Search results for "cerebral cortex"
showing 10 items of 529 documents
Early patterns of electrical activity in the developing cerebral cortex of humans and rodents.
2006
International audience; During prenatal and early postnatal development, the cerebral cortex exhibits synchronized oscillatory network activity that is believed to be essential for the generation of neuronal cortical circuits. The nature and functional role of these early activity patterns are of central interest in neuroscience. Much of the research is performed in rodents and in vitro, but how closely do these model systems relate to the human fetal brain? In this review, we compare observations in humans with in vivo and in vitro rodent data, focusing on particular oscillatory activity patterns that share many common features: delta brushes, spindle bursts and spindle-like oscillations. …
Structure-activity relationship of furosemide-derived compounds as antagonists of cerebellum-specific GABA(A) receptors.
1998
The Na+-K+-2Cl- cotransporter blocker furosemide inhibits gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-gated chloride currents and reverses GABA-mediated inhibition of [35S]-t-butylbicyclophosphorothionate ([35S]TBPS) binding of the cerebellar alpha6 subunit-containing GABA(A) receptors much more potently than the cerebrocortical non-alpha6 subunit-containing receptors. Of the 44 compounds studied, all precursors or derivatives of diuretics, one compound [hydrazinosulfonyl-furosemide (PF 1885)] reversed 5-microM GABA-induced inhibition of [35S]TBPS binding to cerebellar and cerebrocortical receptors. Three other compounds, all of which are structurally closely related to furosemide, were selective antago…
Metaplasticity of horizontal connections in the vicinity of focal laser lesions in rat visual cortex
2010
Focal cortical injuries are accompanied by a reorganization of the adjacent neuronal networks. An increased synaptic plasticity has been suggested to mediate, at least in part, this functional reorganization. Previous studies showed an increased long-term potentiation (LTP) at synapses formed by ascending fibres projecting onto layers 2/3 pyramidal cells following lesions in rat visual cortex. This could be important to establish new functional connections within a vertical cortical column. Importantly, horizontal intracortical connections constitute an optimal substrate to mediate the functional reorganization across different cortical columns. However, so far little is known about their p…
Cytoprotective effect of NMDA receptor antagonists on prion protein (PrionSc)-induced toxicity in rat cortical cell cultures
1993
Rat cortical cells were incubated with the Scrapie prion protein, PrionSc. At concentrations of 3 ng/ml of PrionSc and higher, the viability of the cells decreased significantly after a 12-h incubation period. Simultaneously, the degree of DNA fragmentation increased. In control experiments with antibodies against PrionSc, PrionSc lost its deleterious effect on neurons. PrionSc did not affect the viability of astrocytes. Drugs known to block NMDA receptor channels, such as memantine (1-amino-3,5-dimethyl-adamantane) (Mem), its analogue 1-N-methylamino-3,5-dimethyl-adamantane as well as (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate (MK-801) prevented the effect of …
The triaminopyridine flupirtine prevents cell death in rat cortical cells induced by N-methyl-D-aspartate and gp120 of HIV-1.
1994
Abstract Flupirtine, a triaminopyridine derivative, is a non-opiate centrally acting analgesic agent with muscle relaxant properties. Now we show that this drug displays a potent cytoprotective effect on neurons (rat cortical cells) treated with (i) the excitatory amino acid N-methyl- d -aspartate (NMDA) or (ii) with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) coat protein gp120. In the absence of the drug the two agents cause a >90% reduction of cell viability after a 18 h incubation. During this period the DNA in the cells undergoes fragmentation and shows a pattern which is typical for cell death. If the neurons were preincubated with flupirtine for 2 h and subsequently exposed to th…
Control of Programmed Cell Death by Distinct Electrical Activity Patterns
2010
Electrical activity and sufficient supply with survival factors play a major role in the control of apoptosis in the developing cortex. Coherent high-frequency neuronal activity, which efficiently releases neurotrophins, is essential for the survival of immature neurons. We studied the influence of neuronal activity on apoptosis in the developing cortex. Dissociated cultures of the newborn mouse cerebral cortex were grown on multielectrode arrays to determine the activity patterns that promote neuronal survival. Cultures were transfected with a plasmid coding for a caspase-3-sensitive fluorescent protein allowing real-time analysis of caspase-3-dependent apoptosis in individual neurons. Ele…
α1-Adrenoceptors in the rat cerebral cortex: New insights into the characterization of α1L- and α1D-adrenoceptors
2010
36 p., figuras y tablas, bibliografía
Role of interleukin-6 and soluble IL-6 receptor in region-specific induction of astrocytic differentiation and neurotrophin expression.
1999
Increasing evidence supports an essential role for interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the development, differentiation, as well as de- and re-generation of neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). Both IL-6 and its specific receptor (IL-6R) are expressed on neurons and glial cells including astrocytes. In this study, we have analyzed the responses of primary rat astrocytes of various brain regions to IL-6 with respect to morphological changes and neurotrophin expression. Since IL-6 alone failed to initiate effects on astrocytes, we have examined whether the soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R) can modulate the responsiveness of to IL-6 in these cells. For this purpose, we used a highly active fusion protein of …
Channeled scaffolds implanted in adult rat brain.
2012
Scaffolds with aligned channels based on acrylate copolymers, which had previously demonstrated good com- patibility with neural progenitor cells were studied as coloniz- able structures both in vitro with neural progenitor cells and in vivo, implanted without cells in two different locations, in the cortical plate of adult rat brains and close to the subven- tricular zone. In vitro, neuroprogenitors colonize the scaffold and differentiate into neurons and glia within its channels. When implanted in vivo immunohistochemical analysis by confocal microscopy for neural and endothelial cells markers demonstrated that the scaffolds maintained continuity with the surrounding neural tissue and wer…
Spinothalamic and thalamocortical nociceptive pathways
2002
The concept that the perception of a stimulus as being painful requires activity in parts of the cerebral cortex has gained universal recognition within the past 10 years. 28 The large number of functional imaging studies in humans, appearing during that period, have greatly contributed to this development by showing consistent evidence for activation of various cortical areas by painful stimuli, including the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, the insula, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and prefrontal cortical areas. Thus, the sense of pain—like all other senses— has a representation within the cerebral cortex. These imaging studies, however, did not reveal the pathways by which a p…