scholarly journals Genetic Identification of GnRH Receptor Neurons: A New Model for Studying Neural Circuits Underlying Reproductive Physiology in the Mouse Brain

Endocrinology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 152 (4) ◽  
pp. 1515-1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuping Wen ◽  
Iris N. Götze ◽  
Oliver Mai ◽  
Christian Schauer ◽  
Trese Leinders-Zufall ◽  
...  

Abstract GnRH signaling regulates reproductive physiology in vertebrates via the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. In addition, GnRH signaling has been postulated to act on the brain. However, elucidating its functional role in the central nervous system has been hampered because of the difficulty in identifying direct GnRH signaling targets in live brain tissue. Here we used a binary genetic strategy to visualize GnRH receptor (GnRHR) neurons in the mouse brain and started to characterize these cells. First, we expressed different fluorescent proteins in GnRHR neurons and mapped their precise distribution throughout the brain. Remarkably, neuronal GnRHR expression was only initiated after postnatal day 16, suggesting peri- and postpubertal functions of GnRH signaling in this organ. GnRHR neurons were found in different brain areas. Many GnRHR neurons were identified in areas influencing sexual behaviors. Furthermore, GnRHR neurons were detected in brain areas that process olfactory and pheromonal cues, revealing one efferent pathway by which the neuroendocrine hypothalamus may influence the sensitivity towards chemosensory cues. Using confocal Ca2+ imaging in brain slices, we show that GnRHR neurons respond reproducibly to extracellular application of GnRH or its analog [D-TRP6]-LH-RH, indicating that these neurons express functional GnRHR. Interestingly, the duration and shape of the Ca2+ responses were similar within and different between brain areas, suggesting that GnRH signaling may differentially influence brain functions to affect reproductive success. Our new mouse model sets the stage to analyze the next level of GnRH signaling in reproductive physiology and behavior.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siqi Chen ◽  
Zhixiang Liu ◽  
Anan Li ◽  
Hui Gong ◽  
Ben Long ◽  
...  

The brain modulates specific functions in its various regions. Understanding the organization of different cells in the whole brain is crucial for investigating brain functions. Previous studies have focused on several regions and have had difficulty analyzing serial tissue samples. In this study, we introduced a pipeline to acquire anatomical and histological information quickly and efficiently from serial sections. First, we developed a serial brain-slice-staining method to stain serial sections and obtained more than 98.5% of slices with high integrity. Subsequently, using the self-developed analysis software, we registered and quantified the signals of imaged sections to the Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework, which is compatible with multimodal images and slant section planes. Finally, we validated the pipeline with immunostaining by analyzing the activity variance in the whole brain during acute stress in aging and young mice. By removing the problems resulting from repeated manual operations, this pipeline is widely applicable to serial brain slices from multiple samples in a rapid and convenient manner, which benefits to facilitate research in life sciences.


2015 ◽  
Vol 02 (03) ◽  
pp. 204-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manikandan Sethuraman

AbstractBrain is a unique organ of the body that receives highest amount of cardiac output and totally depend on the blood supply for its survival and no reserve of blood flow making it vulnerable for ischaemia. Other important properties of cerebral circulation include autoregulation of blood flow, high oxygen extraction, and selective increase in blood flow to specific brain areas during various functional activities. It is important to understand that systemic and local factors affect the cerebral blood flow and the brain functions. Moreover the alterations in cerebral blood flow (acute or chronic) can be responsible for various symptoms as well as diseases pertaining to the brain. Hence it is important to measure the cerebral blood flow for the diagnostic as well as therapeutic purpose. This review focusses on the various techniques available for monitoring the cerebral blood flow.


2013 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 383-406
Author(s):  
Balázs Gulyás ◽  
Peter Somogyi

