Baclofen modulates the immune response after spinal cord injury with locomotor benefits.

Background And Purpose: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a neurological condition that affects motor and sensory functions below the injury site. The consequences of SCI are devastating for the patients, and although significant efforts have been done in the last years, there is no effective therapy. Baclofen has emerged in the last few years as an interesting drug in the SCI field.

Mesenchymal stromal cell secretome for traumatic brain injury: Focus on immunomodulatory action.

The severity and long-term consequences of brain damage in traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients urgently calls for better neuroprotective/neuroreparative strategies for this devastating disorder. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) hold great promise and have been shown to confer neuroprotection in experimental TBI, mainly through paracrine mechanisms via secreted bioactive factors (i.e.

DU Is Induced by Low Levels of Urinary ATP in a Rat Model of Partial Bladder Outlet Obstruction: The Incidence of Both Events Decreases after Deobstruction.

Objectives: To investigate, in initial phases of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO), the urinary ATP levels, the incidence of detrusor underactivity (DU), and if they change after deobstruction.

Methods: Adult female Wistar rats submitted to partial BOO (pBOO) and sham-obstruction were used. Cystometry was performed 3 or 15 days after pBOO and fluid was collected from the urethra for ATP determination.

Underactive bladder in aging rats is associated with a reduced number of serotonin-expressing cells in the urethra and is improved by serotonin application to the urethra.

The aim of this study was to determine whether aging-related detrusor underactivity (DU) involves a decrease in 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT-positive)-expressing urethral cells and whether 5-HT stimulation of urethral sensory fibers improves detrusor function. Cystometries were performed in young (6 months) and aged (18-24 months) female Wistar rats. Aged rats with voiding contractions (VC) that were 2SD below the mean of those in young rats were considered to have DU.

Evidence for an urethro-vesical crosstalk mediated by serotonin.

Aim: To study the contribution of urethral serotonin for the urethro-vesical crosstalk METHODS: Urethane-anesthetized female rats and TPH1 mice underwent isovolumetric or urethral-opened cystometries during intravesical or intraurethral infusion of saline or serotonin solutions. Human and rat bladders and urethrae were immunoreacted against serotonin and neuronal markers. Serotonin concentration and TPH1 mRNA were determined in rat tissue by HPLC and qPCR.

Development of leprosy in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis during the infliximab treatment: reactivation of a latent infection?

The use of tumor necrosis factor alpha as a treatment for chronic inflammatory conditions has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of developing infections, especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis, atypical mycobacteria, and other microorganisms. We report the case of a 58-year-old man with ankylosing spondylitis, receiving infliximab treatment, who presented with multiple plaques on the face, chest, and extremities, a thickened, tender ulnar nerve, and severe neuritis of the feet. The results of a biopsy of these lesions revealed histopathological features of lepromatous Hansen disease.