Search results for "WL"
showing 10 items of 4149 documents
Study of the attitudes and future intentions of nursing students towards working with older people: an observational study
2021
Background: Older people are increasing in the world leading to the fact that many nursing students will work in geriatric care setting. It was also reported the lack of knowledge and interest in working with older people by many nursing students. Therefore, the aim of the study is to explore the attitudes, wills, and intentions for the care of older people from nursing students. Methods: A sample of 383 students (mean age between 17 and 24; females: 76.2%) was divided according to the year. A questionnaire and three scales investigating the attitude for working with older persons (Kogan, Aday-Campbell, Nolan scales) were administered. Simple correlations across the three scales and the com…
Pharmacological heterogeneity of γ-aminobutyric acid receptors during development suggests distinct classes of rat cerebellar granule cells in situ
2001
The gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor (GABA(A)R) represents a ligand-gated Cl(-)-channel assembling as heteropentamere from 19 known subunits. Cerebellar granule cells contain a unique subset, namely the alpha1-, alpha6-, beta2-, gamma2- and delta-subunits. We studied their GABAergic pharmacology in situ using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in brain slices and a modified Y-tube application system. The distribution of the EC50s for GABA in young (P8-P14) and medium aged animals (P15-P28) could be fitted with the sum of two Gaussian distributions with means of 60 and 185 microM and 27 and 214 microM, respectively. In older animals (P29-P48) the observed homogeneous range of sensitivities fi…
Impaired calcium homeostasis in aged hippocampal neurons
2009
Abstract Development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is strongly age-associated. The impairment of calcium homeostasis is considered to be a key pathological event leading to neuronal dysfunction and cell death. However, the exact impact of aging on calcium homeostasis in neurons remains largely unknown. In the present work we have investigated intracellular calcium levels in cultured primary hippocampal neurons from young (2 months) and aged (24 months) rat brains. Upon stimulation with glutamate or hydrogen peroxide aged neurons in comparison to young neurons demonstrated an increased vulnerability to these disease-related toxins. Measurement of c…
Neuronal nicotinic receptors in synaptic functions in humans and rats: physiological and clinical relevance.
2000
The present report describes the participation of nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) in controlling the excitability of local neuronal circuitries in the rat hippocampus and in the human cerebral cortex. The patch-clamp technique was used to record responses triggered by the non-selective agonist ACh and the alpha7-nAChR-selective agonist choline in interneurons of human cerebral cortical and rat hippocampal slices. Evidence is provided that functional alpha7- and alpha4beta2-like nAChRs are present on somatodendritic and/or preterminal/terminal regions of interneurons in the CA1 field of the rat hippocampus and in the human cerebral cortex and that activation of the different nAChR subtypes pres…
Locomotor and antidepressant-like effects of 5-HT(1A) agonist LY 228729 in prenatally benzodiazepine-exposed rats.
1998
Locomotor activity and antidepressant-like effect in the forced swim test (FST) of 5-HT(1A) agonist LY 228729 were investigated in adult rats prenatally exposed at doses of diazepam (DZ) and alprazolam (ALP) which induce persistent downregulation of GABA/ benzodiazepine (BZ) receptors. Prenatal exposure to ALP and DZ did not modify the efficacy of subchronic LY 228729 to decrease immobility time in the FST. Prenatal DZ and ALP potentiated the facilitatory effect of subchronic LY 228729 on locomotor activity; prenatal DZ was more effective than prenatal ALP. Moreover, prenatal DZ increased stereotypic movements induced by LY 228729. These data suggest that the persistent downregulation of GA…
New dopamine D2 receptor polymorphisms in rats and association with apomorphine-induced stereotypies.
2002
Adult Wistar rats injected with the dopamine receptor agonist apomorphine display different types of motility patterns with respect to oral stereotypes and locomotor activities. It was tested whether phenotypes exhibiting either ‘sniffing’ or ‘non-sniffing’ behaviour differed in gene structures of dopamine receptors D1 or D2. Forty-five Wistar rats of both genders were tested after a single dose of apomorphine (2 mg/kg s.c.) for stereotyped behaviour. Sequence analysis of the 5′ flanking region, the 5′ untranslated region and the coding region of the two genes revealed a new sequence for the 5′ flanking region of the D1 receptor gene and two polymorphisms in the promoter region of the D2 re…
m-Chlorophenylpiperazine excites non-dopaminergic neurons in the rat Substantia Nigra and Ventral Tegmental Area by activating serotonin-2c receptors
2001
In vivo electrophysiological techniques were used to study the effect of m-chlorophenylpiperazine, a non-selective serotonin-2C receptor agonist, on the activity of non-dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars reticulata and the ventral tegmental area of anesthetized rats. Intravenous administration of m-chlorophenylpiperazine (5–320 μg/kg) caused a dose-dependent increase in the basal firing rate of a subpopulation of nigral neurons which do not respond to a footpinch stimulus [P(0) neurons], whereas it did not affect the activity of neurons which are responsive to the footpinch [P(+) neurons]. However, m-chlorophenylpiperazine (5–320 μg/kg) excited all non-dopaminergic neurons sa…
Biochemical evidence that the atypical antipsychotic drugs clozapine and risperidone block 5-HT(2C) receptors in vivo.
2002
Clozapine and risperidone are two atypical antipsychotic drugs which bind, among other receptors, to 5-HT(2C) receptor subtypes. They inhibit the basal inositol phosphate production in mammalian cells expressing rat or human 5-HT(2C) receptors. This biochemical effect is indicative of inverse agonist activity at these receptors. There is evidence that 5-HT(2C) receptors are involved in the control of the activity of central dopaminergic system. Therefore, the effects of clozapine (5 mg/kg ip), risperidone (0.08 mg/kg ip) and of the typical antipsychotic haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg ip) were studied on the extracellular concentration of dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens of chloral hydrate-ane…
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.…
Activation of phospholipases C and D by the novel metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist tADA.
1997
Abstract In hippocampal slices taken from 8-day-old rats, trans-azetidine-2,4-dicarboxylic acid (tADA), a novel glutamatergic agonist acting preferentially at class I mGluR receptors, activates phosphoinositide and phosphatidylcholine hydrolysis with widely different potencies. Inositol phosphate formation was maximally increased at 10 μM tADA ( ec 50: 1.2 μM), while phospholipase D activation was observed at a tADA concentration of 1 mM. This is the first report of a tADA-induced phospholipase D activity. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.