János Szentágothai was an eminent, creative and renowned neuroscientist, who made pioneering and seminal discoveries contributing to our current understanding of brain functions. His vision of the brain as a network of specific populations of nerve cells, each engaging in selective operations and self-organizing into modules, has provided the framework and stimulus for generations of neuroscientists. His irrepressible curiosity and enthusiasm for the beauty in the organization of the brain never faded. He had a towering intellect and was a great humanist. Szentágothai was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1912 and died in his native city in 1994. He was educated and worked in Hungary. During the six decades of his scientific activity, he made remarkably original and lasting contributions to the neurosciences, including the exploration of basic architectural features of many brain areas, the functional–anatomical bases of elementary brain operations such as reflex arcs, the vestibulo-ocular system, the brain control of hormonal regulation, general organizational principles of the neuraxis, the organization of the cerebellum and the modular organization of the neocortex. He left for posterity not only his discoveries, which have stood the test of time, but also a vigorous school of pupils as well as a large number of friends and admirers. Thanks to him neuroscience is one of the strongest scientific fields in Hungary today.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Karam ◽  
Guy Malkinson ◽  
Isabelle V BRUNET

Brain perivascular macrophages (PVMs) belong to border-associated macrophages. PVMs are situated along blood vessels in the Virchow-Robin space and are thus found at a unique anatomical position between the endothelium and the parenchyma. Owing to their location and phagocytic capabilities, PVMs are regarded as important components that regulate various aspects of brain physiology in health and pathophysiological states. Here, used LYVE-1 to identify PVMs in the mouse brain. We used brain-tissue sections and cleared whole-brain to learn how they are distributed within the brain and across different developmental postnatal stages. We find that LYVE-1+ PVMs associate with the vasculature in a brain-region-dependent manner, where the hippocampus shows the highest density of LYVE-1+ PVMs. We show that their postnatal distribution is developmentally dynamic and peaks at P10-P20 depending on the brain region. We further demonstrate that their density is reduced in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimers Disease. In conclusion, our results show an unexpected heterogeneity and dynamics of LYVE-1+ PVMs, and support an important role for this population of PVMs during development and in regulating brain functions in steady-state and disease conditions.


Author(s):  
Elisa Castagnola ◽  
Elaine M. Robbins ◽  
Kevin M. Woeppel ◽  
Moriah McGuier ◽  
Asiyeh Golabchi ◽  
...  

Melatonin (MT) has been recently considered an excellent candidate for the treatment of sleep disorders, neural injuries, and neurological diseases. To better investigate the actions of MT in various brain functions, real-time detection of MT concentrations in specific brain regions is much desired. Previously, we have demonstrated detection of exogenously administered MT in anesthetized mouse brain using square wave voltammetry (SWV). Here, for the first time, we show successful detection of exogenous MT in the brain using fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) on electrochemically pre-activated carbon fiber microelectrodes (CFEs). In vitro evaluation showed the highest sensitivity (28.1 nA/μM) and lowest detection limit (20.2 ± 4.8 nM) ever reported for MT detection at carbon surface. Additionally, an extensive CFE stability and fouling assessment demonstrated that a prolonged CFE pre-conditioning stabilizes the background, in vitro and in vivo, and provides consistent CFE sensitivity over time even in the presence of a high MT concentration. Finally, the stable in vivo background, with minimized CFE fouling, allows us to achieve a drift-free FSCV detection of exogenous administered MT in mouse brain over a period of 3 min, which is significantly longer than the duration limit (usually < 90 s) for traditional in vivo FSCV acquisition. The MT concentration and dynamics measured by FSCV are in good agreement with SWV, while microdialysis further validated the concentration range. These results demonstrated reliable MT detection using FSCV that has the potential to monitor MT in the brain over long periods of time.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muskinul Fuad

The education system in Indonesia emphasize on academic intelligence, whichincludes only two or three aspects, more than on the other aspects of intelligence. For thatreason, many children who are not good at academic intelligence, but have good potentials inother aspects of intelligence, do not develop optimally. They are often considered and labeledas "stupid children" by the existing system. This phenomenon is on the contrary to the theoryof multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner, who argues that intelligence is theability to solve various problems in life and produce products or services that are useful invarious aspects of life.Human intelligence is a combination of various general and specific abilities. Thistheory is different from the concept of IQ (intelligence quotient) that involves only languageskills, mathematical, and spatial logics. According to Gardner, there are nine aspects ofintelligence and its potential indicators to be developed by each child born without a braindefect. What Gardner suggested can be considered as a starting point to a perspective thatevery child has a unique individual intelligence. Parents have to treat and educate theirchildren proportionally and equitably. This treatment will lead to a pattern of education that isfriendly to the brain and to the plurality of children’s potential.More than the above points, the notion that multiple intelligences do not just comefrom the brain needs to be followed. Humans actually have different immaterial (spiritual)aspects that do not refer to brain functions. The belief in spiritual aspects and its potentialsmeans that human beings have various capacities and they differ from physical capacities.This is what needs to be addressed from the perspective of education today. The philosophyand perspective on education of the educators, education stakeholders, and especially parents,are the first major issue to be addressed. With this step, every educational activity andcommunication within the family is expected to develop every aspect of children'sintelligence, especially the spiritual intelligence.


