The Long-Term Effects of Neonatal Inflammatory Pain on Cognitive Function and Stress Hormones Depend on the Heterogeneity of the Adolescent Period of Development in Male and Female Rats.

Exposure to stress at an early age programs the HPA axis which can lead to cognitive deficits in adults. However, it is not known whether these deficits emerge in adulthood or are expressed earlier in life. The aims of the study were to investigate (1) the immediate effects of early injury-induced stress in one-day-old (P1) and repeated stress on at P1 and P2 rat pups on plasma corticosterone levels; and (2) examine the subsequent long-term effects of this early stress on spatial learning and memory, and stress reactivity in early P26-34 and late P45-53 adolescent male and female rats.

Success of Hand Movement Imagination Depends on Personality Traits, Brain Asymmetry, and Degree of Handedness.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), based on motor imagery, are increasingly used in neurorehabilitation. However, some people cannot control BCI, predictors of this are the features of brain activity and personality traits. It is not known whether the success of BCI control is related to interhemispheric asymmetry.

Neonatal pain modulates in adolescent rats the antinociceptive effects of fluoxetine and buspirone administrated to their depressive dams during gestation.

Previously, we have shown that the administration of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine or a 5-HT1A receptor agonist buspirone to stressed rats during gestation causes in the offspring alleviation of formalin-induced pain, strengthened by prenatal stress. We have also found that neonatal inflammatory pain strengthens formalin-induced pain in prenatally unstressed rats in later life. In the present study, we investigated the effect of neonatal inflammatory pain on the time-course of the biphasic pain response in the formalin test in prenatally stressed adolescent rats of both sexes to evaluate whether neonatal pain affects the antinociceptive properties of these drugs administered to their depressed mothers during gestation.

Family and Child Characteristics Associated with Foster Care Breakdown.

Studies examining the experience of children returned from foster care can reveal its causes and the severity of the psychological consequences, as well as the positive effect of psychological support on family functioning. Our research was aimed at the features of children and characteristics of foster families who refuse to continue parenting foster children. The study participants were comprised of families raising a foster child (Group One-182 families), and families who refused to continue parenting and returned the child (Group Two-19 families).

Early lexical development of children raised in institutional care in Russia.

Children abandoned to institutions display a host of developmental delays, including those involving general cognition and language. The majority of published studies focus on children over 3 years of age; little is known about whether these delays may be detected earlier when children undergo rapid lexical development. To investigate the early language development of children raised in institutional settings in the Russian Federation, we compared a group of children in institutional care (n = 36; 8-35 months) to their age-matched peers raised in biological families, who have never been institutionalized (n = 72) using the Russian version of the CDI.

Differences Between the Prenatal Effects of Fluoxetine or Buspirone Alone or in Combination on Pain and Affective Behaviors in Prenatally Stressed Male and Female Rats.

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine and the 5-HT1A receptor agonist buspirone are used to treat depression and anxiety. Previously we demonstrated that chronic stress during pregnancy (prenatal stress) in rats, used as a model of maternal depression risk, increased inflammatory pain and depressive-like behavior in the offspring; buspirone injected to pregnant dams was protective. Clinically, the addition of buspirone to fluoxetine increases the latter's efficacy in treating depression in patients.

Electrostatic Switch Function in the Mechanism of Protein Kinase A I Activation: Results of the Molecular Dynamics Simulation.

We used molecular dynamics to find the average path of the A-domain H → B conformational transition in protein kinase A I. We obtained thirteen productive trajectories and processed them sequentially using factor and cross-correlation analyses. The conformational transition is presented as partly deterministic sequence of six events.

Long-Term Effects of Chronic Buspirone during Adolescence Reduce the Adverse Influences of Neonatal Inflammatory Pain and Stress on Adaptive Behavior in Adult Male Rats.

Neonatal pain and stress induce long-term changes in pain sensitivity and behavior. Previously we found alterations in pain sensitivity in adolescent rats exposed to early-life adverse events. We tested whether these alterations have long-lasting effects and if those effects can be improved by the 5-hydroxytryptamine 1A (5-HT1A) receptor agonist buspirone injected chronically during the adolescent period.

Effects of neonatal pain, stress and their interrelation on pain sensitivity in later life in male rats.

Neonatal pain and stress induce long-term changes in pain sensitivity. Therefore their interrelation is a topical subject of clinical and basic research. The present study investigated the effects of inflammatory peripheral pain and stress of maternal deprivation (MD)-isolation in 1-2- and 7-8-day-old Wistar rats (P1,2 and P7,8 respectively, ages comparable to preterm and full-term human babies) on basal pain and pain sensitivity in conditions of inflammatory pain (formalin test) during adolescence.

Role of arginine 209 in the conformational transition of the protein kinase A regulatory subunit RIα A-domain.

