VGF modifications related to nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurodegeneration induced by the pesticide fipronil in adult male rats.

Background: Dopamine is reduced in the brain of rats treated with fipronil, a broad-spectrum insecticide. VGF (no acronym) is a neurotrophin-inducible protein expressed as the 75 kDa form (precursor or pro-VGF) or its truncated peptides. VGF immunostaining has been revealed using an antibody against the C-terminal nonapeptide of the rat pro-VGF in the nerve terminals of the rat substantia nigra, where it was reduced after 6-hydroxydopamine treatment.

Erectile Dysfunction: Treatments, Advances and New Therapeutic Strategies.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is the inability to get and maintain an adequate penile erection for satisfactory sexual intercourse. Due to its negative impacts on men's life quality and increase during aging (40% of men between 40 and 70 years), ED has always attracted researchers of different disciplines, from urology, andrology and neuropharmacology to regenerative medicine, and vascular and prosthesis implant surgery. Locally and/or centrally acting drugs are used to treat ED, e.

Intra-atrial course of right coronary artery: A case report.

Background: Intra-atrial right coronary artery (RCA) is a rare and generally asymptomatic anomaly of development of the coronary arteries. This malformation could potentially expose the patient to a catastrophic outcome in the case of injury during interventional or surgical procedures. Currently, only a few case reports and no systematic reviews are available in the literature.

Dopamine, Erectile Function and Male Sexual Behavior from the Past to the Present: A Review.

Early and recent studies show that dopamine through its neuronal systems and receptor subtypes plays different roles in the control of male sexual behavior. These studies show that (i) the mesolimbic/mesocortical dopaminergic system plays a key role in the preparatory phase of sexual behavior, e.g.

Neuroplastic changes in c-Fos, ΔFosB, BDNF, trkB, and Arc expression in the hippocampus of male Roman rats: differential effects of sexual activity.

Sexual activity causes differential changes in the expression of markers of neural activation (c-Fos and ΔFosB) and neural plasticity (Arc and BDNF/trkB), as determined either by Western Blot (BDNF, trkB, Arc, and ΔFosB) or immunohistochemistry (BDNF, trkB, Arc, and c-Fos), in the hippocampus of male Roman high (RHA) and low avoidance (RLA) rats, two psychogenetically selected rat lines that display marked differences in sexual behavior (RHA rats exhibit higher sexual motivation and better copulatory performance than RLA rats). Both methods showed (with some differences) that sexual activity modifies the expression levels of these markers in the hippocampus of Roman rats depending on: (i) the level of sexual experience, that is, changes were usually more evident in sexually naïve than in experienced rats; (ii) the hippocampal partition, that is, BDNF and Arc increased in the dorsal but tended to decrease in the ventral hippocampus; (iii) the marker considered, that is, in sexually experienced animals BDNF, c-Fos, and Arc levels were similar to those of controls, while ΔFosB levels increased; and (iv) the rat line, that is, changes were usually larger in RHA than RLA rats. These findings resemble those of early studies in RHA and RLA rats showing that sexual activity influences the expression of these markers in the nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex, and ventral tegmental area, and show for the first time that also in the hippocampus sexual activity induces neural activation and plasticity, events that occur mainly during the first phase of the acquisition of sexual experience and depend on the genotypic/phenotypic characteristics of the animals.

Erectile Function and Sexual Behavior: A Review of the Role of Nitric Oxide in the Central Nervous System.

Nitric oxide (NO), the neuromodulator/neurotransmitter formed from l-arginine by neuronal, endothelial and inducible NO synthases, is involved in numerous functions across the body, from the control of arterial blood pressure to penile erection, and at central level from energy homeostasis regulation to memory, learning and sexual behavior. The aim of this work is to review earlier studies showing that NO plays a role in erectile function and sexual behavior in the hypothalamus and its paraventricular nucleus and the medial preoptic area, and integrate these findings with those of recent studies on this matter. This revisitation shows that NO influences erectile function and sexual behavior in males and females by acting not only in the paraventricular nucleus and medial preoptic area but also in extrahypothalamic brain areas, often with different mechanisms.

Oxytocin-conjugated saporin injected into the substantia nigra of male rats alters the activity of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system: A behavioral and neurochemical study.

Saporin conjugated to oxytocin (OXY-SAP) destroys neurons expressing oxytocinergic receptors. When injected unilaterally in the substantia nigra of male rats, OXY-SAP causes a dose-dependent decrease up to 55 % in nigral Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactivity compared to control mock peptide BLANK-SAP- and PBS-treated rats or the contralateral substantia nigra. TH decrease was parallel to a dopamine content decrease in the ipsilateral striatum compared to BLANK-SAP- or PBS-treated rats or the contralateral striatum.

Oxytocin, Erectile Function and Sexual Behavior: Last Discoveries and Possible Advances.

