Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in humans and animals is associated with axonal sprouting of glutamatergic neurons and neosynaptogenesis in the hippocampal formation. We examined whether this plasticity of excitatory pathways contributes to an increased level of glutamatergic excitation in the CA1 region of rats experiencing chronic spontaneous limbic seizures following kainic acid or pilocarpine ...

Objective(s):Growing evidence indicates that extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGb) attenuates hippocampal-dependent memory deficit in aged individuals; however, very little is known about the effect of EGb on the structure of hippocampus. Therefore we examined the EGb-induced morphological changes of the Cornu Ammonis (CA) region in aged rats. Materials and Methods: Sixteen aged male Wistar rats, 24 ...

SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST IS THE most common lethal consequence of cardiovascular disease. Even if return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) from cardiac arrest is achieved, approximately 60% of patients will not survive to hospital discharge. The high mortality is attributed to the postcardiac arrest syndrome, which involves global ischemiareperfusion injury, myocardial stunning, and anoxic brain i...

Dendritic morphology determines the kinds of input a neuron receives, having a profound impact on neural information processing. In the mammalian cerebral cortex, excitatory neurons have been ascribed to one of two main dendritic morphologies, either pyramidal or stellate, which differ mainly on the extent of the apical dendrite. Developmental mechanisms regulating the emergence and refinement ...

Intracerebroventricular kainate administration in rat, a model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), causes degeneration of the hippocampal CA3 pyramidal and dentate hilar neurons. This leads to a robust but aberrant sprouting of the granule cell axons (mossy fibers) into the dentate supragranular layer and the CA3 stratum oriens. Because this plasticity is linked to an increased seizure susceptibil...

In pyramidal neurons such as hippocampal area CA1 and basolateral amygdala, a slow afterhyperpolarization (sAHP) follows a burst of action potentials, which is a powerful regulator of neuronal excitability. The sAHP amplitude increases with aging and may underlie age related memory decline. The sAHP is due to a Ca(2+)-dependent, voltage-independent K(+) conductance, the molecular identity of wh...

The CA1 pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus are selectively vulnerable to transient ischemic damage. In experimental animals, the CA1 pyramidal neurons undergo cell death several days after brief forebrain ischemia. It remains, however, unknown whether this delayed neuronal death is necrosis or apoptosis. To investigate the degenerating processes of the CA1 pyramidal neurons in gerbil hippocam...

Aging-related cognitive deficits have been attributed to dysfunction of neurons due to failures at synaptic or intrinsic loci, or both. Given the importance of the hippocampus for successful encoding of memory and that the main output of the hippocampus is via the CA1 pyramidal neurons, much of the research has been focused on identifying the aging-related changes of these CA1 pyramidal neurons...

this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of soy milk on serum 17- β estradiol level and number of neurons in cerebral cortex and hippocampus as well as determination of the ratio of neurons in cortical and hippocampal regions in neonatal ovariectomized rats. thirty female rats (one day old) were divided into six groups of five. at day 7, ovariectomy surgery was performed in four groups a...

The adult mammalian CNS shows a very limited capacity to regenerate after injury. However, endogenous precursors, or stem cells, provide a potential source of new neurons in the adult brain. Here, we induce the birth of new corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN), the CNS neurons that die in motor neuron degenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and that cause loss of motor fun...