Introduction: Repetitive cortical spreading depression (CSD) can lead to cell death in immature brain tissue. Caspases are involved in neuronal cell death in several CSD-related neurological disorders. Yet, whether repetitive CSD itself can induce caspase activation in adult or juvenile tissue remains unknown. Inducing repetitive CSD in somatosensory cortices of juvenile and adult rats in vivo,...

The Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) is an important calcium transport system, which regulates intracellular calcium homeostasis. In particular, NCX is highly expressed in the plasma membrane of excitable neuronal and cardiac cells. We report here that binding of retinoic acid enhances expression of the NCX1 in the rat cardiac atria, brain stem and hypothalamus, but not in cerebellum. Differences in th...

The role of various parathyroid hormone (PTH) radio-immunoassays in the diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) is controversial. A series of 204 patients with surgically proven PHP was studied. Serum total calcium, serum ionized calcium, amino (N)-terminal PTH and carboxyl(C)-terminal PTH were assessed in relation to the volume and weight of adenomatous or hyperplastic parathyroid tissu...

the study on biochemical changes in brain tissue indicates that there are considerable variations in metabolism of energy in this tissue within the first three weeks of life. this phenomenon coincides with the increase of brain energy during that period of life. there are, indeed, various factors, involved in the changing process. hormones and thyroid hormones in particular are of the most impo...

a total of 1500 infected liver with f. hepatica and f. gigantica from slaughtered cattle in different parts of iran were studied. grossly the livers were usually irregular in shape, with prominent bile ducts on the visceral surface as grayish-white, firm-branching streaks. the atrophy of the left lobe due to fibrosis and ischemia were noticed. on the cut surface the main bile ducts wall consist...

One fifth of the mammalian brain is comprised of extracellular space (ECS). The extracellular space is not empty, but instead comprises a complex network of proteins and a variety of molecular species. One extracellular species, calcium, holds a prominent position as one of the most important messengers known in the brain. However, calcium exists in low concentrations in the ECS, and its diffus...

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), affecting mostly young people at a mean age of 30 years. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most specific and sensitive methods in diagnosing and detecting the evolution of multiple sclerosis disease. But it does not have the ability to differentiate between distinct histopathologic...

Several lines of evidence, including the reported ability of calcium channel blockers to prevent atherogenesis in cholesterol-fed rabbits, suggest that calcium mediates one or more of the pathologic changes in atherosclerosis. Moreover, it has long been known that calcium accumulates in atherosclerotic blood vessels. To test the hypothesis that a substantial fraction of this accumulated calcium...