Marked deficits in glucose availability, or glucoprivation, elicit organism-wide counter-regulatory responses whose purpose is to restore homeostasis. However, while catecholamine neurons of the ventrolateral medulla (VLMCA) are thought orchestrate these responses, circuit and cellular mechanisms underlying specific largely unknown.

The purpose of this review is to explore the world literature on the avian adrenal medulla from the last 20 years. Unlike the mammalian adrenal medulla, the adrenal gland in birds has chromaffin cells mixed with cortical cells. Studies have investigated the ultrastructure (both transmission and scanning electron microscopy), biochemistry, and physiology (particularly interactions with other end...

The objective was to report the first pathologically confirmed case of partly functionally preserved medulla oblongata in a patient with catastrophic traumatic brain injury.A patient is described with epidural haematoma with normal breathing and blood pressure and a retained coughing reflex brought on only by catheter suctioning of the carina. Multiple contusions in the thalami and pons were fo...

The present study was designed to determine whether nonhypertensive elevations of plasma ANG II would modify the expression of genes involved in renal injury that could influence oxidative stress and extracellular matrix formation in the renal medulla using microarray, Northern, and Western blot techniques. Sprague-Dawley rats were infused intravenously with either ANG II (5 ng. kg(-1). min(-1)...

This study provides the first detailed description of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) adrenal gland with emphasis on the medulla. Thirty-one dolphins of varying age and sex were used in this study. No statistical differences were found between the right and left gland mass, however, the left was typically greater. Mean mass for the right and left adrenal glands were 4.99 +/...

Angiotensin within the central nervous system appears to be important for the maintenance of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats. This study addresses the hypothesis that blockade of AT1 receptors in the rostral ventrolateral medulla would decrease blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats and that this tonically active AT1-mediated input to the rostral ventrolateral medulla...

The cortex-medulla growth pattern of oocytes in the developing ovary is formed by a rim of small non-growing oocytes at the periphery and growing oocytes at the inner part of the cortex and in the medulla. In this study we aimed to: (i) develop an in-vitro model using fetal mouse ovaries to evaluate when the cortex-medulla growth pattern is organized during ovarian differentiation; and (ii) stu...

The morphology of human hair was extensively discussed in the last century, except for hair medulla, mainly because it was believed to have little or no influence on any useful hair property. Early SEM results showed that medulla is formed by unorganized fibrilar material that could be macrofibrils randomly located in the fiber center. The present paper aims to correlate the fibrilar structures...

The Drosophila optic lobe comprises a wide variety of neurons, which form laminar neuropiles with columnar units and topographic projections from the retina. The Drosophila optic lobe shares many structural characteristics with mammalian visual systems. However, little is known about the developmental mechanisms that produce neuronal diversity and organize the circuits in the primary region of ...

It is well known that the ventrolateral medulla contains neurons involved in the tonic and reflex control of the cardiovascular system. Two regions within the ventrolateral medulla were initially identified: the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and the caudal ventrolateral medulla (CVLM). Activation of the RVLM raises arterial blood pressure and sympathetic nerve activity, and activation of...