Using the combination of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and geometric clustering we analyzed the role of arginine at 209 position in the transition of protein kinase A Iα (PKA Iα) regulatory subunit A-domain from H- to B-conformation and stabilization of the latter. The mechanism underlying the role of the residue at position 209 in the realization of B-conformation includes: (1) possibility to bind the ligand tightly (if transition happens in the presence of cAMP), (2) capability to hold β2β3-loop in the correct conformation, (3) tendency of residue at 209 position to stabilize B-conformation in the absence and in presence of the ligand. In terms of the effect produced on transition of A-domain from H- to B-conformation in the presence of cAMP, mutational substitutions for R209 can be arranged in the following order: Glu(Gly)>Lys>Ile.

Evidence of active regulation of cerebral venous tone in individuals undergoing embolization of brain arteriovenous malformations.

Cerebral venous drainage is generally believed to be regulated primarily by hydrodynamic forces. To gain further insight into the regulation of this process, we investigated the response of blood flow velocity and cross-sectional area (CSA) of the internal jugular veins (IJVs) to local hemodynamic shifts. All procedures and assessments were performed on patients (n = 30) undergoing embolization of brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).

Inflammatory pain and corticosterone response in infant rats: effect of 5-HT1A agonist buspirone prior to gestational stress.

Our researches have shown that gestational stress causes exacerbation of inflammatory pain in the offspring; the maternal 5-HT1A agonist buspirone before the stress prevents the adverse effect. The serotonergic system and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are closely interrelated. However, interrelations between inflammatory pain and the HPA axis during the hyporeactive period of the latter have not been studied.

Buspirone before prenatal stress protects against adverse effects of stress on emotional and inflammatory pain-related behaviors in infant rats: age and sex differences.

Prenatal stress strengthens tonic pain and provokes depression. The serotoninergic system is involved in these processes. We recently showed that maternal buspirone, a 5-HT1A receptor agonist, protects against the adverse effects of in utero stress on depression and pain in adult rat offspring.

Heterogeneity of the infant stage of rat development: inflammatory pain response, depression-related behavior, and effects of prenatal stress.

The infant stage of rat development is a very important period for potential correction of adverse consequences produced by negative prenatal events. However the age limit for this correction needs to be investigated. The last prenatal and first two weeks after birth are "critical" for maturation of the nociceptive and emotional systems.

Maternal para-chlorophenylalanine exposure modifies central monoamines and behaviors in the adult offspring.

We reported a perspective animal model of neurodevelopmental disorders using rats prenatally exposed to an inhibitor of serotonin (5HT) synthesis, para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA). Earlier, we demonstrated that prenatal exposure to PCPA caused fetal 5HT depletion and changes both in open field activity and in depression-related behavior, as well as impairments in spatial learning in the adult offspring (Vataeva et al., 2007).

Behavioral alteration in the adult rats prenatally exposed to para-chlorophenylalanine.

In the present work, effects of maternal administration of para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA), a serotonin synthesis inhibitor, on behavior of adult offspring were studied. Pregnant rats were injected intraperitoneally with PCPA (200/100/100/50 mg/kg) either on the gestational days (GD) 8-11 or 14-17, or with vehicle at the same days. Behavioral parameters, in an open field, the Porsolt forced swim test and the Morris water maze test were evaluated at the age of 3-3.

Sex differences in formalin-induced pain in prenatally stressed infant rats.

The aim of this work was to study the effects of prenatal stress on nociceptive responses in the formalin test in female and male infant (7-day-old) Long-Evans hooded rats. Prenatally stressed infant rats displayed biphasic flinching+ shaking behavior whereas non-stressed animals showed only a weak second phase. Pain sensitivity in prenatally stressed males was significantly greater than that of prenatally non-stressed males during the second phase only; there were no differences in pain sensitivity between prenatally stressed and non-stressed females.

Reduced serotonin synthesis during early embryogeny changes effect of subsequent prenatal stress on persistent pain in the formalin test in adult male and female rats.

The considerable evidence supporting a role for serotonin (5-HT) in the embryonic formation of CNS, mediation of prenatal stress, and pain processing is reviewed. Long-term influences of prenatal 5-HT depletion as well as its combination with prenatal stress effects on tonic nociceptive system in 90-day-old Wistar rats were studied in the formalin test. Pregnant dams were injected with para-chlorophenylalanine (pCPA, 400 mg/kg/2 ml, ip), producing 5-HT depletion during the early period of fetal serotonergic system development.

Maternal stress differently alters nociceptive behaviors in the formalin test in adult female and male rats.

The long-term effects of restraint stress in Wistar rats during the last week of gestation were investigated on the acute and tonic phases of the specific biphasic nociceptive behavioral response in the formalin test in offspring, females and males, at 90 days. Prenatal stress produced significant changes in formalin-induced pain, which was more pronounced in females as compared to males. The distorted response in females was more at the supraspinal level with an increased intensity of the licking response in both phases as well as with an increased their duration.