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Biomedical subjects

J Yu

Publications and source records attributed to J Yu.

At least 865 records · Page 48Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Effects of entorhinal lesions on trophic activities present in rat entorhinal cortex and hippocampus as studied using primary cultures of entorhinal and septal tissues.

The present study examined trophic activities in normal and injured brain which affect the survival and growth of central neurons in culture. Adult rats received bilateral lesions through the angular bundle, severing projections between the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus. Ten days later, extracts were prepared from the entorhinal or hippocampal regions of the injured brains and compared with extract prepared from analogous regions of normal brains for trophic activities in cultures of either entorhinal or septal tissues. At least three activities were observed: (1) a trophic activity which bound to polylysine-treated wells, which was greater than 10,000 Da in size, heat labile, and sensitive to trypsin, and which supported the survival of both septal and entorhinal neurons in culture; (2) a trophic activity which did not bind to polylysine-treated wells, which was greater than 10,000 Da in size, heat labile, and sensitive to trypsin, and which, in the presence of polylysine-bindable material, facilitated the survival and growth of entorhinal cells in culture, and (3) an inhibitory activity which significantly reduced survival in entorhinal cultures when cells were plated in the presence of high concentrations of extract prepared from normal brain. These effects were not due to nonspecific effects of plating the cells in, or treating the wells with, large amounts of protein. A significant injury-related increase in non-polylysine-bindable trophic activity was also observed. Extracts prepared from either the hippocampus or the entorhinal area of the injured brains contained more non-polylysine-bindable trophic activity than extract prepared from normal brains. Injury-related changes in trophic activities were more prominent in entorhinal than in septal cultures. This increase in activity may account for the injury-related effects on the survival of entorhinal transplants reported previously [Gibbs and Cotman: Neuroscience (in press) 1987], and may represent an endogenous mechanism by which the brain attempts to selectively support the survival of injured cells following injury.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Impact of neodecortication on colon motor response to a meal in the rat.

The colon motor response to a meal consisting of 100 mM of sodium oleate was assessed before and after neodecortication in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Recording probes were anchored surgically in the ascending and descending colon. Pressure changes were recorded on a dynograph using a low-compliance perfusion system. A motility index took into account the amplitude, duration, and frequency of contractions. Neodecortication increased the motility index of the distal colon in the fasting state. However, removal of the cerebral cortex did not affect significantly the colon motor response to a meal. Meal stimulation increased the motility index before and after neodecortication. These findings suggest that resting colonic motor activity is increased after neodecortication, probably through the loss of an inhibitory influence of the central nervous system; and the cerebral cortex is not required for the colon response to a meal in the rat.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Effects of neonatal monocular and binocular enucleation on transient acetylcholinesterase activity in developing rat visual cortex.

Geniculo-recipient layers of visual cortical area 17 in the laboratory rat display a transient pattern of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity during the second and third postnatal weeks of life. The appearance of the AChE histochemical reaction product and its distribution in thalamic recipient layers of cortical area 17 suggest that this transient AChE serves as a marker for the region of geniculocortical axon terminals. In the present study, infant rats were enucleated monocularly or binocularly on the day of birth. Animals were sacrificed at postnatal days 5-21. Frozen sections cut in either the transverse plane or parallel to the pial surface were processed for AChE histochemistry. Neonatal monocular enucleation resulted in a marked reduction of transient AChE activity in thalamic recipient layers of the medial part of area 17 contralateral to the enucleated orbit, i.e., the monocular segment of area 17. No loss of AChE was observed in area 17 ipsilateral to the enucleation. Pigmented and albino strains of rats did not differ significantly in the extent to which monocular enucleation reduced the transient AChE in contralateral visual cortex. Neonatal binocular enucleation resulted in an almost complete loss of AChE histochemical staining in thalamic recipient layers throughout cortical area 17, without loss of AChE in other cortical regions. These data support the hypothesis that transient AChE serves as a marker for the region of geniculocortical axon terminals, and also demonstrate that the transient expression of AChE in visual cortex depends upon normal innervation or activity of the geniculocortical neurons.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1987

Entorhinal transplants and spatial memory abilities in rats.

