34 35 Hypoglossal motor neurons (XII MNs) control muscles of the mammalian tongue, and are 36 rhythmically active during breathing. Acetylcholine (ACh) modulates XII MN activity by 37 promoting the release of glutamate from neurons that express nicotinic ACh receptors (nAChRs). 38 Chronic nicotine exposure alters nAChRs on neurons throughout the brain, including brainstem 39 respiratory neurons...

Microneedle (MN) patches are promising for transcutaneous vaccination because they enable vaccine antigens to physically penetrate the stratum corneum via low-invasive skin puncturing, and to be effectively delivered to antigen-presenting cells in the skin. In second-generation MN patches, the dissolving MNs release the loaded vaccine antigen into the skin. To shorten skin application time for ...

Neurotrophic factors support the survival of spinal motoneurons (MNs) and have been considered as strong candidates for treating motoneuron diseases. However, it is unclear if the right combination of neurotrophic factor receptors is present in postnatal spinal MNs. In this study, we show that the level of c-ret expression remains relatively stable in embryonic and postnatal spinal MNs. In cont...

Magnesium nickel silicate (MNS) has been investigated as a catalyst to convert tars and light hydrocarbons to syngas (CO and H2) by steam reforming and CO2 reforming in the presence of H2S for biomass gasification process at NexTech Materials. It was observed that complete CH4 conversion could be achieved on MNS catalyst granules at 800–900 °C and a space velocity of 24,000 mL/g/h in a simulate...

Herein, we describe the preparation of a targeted cellular delivery system for morin hydrate (MH), -molecular-weight hyaluronic acid-poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) (HA-PBCA) block copolymer. In ord the therapeutic effect of MH, D-alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) was HA-PBCA during the preparation process. The MH-loaded HA-PBCA “plain” nanoparticle (MH-P PBCA/TPGS “mixed” na...

The death of cranial and spinal motoneurons (MNs) is believed to be an essential component of the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We tested this hypothesis by crossing Bax-deficient mice with mice expressing mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), a transgenic model of familial ALS. Although Bax deletion failed to prevent neuromuscular denervation and mitochondrial vacuolizat...

Individuals with autism show impairments in emotional tuning, social interactions and communication. These are functions that have been attributed to the putative human mirror neuron system (MNS), which contains neurons that respond to the actions of self and others. It has been proposed that a dysfunction of that system underlies some of the characteristics of autism. Here, we review behaviora...

The discovery of mirror neurons (MNs) has been hailed as the most important finding of the last decade in neuroscience (Ramachandran, 2000), paving the road for the explanation of diverse phenomena from the evolution of language (Rizzolatti & Arbib, 1998), through imitation (Iacoboni et al., 1999), to intersubjectivity (Gallese, 2003). Here I am concerned with the more modest claim that credits...

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an early onset, autosomal recessive motor neuron disease caused by loss of or mutation in SMN1 (survival motor neuron 1). Despite understanding the genetic basis underlying this disease, it is still not known why motor neurons (MNs) are selectively affected by the loss of the ubiquitously expressed SMN protein. Using a mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) m...

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are pluripotent and thus can differentiate into every cell type present in the body. Directed differentiation into motor neurons (MNs) has been described for pluripotent cells. Although neurotrophic factors promote neuronal survival, their role in neuronal commitment is elusive. Here, we developed double-transgenic lines of mouse ESC (mESC) that constitutively produce...