BACKGROUND Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from stress-related affective disorders. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is an important link between stress and mood, in part through its signaling in the serotonergic dorsal raphe (DR). Development of CRF receptor-1 (CRFr1) antagonists has been a focus of numerous clinical trials but has not yet been proven efficacious. We hypothesize...

The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) has multiple effects on neuronal activity, survival, and death under conditions that generate a proinflammatory microenvironment within the brain, via signaling through C-X-C-type chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), although the underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms are unclear. Using rat hippocampal neurons, we investigated distinct modificati...

Cocaine-cue associations induce synaptic plasticity with long lasting molecular and cellular changes in the amygdala, a site crucial for cue-associated memory mechanisms. The underlying neuroadaptations can include marked alterations in signaling via dopamine (DA) receptors (DRs) and metabotropic glutamate (Glu) receptors (mGluRs). Previously, we reported that DR antagonists blocked forms of sy...

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and arterial hypertension induce endothelial dysfunction with alterations in endothelial biosecretion and immune behavior. The aim of this study is to elucidate whether glucose-induced modifications of endothelial biosecretory and immune functions are regulated by interactions o...

impressive. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Sweden all lost reigning monarchs, in the days when monarchs really reigned, to the disease. Dr Hopkins has not been satisfied with tracing the European history or even the Western history of the disease; he takes in the Asian dimension, and the African one, and details the effects of smallpox on the ruling houses of China and Japan, and among the ...

Many have argued that anthropology, as a four-field discipline, lacks intellectual coherence. Recent developments in the field of biotechnology and the possibility of producing chimeras with recognizable human characteristics make it necessary to think in terms of a new kind of “old” four-field holism. The production of a human/nonhuman chimera raises theoretical questions about the nature of t...

I read the commentary1 on ‘Abortion law: campaign groups and the quest for change’ in the October 2006 issue of the Journal with interest. In general, it provides a very balanced overview of the different groups seeking change in UK abortion legislation, summarising the concerns of both pro-life and pro-choice organisations. However, in his discussion and conclusions, Dr Vincent Argent ceases t...

background: in addition to human leukocyte antigens (hla) compatibility, gene polymorphisms in cytokines might also be important in the quality of allogeneic immune response. objective: to evaluate the influence of hla-dr matching and a number of cytokine gene polymorphisms on acute rejection after living-unrelated donor (lurd) kidney transplantation. methods: a total of 42 renal transplants pe...