Natural prion diseases of ruminants are moderately contagious and while the gastrointestinal tract is the primary site of prion agent entry, other mucosae may be entry sites in a subset of infections. In the current study we examined prion neuroinvasion and disease induction following disruption of the olfactory epithelium in the nasal mucosa since this site contains environmentally exposed olf...

Aflatoxin B(1) (AFB(1)) may be present in moldy dust. Inhalation of contaminated dust particles may result in high local exposure of the nasal mucosa. The present study was designed to assess bioactivation and toxicity of AFB(1) in the nasal mucosa after intranasal administration of the mycotoxin in rats and also to examine if translocation of the mycotoxin occurs from the nasal mucosa to the b...

The effects of pyrazole, which is known to induce hepatic cytochrome P4502A5 (CYP2A5) through posttranscriptional mechanisms, on the level of CYP2A5 in liver and extrahepatic tissues were examined in this study. Intraperitoneal administration of pyrazole at 200 mg/kg for 3 days induced CYP2A4/5 mRNAs and proteins and microsomal coumarin 7-hydroxylation activity in liver and kidney of C57BL/6 mi...

The effects of pyrazole, which is known to induce hepatic cytochrome P4502A5 (CYP2A5) through posttranscriptional mechanisms, on the level of CYP2A5 in liver and extrahepatic tissues were examined in this study. Intraperitoneal administration of pyrazole at 200 mg/kg for 3 days induced CYP2A4/5 mRNAs and proteins and microsomal coumarin 7-hydroxylation activity in liver and kidney of C57BL/6 mi...

Whole-body autoradiography of 3H-labeled aflatoxin B1 in young pigs showed a localization of bound label in the nasal olfactory and respiratory mucosa, in the tracheo-laryngeal mucosa, and in the conjunctiva, in addition to the liver. Whole-body and microautoradiography also showed a labeling of pigmented tissues, which can be ascribed to a melanin binding of AFB1. In vitro experiments with mic...

Previous studies have demonstrated that olfactory-driven behaviors in rats are influenced by short-term caloric restriction, partly through the modulation of olfactory sensitivity by appetite-modulating hormones or peptides such as insulin and leptin. Here, we addressed the issue of a long-term modulation of their neuroendocrine status by evaluating the effect of chronic food restriction in rat...

The olfactory mucosa was examined in three patients dying from herpes simplex encephalitis. It showed changes attributed to infection by the herpes simplex virus. It is suggested that in some patients encephalitis may be a complication of infection of the olfactory mucosa.

Objective(s): In the past few decades, variety of foetal, embryonic and adult stem and progenitor cells have been tried with conflicting outcome for cell therapy of central nervous system injury and diseases. Cellular characteristics and functional plasticity of Globose basal stem cells (GBCs) residing in the olfactory epithelium of rat olfactory mucosa have not been studied in the past by the ...

Olfactory perception is mediated by a large array of olfactory receptor genes. The human genome contains 851 olfactory receptor gene loci. More than 50% of the loci are annotated as nonfunctional due to frame-disrupting mutations. Furthermore haplotypic missense alleles can be nonfunctional resulting from substitution of key amino acids governing protein folding or interactions with signal tran...