Publications by authors named "Emily L Brooks"

Common symptoms of food intolerance are caused by chemical components within food that have a pharmacological activity to alter the motility of the gastrointestinal tract. Food intolerance is difficult to diagnose as it requires a long-term process of eliminating foods that are responsible for gastrointestinal symptoms. Enterochromaffin (EC) cells are key intestinal epithelium cells that respond to luminal chemical stimulants by releasing 5-HT.

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Social isolation (SI) is a major health risk in older people leading to cognitive decline. This study examined how SI and age influence performance in the novel object recognition (NOR) and elevated plus maze (EPM) tasks in C57BL/6 mice aged 3 or 24 months. Mice were group-housed (groups of 2-3) or isolated for 2 weeks prior to experimentation.

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Serotonin and kynurenine are formed following metabolism of the essential amino acid tryptophan. Both molecules play important biological roles and the balance of how tryptophan metabolism varies to either the serotonin or kynurenine pathway may provide key insight into the inflammatory status of the biological region. At present complex chromatographic methods are utilised which predominately focus on either monitoring analytes in the serotonin or kynurenine pathway rather than both.

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