A continuously increasing amount of research shows that oxytocin is involved in numerous central functions. Among the functions in which oxytocin is thought to be involved are those that play a role in social and sexual behaviors, and the involvement of central oxytocin in erectile function and sexual behavior was indeed one of the first to be discovered in laboratory animals in the 1980s. The first part of this review summarizes the results of studies done in laboratory animals that support a facilitatory role of oxytocin in male and female sexual behavior and reveal mechanisms through which this ancient neuropeptide participates in concert with other neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in this complex function, which is fundamental for the species reproduction.

Occupational exposure to glyphosate and risk of lymphoma:results of an Italian multicenter case-control study.

Background: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified glyphosate, the most used herbicide worldwide, as a probable human carcinogen. We inquired into the association between occupational exposure to glyphosate and risk of lymphoma subtypes in a multicenter case-control study conducted in Italy.

Methods: The Italian Gene-Environment Interactions in Lymphoma Etiology (ItGxE) study took place in 2011-17 in six Italian centres.

Chronic Administration of Fipronil Heterogeneously Alters the Neurochemistry of Monoaminergic Systems in the Rat Brain.

Fipronil (FPN), a widely used pesticide for agricultural and non-agricultural pest control, is possibly neurotoxic for mammals. Brain monoaminergic systems, involved in virtually all brain functions, have been shown to be sensitive to numerous pesticides. Here, we addressed the hypothesis that chronic exposure to FPN could modify brain monoamine neurochemistry.

Altered Sexual Behavior in Dopamine Transporter (DAT) Knockout Male Rats: A Behavioral, Neurochemical and Intracerebral Microdialysis Study.

Central dopamine plays a key role in sexual behavior. Recently, a Dopamine Transporter knockout (DAT KO) rat has been developed, which displays several behavioral dysfunctions that have been related to increased extracellular dopamine levels and altered dopamine turnover secondary to DAT gene silencing. This prompted us to characterize the sexual behavior of these DAT KO rats and their heterozygote (HET) and wild type (WT) counterparts in classical copulatory tests with a sexually receptive female rat and to verify if and how the acquisition of sexual experience changes along five copulatory tests in these rat lines.

The pesticide fipronil injected into the substantia nigra of male rats decreases striatal dopamine content: A neurochemical, immunohistochemical and behavioral study.

Experimental evidence shows that the phenylpyrazole pesticide fipronil exerts neurotoxic effects at central level in rodents, and in particular on nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, whose degeneration is well known to cause motor and non-motor deficits in animals and in humans. In order to characterize better the central neurotoxic effect of fipronil, we injected fipronil (15 and 25 μg) dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) unilaterally into the substantia nigra of male rats. Male rats injected with DMSO unilaterally into the substantia nigra were used as controls.

Pulmonary Function and CT Scan Imaging at Low-Level Occupational Exposureto Asbestos.

: In spite of the reduced exposure level, and its ban in numerous countries, compensation claims for asbestos-related diseases are far from decreasing. : We used retrospective exposure assessment techniques to explore respiratory function and a computerized tomography (CT) scan in relation to past asbestos exposure in 115 male workers retired from an acrylic and polyester fiber plant. Based, on detailed information on exposure circumstances, we reconstructed a cumulative exposure estimate for each patient.

Oxytocin induces penile erection and yawning when injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: A microdialysis and immunohistochemical study.

Oxytocin (5, 20 and 100 ng) injected unilaterally into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) of male rats stereotaxically implanted with a microinjection cannula coupled to a microdialysis probe, induces penile erection and yawning that occur concomitantly with a dose-dependent increase in the extracellular concentration of glutamic acid, dopamine and its main metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenilacetic acid (DOPAC), and nitrites (NO) in the dialysate obtained from the BNST by intracerebral microdialysis. The responses induced by oxytocin (100 ng) were all abolished by the oxytocin receptor antagonist d(CH)Tyr(Me)-Orn-vasotocin (1 μg), and reduced by CNQX (1 μg), a competitive antagonist of the AMPA receptors, both given into the BNST 25 min before oxytocin. In contrast, (+) MK-801 (1 μg), a non-competitive antagonist of NMDA receptors, and SCH 23390 (1 μg), a selective dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, reduced penile erection and yawning, but not glutamic acid and dopamine increases in the BNST dialysate induced by oxytocin.

c-Fos, ΔFosB, BDNF, trkB and Arc Expression in the Limbic System of Male Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rats that Show Differences in Sexual Behavior: Effect of Sexual Activity.

Male Roman High- (RHA) and Low-Avoidance (RLA) rats display significant differences in sexual behavior (RHA rats exhibit higher sexual motivation and better copulatory performance than RLA rats). These differences are very evident in sexually naïve rats (which copulate with a receptive female rat for the first time), and are still present, although reduced, after five copulatory tests, when sexual experience has been acquired. Since sexual activity is a natural reward that induces neural activation and synaptic plastic changes in limbic brain areas, we studied whether the differences in sexual activity between these rat lines are accompanied by changes in the expression of markers of neural activation and plasticity, i.

Rats selectively bred for showing divergent behavioral traits in response to stress or novelty or spontaneous yawning with a divergent frequency show similar changes in sexual behavior: the role of dopamine.