Transplants of embryonic entorhinal tissues, placed into the angular bundle region of adult rats, innervate appropriate areas of the host hippocampal formation and amygdala, provided that native entorhinal connections have been destroyed. In the present study, transplants were examined for their ability to restore spatial memory abilities which are lost following the bilateral destruction of native entorhinal connections. Animals were tested for their ability to perform an 8-arm radial maze task, for spontaneous alternation in a T-maze, and for their ability to learn to alternate in a T-maze for a food reward. Animals with lesions, and those with lesions + implants, remained impaired on all 3 tasks examined for as long as 6 months postimplantation. During this time, no transplant-induced behavioral recovery was observed, although behavioral stabilization was observed on the spontaneous alternation task at 6 months post-transplantation. The data suggest that these transplants may be limited in their ability to restore functions which are highly dependent upon the anatomical integrity of the damaged circuits and the precise organization of information flow through the damaged area.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1987

Influence of lung stiffness on rapidly adapting receptors in rabbits and cats.

We examined the response of rapidly adapting receptors (RARs) to changes in dynamic lung compliance (CDYN), recording vagal impulses in open-chest rabbits and cats with lungs ventilated at constant f and VT, and a positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) of 3-4 cm H2O. After hyperinflation to produce maximal CDYN, most RARs fired irregularly and sparsely (less than 1 impulse X sec-1). Reducing CDYN in steps by briefly removing PEEP progressively stimulated RARs during inflation, activity increasing sevenfold when CDYN was reduced by 40% (P less than 0.0001). Reducing CDYN also increased RAR responses to static lung inflation. RAR stimulation by decreasing CDYN was virtually unaltered by atropine and hence was largely independent of reflex changes in bronchomotor tone. RARs were also stimulated by increasing VT at constant f, but, expressed as a function of airway pressure, the afferent response was less than that to increased lung stiffness (1/CDYN); expressed as a function of 1/CDYN, however, the responses were similar. We conclude that RARs signal increases in the force required to expand the lung, and speculate that their excitatory influence helps to maintain VT as the lungs become stiffer.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1987

Further lesion studies on the neuroanatomy of mental retardation in the white rat.

Prompted by recent findings suggesting that the basal ganglia and possibly the limbic midbrain area and brainstem reticular formation may be represented within the general learning system of the rat brain, the current study was undertaken to assess the learning ability of different groups of young rats prepared with bilateral lesions to either the caudatoputamen, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, ventromedial thalamus, habenula, subthalamic nucleus, pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus, dorsal raphe, ventral tegmental area, anterior pretectal nucleus, superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, or red nucleus. The test battery included both appetitively (three distinct climbing detour problems) and aversively (visual discrimination, three cul maze, and an inclined plane discrimination) motivated learning tasks. Only those animals with lesions to the posterodorsal caudatoputamen, ventral tegmental area of Tsai, or superior colliculus were deficient in acquiring all six problems (suggestive of a generalized learning impairment) and therefore were viewed as being mentally retarded. The overall findings pertaining to the general learning system are interpreted within a conceptual framework based upon Spearman's two-factor theory of intelligence. The significance of these data for a brain-injured animal model of mental retardation is also discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Increased neutrophil elastase activity in cigarette smokers.

We compared plasma levels of the neutrophil elastase-derived fibrinopeptide A-alpha-1-21 in healthy cigarette smokers with those in nonsmokers. The mean A-alpha-1-21 concentration was fivefold higher (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.0 to 9.6) in ten cigarette smokers than in 20 healthy nonsmokers (2.0 nmol/L compared with 0.4 nmol/L; p less than 0.0001). To evaluate the acute effect of smoking on enzyme activity, a second group of ten smokers was studied. After refraining from smoking for 12 hours, each person smoked three cigarettes. The mean A-alpha-1-21 level in the second group of smokers was not different from that in the first group of smokers (1.8 nmol/L compared with 2.0 nmol/L) but was fivefold higher (95% CI, 2.6 to 8.7) than that in the nonsmokers (1.8 nmol/L compared with 0.4 nmol/L; p less than 0.0001). After smoking three cigarettes, subjects had a twofold elevation (95% CI, 1.6 to 3.5) in the mean A-alpha-1-21 concentration (from 1.8 nmol/L to 4.1 nmol/L; p = 0.002). Our data show that cigarette smoking perturbs the in-vivo elastase-antielastase balance and thus may produce lung disease through this mechanism.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Motor learning: nonspecific subcortical mechanisms in rats.

Adult rats with bilateral lesions in the globus pallidus, substantia nigra, median raphe, midbrain central gray, or pontine reticular formation were tested for novel motor skill learning (sliding a barrel bolt to the right in order to open a door leading to a reward). Significantly impaired learning was found in animals with lesions to globus pallidus, substantia nigra, median raphe, or pontine reticular formation. These results combined with earlier findings suggest that the foregoing subcortical structures along with the regions of the ventrolateral and parafascicular nuclei of the thalamus constitute a nonspecific mechanism involved not only in motor learning but in discrimination and maze learning as well. This mechanism is contrasted with the more fashionable specific mechanisms which are involved in particular classes of learning; the sensorimotor cortex, for example, would be a component of the specific mechanism underlying motor learning. A subcortical nonspecific learning mechanism may also inhabit the human brain, as suggested by the clinical condition of "subcortical dementia."

