Search results for "thalamus"
showing 10 items of 280 documents
3-acetylaltholactone and related styryl-lactones, mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitors.
2000
A novel furano-pyrone, 3-acetylaltholactone, and two other known styryl-lactones, altholactone and 5-acetoxyisogoniothalamin oxide, have been isolated from Goniothalamus arvensis (Annonaceae) stem bark. We report here the isolation and structural elucidation of these compounds with furane-pyrone and styryl-pyrone skeletons, postulating also for the first time their mechanism of cytotoxicity based on inhibition on mammalian mitochondrial respiratory chain.
Cloning, tissue distribution, pharmacology and three-dimensional modelling of melanocortin receptors 4 and 5 in rainbow trout suggest close evolution…
2004
The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is one of the most widely used fish species in aquaculture and physiological research. In the present paper, we report the first cloning, 3D (three-dimensional) modelling, pharmacological characterization and tissue distribution of two melanocortin (MC) receptors in rainbow trout. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that these receptors are orthologues of the human MC4 and MC5 receptors. We created 3D molecular models of these rainbow trout receptors and their human counterparts. These models suggest greater divergence between the two human receptors than between their rainbow trout counterparts. The pharmacological analyses demonstrated that ACTH (adreno…
Studies of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenocortical System: An Example of Progress in Psychoneuroendocrinology
1986
Psychobiological study of affective disorders has passed through several phases during the last three decades. With the discovery of thymoleptic drugs and our partial understanding of their pharmacological properties, a dominant theme in psychiatric research came to be the pathophysiology underlying depressive illness. Since enhancement of monoamine neurotransmission was found to be a common characteristic of most antidepressants, several attempts were made to test the hypothesis of a defective cerebral monoamine transmission as the prime cause of depression. In this context, neuroendocrinology became an area that was of particular interest to investigators, for several reasons. Basic resea…
Dietary l-tryptophan leaves a lasting impression on the brain and the stress response
2017
AbstractComparative models suggest that effects of dietary tryptophan (Trp) on brain serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) neurochemistry and stress responsiveness are present throughout the vertebrate lineage. Moreover, hypothalamic 5-HT seems to play a central role in control of the neuroendocrine stress axis in all vertebrates. Still, recent fish studies suggest long-term effects of dietary Trp on stress responsiveness, which are independent of hypothalamic 5-HT. Here, we investigated if dietary Trp treatment may result in long-lasting effects on stress responsiveness, including changes in plasma cortisol levels and 5-HT neurochemistry in the telencephalon and hypothalamus of Atlantic sa…
Immunohistochemical analysis of KCNQ2 potassium channels in adult and developing mouse brain
2005
The syndrome of benign familial neonatal convulsions (BFNC) is characterized by seizures starting within the first days of life and disappearing within weeks to months. BFNC is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the potassium channels KCNQ2 and KCNQ3 which can well explain the resulting neuronal hyperexcitability. However, it is not understood why seizures predominantly occur in the neonatal period. A potential explanation might be a change in the expression pattern of these channels during development. We therefore performed an immunohistochemical analysis of mouse brain slices at different stages of postnatal development using an antibody recognizing the C-terminus of the KCNQ2 chann…
Anomalous alterations affecting microglia in the central nervous system of a fetus at 12 weeks of gestation: case report.
2003
We report here on the first documented case of profound alterations specifically affecting the microglial population within the nervous system during the fetal period. This case, derived at gestational week 12, was one amongst a series of second trimester brains currently being investigated with respect to microglial colonization of the human fetal brain. No significant pathological alterations could be identified upon gross macroscopy or following microscopic analysis of serial brain sections stained with cresyl fast violet (Nissl). By contrast, sections stained immunohistochemically to detect MHC class II (CR3/43) and CD68 (PG-M1) antigens revealed a marked pathological change in the morp…
The effect of rewarding hypothalamic stimulation on behavioral and neural hippocampal responses during trace eyeblink conditioning in rabbit (Oryctol…
2005
Rabbits were trace-conditioned with a tone as a conditioned stimulus and an airpuff as an unconditioned stimulus. Electrical stimulation to the medial forebrain bundle in the lateral hypothalamus was delivered either before or after the tone-airpuff pair. The purpose of the present study was to test whether the effect of post-trial hypothalamic stimulation differed from the effect of pre-trial hypothalamic stimulation on trace conditioning in the same subjects. Additionally, hippocampal responses were measured during sessions to see if hypothalamic stimulation activated dopaminergic fibres and affected hippocampal cell functioning and thus learning. The results showed that behavioral nictit…
Neural substrates for processing chemosensory information in snakes.
2002
Snakes interact with their chemical environment through their olfactory and vomeronasal systems. The present report summarizes advances on neural substrates for processing chemosensory information. First, the efferent and centrifugal afferent connections of the main and accessory olfactory bulbs were reinvestigated. Second, the afferent and efferent connections of the nucleus sphericus, the main target of the accessory olfactory bulb, were characterized. The nucleus sphericus gives rise to a very small projection to the hypothalamus, but it does project to other telencephalic structures where olfactory and vomeronasal information could converge. Third, the intra-amygdaloid circuitry and the…
Organization of the ophidian amygdala: chemosensory pathways to the hypothalamus.
1999
Although recent studies in squamate reptiles have importantly clarified how chemical information is processed in the reptilian brain, how the amygdala relays chemosensory inputs to the hypothalamus to influence chemically guided behaviors is still poorly documented. To identify these chemosensory pathways, the amygdalo-hypothalamic projections, intra-amygdaloid circuitry and afferents from the lateral cortex (LC) to the amygdala were investigated by injecting conjugated dextran-amines into the hypothalamus, amygdala, and LC of garter snakes. The amygdala was divided into olfactory recipient (ventral anterior and external amygdalae), vomeronasal recipient (nucleus sphericus, NS, and medial a…
Hypothalamus-olfactory system crosstalk: orexin a immunostaining in mice
2012
It is well known that olfaction influences food intake, and conversely, that an individual’s nutritional status modulates olfactory sensitivity. However, what is still poorly understood is the neuronal correlate of this relationship, as well as the connections between the olfactory bulb and the hypothalamus. The goal of this report is to analyze the relationship between the olfactory bulb and hypothalamus, focusing on orexin A immunostaining, a hypothalamic neuropeptide that is thought to play a role in states of sleep/wakefulness. Interestingly, orexin A has also been described as a food intake stimulator. Such an effect may be due in part to the stimulation of the olfactory bulbar pathway…