Chronic fluoxetine enhances extinction therapy for PTSD by evaluating brain glucose metabolism in rats: an [F]FDG PET study.

Background: Recent studies suggest that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and exposure therapies have been used to reduced footshock-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, the therapeutic effect of the combination of SSRIs treatment with exposure therapy remains a matter of debate. This study aimed to evaluate these therapeutic effect through the behavioural and the neuroimaging changes by positron emission tomography (PET) in model rats.

Phytosterols ameliorate clinical manifestations and inflammation in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Introduction: Using experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS), the objective of this study was to examine the effect of phytosterol (PS) administration on inflammation-based EAE development.

Methods: Female SJL mice were orally administered PS prior to disease induction and maintained throughout the experiment. EAE was induced with antigenic peptide (PLP(131-155)).

Effect of carbogen on tumour oxygenation and 32P-colloid interstitial irradiation response.

Background: Interstitial irradiation therapy using radionuclides is a slow and continual process in which the effect is exerted gradually, thus improvement of the hypoxic status of the tumor will also take a long time. It has been known that carbogen delivery of 5-15 min increases tumor oxygenation. However, the long-term effect of carbogen breathing on hypoxic cells has not yet been determined, and little is know about the effect of carbogen breathing for sensitization to interstitial irradiation therapy.

Evaluation of lung lesions using FDG gamma-camera PET equipped with a one-inch crystal.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) imaging with gamma-camera positron emission tomography (GCPET) equipped with a one-inch crystal for diagnosing lung lesions and determining the stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in regions with a high prevalence of inflammatory disease and tuberculosis. FDG-GCPET was used to examine 103 patients with suspected malignant lesions in the lung. The results of FDG-GCPET and conventional workup (CWU) including computed tomography (CT), ultrasonography and radionuclide bone scintigraphy were compared.

Treatment with an estrogen receptor alpha ligand is neuroprotective in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory, neurodegenerative disease for which experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a model. Treatments with estrogens have been shown to decrease the severity of EAE through anti-inflammatory mechanisms. Here we investigated whether treatment with an estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) ligand could recapitulate the estrogen-mediated protection in clinical EAE.

Androgens are protective in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis: implications for multiple sclerosis.

A gender difference prevails in some murine strains of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS). Our results showed that castration of SJL males, a strain characterized by decreased susceptibility of males as compared to females, displayed increased disease severity. In contrast, castration had no effect on disease in C57BL/6 males, a strain in which no gender difference in EAE is observed.

Estrogen receptor alpha mediates estrogen's immune protection in autoimmune disease.

Estrogens are known to influence a variety of autoimmune diseases, but it is not known whether their actions are mediated through classic estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha). The presence of a functional ER was demonstrated in secondary lymphoid tissues, then ERalpha expression was shown at both the RNA and protein levels in these tissues. Use of ERalpha knockout mice revealed that both the estrogen-induced disease protection and the estrogen-induced reduction in proinflammatory cytokines were dependent upon ERalpha in the prototypic Th1-mediated autoimmune disease experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis relapses are reduced in heterozygous golli MBP knockout mice.

Increased golli MBP (golli) expression has been observed in the peripheral immune system of mice in the relapsing phase of EAE, raising the possibility that golli MBP expression in the periphery may contribute to relapses. Here we describe the generation of golli MBP-deficient mice and a comparison of the clinical course of EAE between heterozygous (golli(+/-)) and wild-type (golli(+/+)) mice. There was no difference between the two groups in incidence of disease, severity of the first episode of disease, or remission after the first episode.