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Prevalence of paradoxical anisometropia.

A sample population of patients with a certain degree of antimetropia or mixed anisometropia was selected. Binocular interference or paradoxical dominance was expected in some of them. This interference is such that the "seemingly worse eye" (the eye with the lesser visual acuity) dominates the binocular vision and leads the subject to wear corrective glasses or contact lenses even though the level of visual acuity in the other eye is adequate without correction. This is what we called paradoxical anisometropia. There was no amblyopia or strabismus present. Twenty percent of our subjects manifested some degree of binocular interference.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Neurotrophic activity in the central and peripheral nervous systems of the cat. Effects of injury.

Neurotrophic activity for ciliary ganglion neurons in culture was found in both central and peripheral nervous system of the cat. The activity found in extracts of spinal cord supported the survival of 100% of the test neurons during 24 h and was characterized by a slope of -56 +/- 13 in the linear portion of the dose-response curve. Sciatic nerve extract supported the survival of only 60% of the test neurons; it dose-response curve had a slope of -20 +/- 4. Extracts of meninges, spinal rootlets, dorsal root ganglia and muscle supported 100% of the test neurons; two slopes were observed in their dose-response curves, which coincided with those of spinal cord and sciatic nerve dose-response curves. The two different slopes may correspond to two different active molecules, tentatively denominated I and II, having distinct distributions in the assayed tissues. In the spinal cord, both direct injury and deafferentation led to increases in neurotropic activity. In the peripheral nervous system, transections leading to death of dorsal root ganglion neurons or to degeneration of their axons were accompanied by decreases in activity II. Activity I in dorsal roots and dorsal root ganglia was unaffected by injury and may be associated with non-neuronal cells or extracellular matrix components.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Lack of correlation between cortical levels of choline acetyltransferase and learning scores in rats with globus pallidus lesions.

Previous work has shown that rats with lesions of the globus pallidus (GP) exhibit a generalized learning impairment. Data are presented suggesting that this impairment is not due to inadvertent damage to the nucleus basalis magnocellularis. Rats with GP lesions evidenced a significant visual discrimination learning loss and a significant reduction in cortical choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity. However, there was no significant correlation between the severity of the learning loss and the amount of reduction of cortical ChAT activity.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Static magnetic field influence on rat tail nerve function.

Motor nerve conduction and excitability were measured on the tail nerve of anesthetized rats before and after the nerve was exposed perpendicularly to a static electromagnetic field of various intensities and durations. There was no significant change in either the distal latencies or the amplitudes of the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) measured from stimulating the tail nerve after it was exposed to the electromagnetic field with a density up to 1.2 Tesla (T) for a duration of 60 seconds. However, the nerve excitability expressed as changes of the amplitudes of the submaximally evoked CMAP increased significantly when the tail nerve was exposed to a magnetic field with a density higher than 0.5T for more than 30 seconds. The finding that an electromagnetic field increases motor nerve excitability suggests a possible mechanism of its therapeutic effects.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1986

Learning deficits in rats with early neurotoxic lesions to the globus pallidus, substantia nigra, median raphe or pontine reticular formation.

Previous studies have shown that weanling rats with electrolytic lesions of the globus pallidus (GP), substantia nigra (SN), median raphe (MR) or pontine reticular formation (PRF) are deficient in learning a wide variety of laboratory tasks. The current study was designed to investigate whether this nonspecific learning deficiency is due to destruction of cells intrinsic to these subcortical regions or to fibers passing through these regions. Accordingly, neurotoxic lesions of the GP, SN, MR or PRF were made in weanling rats using ibotenic acid. Rats were subsequently required to learn a visual discrimination, a 3-cul maze and a nonvisual (incline plane) discrimination. While those groups with GP, SN or MR lesions showed significant deficits on all three problems, only the animals with GP lesions exhibited deficits comparable in magnitude to those associated with corresponding electrolytic lesions. Animals with lesions to the PRF were impaired only on the nonvisual discrimination. These results suggest that while destruction of neurons alone within the GP, SN or MR can produce a nonspecific learning impairment, the combined destruction of neurons and fibers of passage within the SN, MR or PRF produces a more profound learning deficit.

Animals↗