Author(s):  
Armin Schnider

What diseases cause confabulations and which are the brain areas whose damage is responsible? This chapter reviews the causes, both historic and present, of confabulations and deduces the anatomo-clinical relationships for the four forms of confabulation in the following disorders: alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome, traumatic brain injury, rupture of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm, posterior circulation stroke, herpes and limbic encephalitis, hypoxic brain damage, degenerative dementia, tumours, schizophrenia, and syphilis. Overall, clinically relevant confabulation is rare. Some aetiologies have become more important over time, others have virtually disappeared. While confabulations seem to be more frequent after anterior brain damage, only one form has a distinct anatomical basis.


Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1311
Author(s):  
Faraz Ahmad ◽  
Ping Liu

Lead (Pb) neurotoxicity is a major concern, particularly in children. Developmental exposure to Pb can alter neurodevelopmental trajectory and has permanent neuropathological consequences, including an increased vulnerability to further stressors. Ascorbic acid is among most researched antioxidant nutrients and has a special role in maintaining redox homeostasis in physiological and physio-pathological brain states. Furthermore, because of its capacity to chelate metal ions, ascorbic acid may particularly serve as a potent therapeutic agent in Pb poisoning. The present review first discusses the major consequences of Pb exposure in children and then proceeds to present evidence from human and animal studies for ascorbic acid as an efficient ameliorative supplemental nutrient in Pb poisoning, with a particular focus on developmental Pb neurotoxicity. In doing so, it is hoped that there is a revitalization for further research on understanding the brain functions of this essential, safe, and readily available vitamin in physiological states, as well to justify and establish it as an effective neuroprotective and modulatory factor in the pathologies of the nervous system, including developmental neuropathologies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Linuo Wang

Injuries and hidden dangers in training have a greater impact on athletes ’careers. In particular, the brain function that controls the motor function area has a greater impact on the athlete ’s competitive ability. Based on this, it is necessary to adopt scientific methods to recognize brain functions. In this paper, we study the structure of motor brain-computer and improve it based on traditional methods. Moreover, supported by machine learning and SVM technology, this study uses a DSP filter to convert the preprocessed EEG signal X into a time series, and adjusts the distance between the time series to classify the data. In order to solve the inconsistency of DSP algorithms, a multi-layer joint learning framework based on logistic regression model is proposed, and a brain-machine interface system of sports based on machine learning and SVM is constructed. In addition, this study designed a control experiment to improve the performance of the method proposed by this study. The research results show that the method in this paper has a certain practical effect and can be applied to sports.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isela Álvarez-González ◽  
Scarlett Camacho-Cantera ◽  
Patricia Gómez-González ◽  
Michael J. Rendón Barrón ◽  
José A. Morales-González ◽  
...  

AbstractWe evaluated the duloxetine DNA damaging capacity utilizing the comet assay applied to mouse brain and liver cells, as well as its DNA, lipid, protein, and nitric oxide oxidative potential in the same cells. A kinetic time/dose strategy showed the effect of 2, 20, and 200 mg/kg of the drug administered intraperitoneally once in comparison with a control and a methyl methanesulfonate group. Each parameter was evaluated at 3, 9, 15, and 21 h postadministration in five mice per group, except for the DNA oxidation that was examined only at 9 h postadministration. Results showed a significant DNA damage mainly at 9 h postexposure in both organs. In the brain, with 20 and 200 mg/kg we found 50 and 80% increase over the control group (p ≤ 0.05), in the liver, the increase of 2, 20, and 200 mg/kg of duloxetine was 50, 80, and 135% in comparison with the control level (p ≤ 0.05). DNA, lipid, protein and nitric oxide oxidation increase was also observed in both organs. Our data established the DNA damaging capacity of duloxetine even with a dose from the therapeutic range (2 mg/kg), and suggest that this effect can be related with its oxidative potential.


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