Sexual behavior plays a fundamental role for reproduction in mammals and other animal species. It is characterized by an anticipatory and a consummatory phase, and several copulatory parameters have been identified in each phase, mainly in rats. Sexual behavior varies significantly across rats even when they are of the same strain and reared under identical conditions.

Comparison between male and female rats in a model of self-administration of a chocolate-flavored beverage: Behavioral and neurochemical studies.

The existence of sex differences was studied in a rat model of operant self-administration of a chocolate-flavored beverage (CFB), which possesses strong reinforcing properties and is avidly consumed by rats. Whether these differences occurred concomitantly to changes in extracellular dopamine in the dialysate obtained from the nucleus accumbens, was assessed by intracerebral microdialysis. Male, ovariectomized and intact female rats showed similar self-administration profiles, with minor differences in both acquisition and maintenance phases.

Oxytocin induces penile erection and yawning when injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: Involvement of glutamic acid, dopamine, and nitric oxide.

Oxytocin (5-100ng), but not Arg-vasopressin (100ng), injected unilaterally into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) induces penile erection and yawning in a dose-dependent manner in male rats. The minimal effective dose was 20ng for penile erection and 5ng for yawning. Oxytocin responses were abolished not only by the oxytocin receptor antagonist d(CH)Tyr(Me)-Orn-vasotocin (1μg), but also by (+) MK-801 (1μg), an excitatory amino acid receptor antagonist of the N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) subtype, SCH 23390 (1μg), a D1 receptor antagonist, but not haloperidol (1μg), a D2 receptor antagonist, and SMTC (40μg), an inhibitor of neuronal nitric oxide synthase, injected into the BNST 15min before oxytocin.

Dopamine, Noradrenaline and Differences in Sexual Behavior between Roman High and Low Avoidance Male Rats: A Microdialysis Study in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex.

Roman High- (RHA) and Low-Avoidance (RLA) outbred rats, which differ for a respectively rapid vs. poor acquisition of the active avoidance response in the shuttle-box, display differences in sexual activity when put in the presence of a sexually receptive female rat. Indeed RHA rats show higher levels of sexual motivation and copulatory performance than RLA rats, which persist also after repeated sexual activity.

Profiles of VGF Peptides in the Rat Brain and Their Modulations after Phencyclidine Treatment.

From the VGF precursor protein originate several low molecular weight peptides, whose distribution in the brain and blood circulation is not entirely known. Among the VGF peptides, those containing the N-terminus portion were altered in the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) and hypothalamus of schizophrenia patients. "Hence, we aimed to better investigate the involvement of the VGF peptides in schizophrenia by studying their localization in the brain regions relevant for the disease, and revealing their possible modulations in response to certain neuronal alterations occurring in schizophrenia".

Osmolyte cooperation affects turgor dynamics in plants.

Scientists have identified turgor-based actuation as a fundamental mechanism in plant movements. Plant cell turgor is generated by water influx due to the osmolyte concentration gradient through the cell wall and the plasma membrane behaving as an osmotic barrier. Previous studies have focused on turgor modulation with respect to potassium chloride (KCl) concentration changes, although KCl is not efficiently retained in the cell, and many other compounds, including L-glutamine (L-Gln) and D-glucose (D-Glc), are present in the cytosol.

Involvement of nigral oxytocin in locomotor activity: A behavioral, immunohistochemical and lesion study in male rats.

Oxytocin is involved in the control of different behaviors, from sexual behavior and food consumption to empathy, social and affective behaviors. An imbalance of central oxytocinergic neurotransmission has been also associated with different mental pathologies, from depression, anxiety and anorexia/bulimia to schizophrenia, autism and drug dependence. This study shows that oxytocin may also play a role in the control of locomotor activity.

Role of dopamine D4 receptors in copulatory behavior: Studies with selective D4 agonists and antagonists in male rats.

Dopamine influences the anticipatory and consummatory phases of sexual behavior, by acting on receptors of the D2 family (D2, D3 and D4) and in particular of the D2 subtype, although evidence for a role of D4 receptors in erectile function and copulatory behavior is also available. In order to clarify such a role of D4 receptors, the effect of selective D4 receptor agonists and antagonists on copulatory behavior of sexually potent male rats in classic copulation tests with a receptive female, was compared with that of apomorphine and haloperidol, a classic dopamine receptor agonist and antagonist, respectively. PD-168,077 (0.

Orientational Coherent Effects of High-Energy Particles in a LiNbO3 Crystal.

A bent lithium niobate strip was exposed to a 400-GeV/c proton beam at the external lines of CERN Super Proton Synchrotron to probe its capabilities versus coherent interactions of the particles with the crystal such as channeling and volume reflection. Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) exhibits an interplanar electric field comparable to that of Silicon (Si) and remarkable piezoelectric properties, which could be exploited for the realization of piezo-actuated devices for the control of high-energy particle beams. In contrast to Si and germanium (Ge), LiNbO3 shows an intriguing effect; in spite of a low channeling efficiency (3%), the volume reflection maintains a high deflection efficiency (83%).