Discordance Between Caregiver and Transplant Clinician Priorities Regarding Post-Heart Transplant Education.

Background: Patient and caregiver education following pediatric heart transplant (HTx) is a cornerstone of post-HTx care. Despite the importance of post-HTx education, there are no standardized guidelines for topics and content. Education practices vary across clinicians and centers.

Role of nucleus accumbens shell neuronal ensembles in context-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking.

Environmental contexts previously associated with drug use provoke relapse to drug use in humans and reinstatement of drug seeking in animal models of drug relapse. We examined whether context-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking is mediated by activation of context-selected nucleus accumbens neurons. We trained rats to self-administer cocaine in Context A and extinguished their lever-pressing in a distinct Context B.

Unique gene alterations are induced in FACS-purified Fos-positive neurons activated during cue-induced relapse to heroin seeking.

Cue-induced heroin seeking after prolonged withdrawal is associated with neuronal activation and altered gene expression in prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, these previous studies assessed gene expression in all neurons regardless of their activity state during heroin seeking. Using Fos as a marker of neural activity, we describe distinct molecular alterations induced in activated versus non-activated neurons during cue-induced heroin seeking after prolonged withdrawal.

Role of orbitofrontal cortex neuronal ensembles in the expression of incubation of heroin craving.

In humans, exposure to cues previously associated with heroin use often provokes relapse after prolonged withdrawal periods. In rats, cue-induced heroin seeking progressively increases after withdrawal (incubation of heroin craving). Here, we examined the role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) neuronal ensembles in the enhanced response to heroin cues after prolonged withdrawal or the expression of incubation of heroin craving.

Association of time-dependent changes in mu opioid receptor mRNA, but not BDNF, TrkB, or MeCP2 mRNA and protein expression in the rat nucleus accumbens with incubation of heroin craving.

Rationale And Objectives: Responding to heroin cues progressively increases after cessation of heroin self-administration (incubation of heroin craving). We investigated whether this incubation is associated with time-dependent changes in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) signaling and mu opioid receptor (MOR) expression in nucleus accumbens (NAc), dorsal striatum (DS), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We also investigated the effect of the preferential MOR antagonist naloxone on cue-induced heroin seeking during abstinence.