The present study examined the effects of strychnine on the tonic hyperpolarization and the changes in membrane properties of lumbar motoneurons that occur during active sleep. To carry out these studies, intracellular recordings from lumbar motoneurons were combined with the juxtacellular microiontophoretic application of strychnine in chronic, undrugged, normally respiring cats. During active...

In our study, evidence is provided that strychnine, a competitive antagonist at glycine-gated Cl channels, is also a potent competitive antagonist at native a-7-containing, a-bungarotoxin-sensitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChRs). To address the effects of strychnine on two types of nicotinic responses, the whole-cell mode of the patch-clamp technique was applied to rat hippocampal ne...

The cathodically galvanotropic orientation of nemerteans, Lineus, and the anodic orientation of the gephyrean Echiurus, are reversed by the action of strychnine under conditions such that the typical "reversal of inhibition" induced by this substance is apparent. Nicotine does not give this result. Since it is necessary to assume that the strychnine effect is due to action upon the central gang...

Separate subchronic reproductive toxicity studies were conducted using mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and northern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus). Three groups (32/group; 16 male-female pairs) of 17-week-old ducks (F0 generation) were fed Purina Game Bird Breeder Layena diets containing mean (+/-SD) 33.2 (+/-2.7), 68.9 (+/-1.8), and 140.9 (+/-5.1) microg/g strychnine for 20 weeks, wit...

INTRODUCTION Strychnine poisoning is uncommon, and in most severe cases, the patient dies before reaching hospital. The management of strychnine poisoning is well documented, although there are few data on the kinetics of elimination of strychnine after overdose. CASE REPORT A 42-year-old man presented shortly after ingestion of an unknown quantity of strychnine powder. After a respiratory ar...

Effects of strychnine on intraretinal inhibition were investigated by recording unitary discharges from the optic tract fibers. Units were classed as on, off and on off according to their discharge patterns in response to diffuse illumination of the retina. Strychnine enhanced the firing rate of spontaneous discharge in the dark. ' On' inhibition of an off unit was greatly suppressed by strychn...

Strychnine poisoning leads to seizures that have traditionally been attributed to competitive antagonism of glycine receptors in the spinal cord. Although glycine is thought to act as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, a strychnine-insensitive glycine (Gly2) receptor has been recently described in cultured mouse neurons that is thought to be allosterically linked to the excitatory amino acid NMDA ...