–Dopaminergic axons arising from midbrain nuclei innervate the mammalian and avian telencephalon with heterogeneous regional and laminar distributions. In primate, rodent, and avian species, the neuromodulator dopamine is low or almost absent in most primary sensory areas and is most abundant in the striatal parts of the basal ganglia. Furthermore, dopaminergic fibres are present in most limbic...

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the selective degeneration of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, we tested the efficacy of EUK-134, a superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase mimetic, on the nitration of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a marker of oxidative stress, and neurotoxicity produced by 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+)) and 6-hydroxydopamine ...

Babic T, Townsend RL, Patterson LM, Sutton GM, Zheng H, Berthoud HR. Phenotype of neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract that express CCK-induced activation of the ERK signaling pathway. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 296: R845–R854, 2009. First published January 28, 2009; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.90531.2008.—The satiating potency of CCK has been well characterized, including its media...

From the results of previous studies in which developing peripheral ganglia from quail embryos were transplanted into younger chicken embryo hosts, we concluded that spinal and cranial sensory ganglia contain dormant precursors with autonomic potentialities. Here we describe the differentiation of these precursors in vitro, from dorsal root and nodose ganglion cell suspensions. Dorsal root gang...

Initial studies are reported on the catecholamine metabolism of low-density cultures of dissociated primary sympathetic neurons. Radioactive tyrosine was used to study the synthesis and breakdown of catecholamines in the cultures. The dependence of catecholamine synthesis and accumulation on external tyrosine concentration was examined and a concentration which is near saturation, 30 microM, wa...

We have investigated the effects of substrate-bound laminin on levels of enzymes of the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway in primary cultures of calf adrenal chromaffin cells. Laminin increases the levels of the enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine-beta-hydroxylase, and phenylethanolamine-N-methyl-transferase. This effect is selective, in that levels of other enzymes (lactate dehydrogenase, ...

Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus was stereotaxically inoculated unilaterally into the substantia nigra of the mouse brain. Virus specifically infected tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons and spread rostrocaudally throughout this subpopulation of neurons, resulting in impaired function and degeneration of the substantia nigra. The spread of the virus to other areas of the brain was min...

Background: Uterine natural killer (uNK) cells are the most abundant leukocytes in pre-implantation endometrium and early pregnancy deciduas in humans and rodents. They are associated with structural changes in maternal spiral arteries but regulation of their re-cruitment and activation is incompletely understood. The major subpopulation of uNK cells in humans expresses CD56, the neural cell ad...

BACKGROUND The etiology of Parkinson disease (PD) has yet to be fully elucidated. We examined the consequences of injections of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL), a toxic metabolite of dopamine, into the substantia nigra of rats on motor behavior and neuronal survival. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A total of 800 nl/rat of DOPAL (1 µg/200 nl) was injected stereotaxically into the substanti...