Possible roles of the afferent vagus nerve in regulation of interleukin (IL)-1beta expression in the brain and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis were examined in anesthetized rats. Levels of IL-1beta mRNA and protein in the brain were measured by comparative RT-PCR and ELISA. Direct electrical stimulation of the central end of the vagus nerve was performed continuously for 2 h. The affe...

BACKGROUND Intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) is widely used during thyroid surgery. During both intermittent and continuous IONM stimulation of the vagus nerve is performed. This has previously been reported to be safe. METHODS We present our findings based on the case reports of 2 patients. RESULTS IONM of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), following the standards of the Internationa...

Efferent activity in the vagus nerve can prevent endotoxin-induced shock by attenuating tumor necrosis factor (TNF) synthesis. Termed the "cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway," inhibition of TNF synthesis is dependent on nicotinic alpha-bungarotoxin-sensitive acetylcholine receptors on macrophages. Vagus nerve firing is also stimulated by CNI-1493, a tetravalent guanylhydrazone molecule that i...

Background Benefits of cervical non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) devices have been shown in episodic cluster headache and preliminarily suggested in migraine, but direct evidence of vagus nerve activation using such devices is lacking. Vagal somatosensory evoked potentials (vSEPs) associated with vagal afferent activation have been reported for invasive vagus nerve stimulation (iVNS)...

Stimulation of peripheral cranial nerves has been shown to exert anticonvulsant effects in animal models as well as in human patients. Specifically, stimulation of both the trigeminal and vagus nerves has been shown in multiple clinical trials to be anticonvulsant, and stimulation of these nerves at therapeutic levels does not cause pain or negatively affect brain function. However, the neurona...

The following experiments were done to determine whether changes in baroreflex sensitivity evoked by cervical vagus nerve stimulation are due to sympathoexcitation mediated by the parabrachial nucleus. The relative contribution of cardiopulmonary and general gastric afferents within the cervical vagus nerve to the depression in baroreflex sensitivity are also investigated. Male Sprague-Dawley r...

BACKGROUND & AIMS The vagus nerve negatively regulates macrophage cytokine production via the release of acetylcholine (ACh) and activation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). In various models of intestinal inflammation, vagus nerve efferent stimulation ameliorates disease. Given the actively constrained cytokine responses of intestinal macrophages, we explored the effect of nAChR ac...

Vagus nerve stimulation is a palliative treatment for medically intractable epilepsy. This treatment reduces the frequency and severity of seizures refractory to antiepileptic drugs. Implanted generator and helical electrodes electrically stimulate the left vagus nerve at the neck chronically and intermittently. This was the first electrostimulation therapy clinically introduced for epilepsy. T...

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been developed as an add-on treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy. Based on the clinical observation of improved cognition in many epilepsy patients who received VNS, we reviewed the recent literature for evidence concerning the cognitive effects of this treatment. From most of these studies it seems that, with currently used stimulation parameters, t...