memory deficits in intracerebroventricular (icv) streptozocin (STZ)-induced AD non-transgenic rat model. Methods. Wistar male …
Somatosensory event-related potentials in the rabbit cerebral and cerebellar cortices: a correspondence with mismatch responses in humans.
2001
Somatosensory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from the cerebellar (CerCx), somatosensory (SomCx) and visual (VCx) cortices in rabbits in two stimulus conditions. In the oddball condition, airpuffs to two different locations in the rabbit's muzzle corresponded to infrequently presented deviant stimuli (oddball-deviants) interspersed with frequently presented standard stimuli. In the deviant-alone condition, deviants (alone-deviants) were presented without standards. ERPs to oddball-deviants differed significantly from those to standards in CerCx and SomCx, but not in VCx. Furthermore, some of these differences were not found between ERPs to alone-deviants and those to standards…
Linking air–sea energy fluxes and European anchovy potential spawning ground.
2008
The physical and chemical processes of the sea greatly affect the reproductive biology of fishes, mainly influencing both the numbers of spawned eggs and the survivorship of early stages up to the recruitment period. In the central Mediterranean, the European anchovy constitutes one of the most important fishery resource. Because of its short living nature and of its recruitment variability, associated to high environmental variability, this small pelagic species undergo high interannual fluctuation in the biomass levels. Despite several efforts were addressed to characterize fishes spawning habitat from the oceanographic point of view, very few studies analyze the air-sea exchanges effects…
Retinal function assessment in alcohol use disorder patients
2019
Objective. Retinal injury induced by ethanol consumption has been previously reported in animal models, including biochemical, histological and functional alterations. These results need to be clinically tested in alcoholic patients which do not report several systemic or ophthalmic diseases. Methods. Six patients with alcohol use disorder were recruited from an ‘Alcoholism Treatment Unit’. All of them with active alcohol consumption when the study was conducted or that had stopped drinking six months prior to the study, with no ocular disease or visual acuity alterations. All patients underwent fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) as well as visual field test. Electrophys…
Complex multiplication, Griffiths-Yukawa couplings, and rigidity for families of hypersurfaces
2003
Let M(d,n) be the moduli stack of hypersurfaces of degree d > n in the complex projective n-space, and let M(d,n;1) be the sub-stack, parameterizing hypersurfaces obtained as a d fold cyclic covering of the projective n-1 space, ramified over a hypersurface of degree d. Iterating this construction, one obtains M(d,n;r). We show that M(d,n;1) is rigid in M(d,n), although the Griffiths-Yukawa coupling degenerates for d<2n. On the other hand, for all d>n the sub-stack M(d,n;2) deforms. We calculate the exact length of the Griffiths-Yukawa coupling over M(d,n;r), and we construct a 4-dimensional family of quintic hypersurfaces, and a dense set of points in the base, where the fibres ha…