Safety and Efficacy of Gabapentin for Pain in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review.

Context: Gabapentin has shown benefits for a variety of pain etiologies in adult patients, with off-label use as an adjunctive agent in pediatric patients occurring more frequently.

Objectives: To summarize the studies which evaluate safety and efficacy of gabapentin for the treatment of pediatric pain.

Data Sources: A systematic review of the literature was conducted via PubMed query with controlled vocabulary and key terms using indexed medical subject heading.

Bone loss in a new rodent model combining spinal cord injury and cast immobilization.

Objectives: Characterize bone loss in our newly developed severe contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) plus hindlimb immobilization (IMM) model and determine the influence of muscle contractility on skeletal integrity after SCI.

Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to: (a) intact controls, (b) severe contusion SCI euthanized at Day 7 (SCI-7) or (c) Day 21 (SCI-21), (d) 14 days IMM-alone, (e) SCI+IMM, or (f) SCI+IMM plus 14 days body weight supported treadmill exercise (SCI+IMM+TM).

Results: SCI-7 and SCI-21 exhibited a >20% reduction in cancellous volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) in the hindlimbs (p⋜0.

Overexpression of int-5/aromatase in mammary glands of transgenic mice results in the induction of hyperplasia and nuclear abnormalities.

Our recent studies have shown that the cellular gene at the mouse mammary tumor virus integration site in the int-5 locus is aromatase. To study the role of int-5/aromatase in normal mammary development and mammary neoplasia, we have generated transgenic mice that overexpress int-5/aromatase under the control of mouse mammary tumor virus enhancer/promoter. All the transgenic virgin (n = 10) and postlactational (n = 15) females that overexpress int-5/aromatase show various histological abnormalities.

Human neurons that constitutively secrete A beta do not induce Alzheimer's disease pathology following transplantation and long-term survival in the rodent brain.

Since cultured neurons secrete beta-amyloid (A beta) peptides, and A beta forms amyloid deposits in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain, transplanted neurons may induce the deposition of A beta in the host brain. To assess this possibility, we studied grafted human neurons (NT2N cells) and their progenitors (NT2 cells) in the rodent brain. Although NT2N cells secrete more A beta than the NT2 cells in vitro, no A beta deposits or other AD lesions were induced in the rodent brain by grafts that survived days (NT2 and NT2N cells) to 46 weeks (NT2N cells).

Neurons derived from a human teratocarcinoma cell line establish molecular and structural polarity following transplantation into the rodent brain.

Studies of neurons grafted into the brains of experimental animals have been limited by the lack of suitably homogeneous populations of neurons for transplantation. Here we describe the transplantation and survival of pure, postmitotic human neurons (NT2N cells) into the rat brain. NT2N cells were derived from a human teratocarcinoma line (NTera2/clone D1 or NT2 cells) in vitro by retinoic acid treatment.