Chronic Treatment with Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors Does Not Affect Regrowth of Serotonin Axons Following Amphetamine Injury in the Mouse Forebrain.

A current hypothesis to explain the limited recovery following brain and spinal cord trauma stems from the dogma that neurons in the mammalian central nervous system lack the ability to regenerate their axons after injury. Serotonin (5-HT) neurons in the adult brain are a notable exception in that they can slowly regrow their axons following chemical or mechanical lesions. This process of regrowth occurs without intervention over several months and results in anatomical recovery that approximates the preinjured state.

A Caenorhabditis elegans model of adenylosuccinate lyase deficiency reveals neuromuscular and reproductive phenotypes of distinct etiology.

Inborn errors of purine metabolism are rare syndromes with an array of complex phenotypes in humans. One such disorder, adenylosuccinate lyase deficiency (ASLD), is caused by a decrease in the activity of the bi-functional purine biosynthetic enzyme adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL). Mutations in human ADSL cause epilepsy, muscle ataxia, and autistic-like symptoms.

GluK2 Is a Target for Gene Therapy in Drug-Resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is characterized by recurrent seizures generated in the limbic system, particularly in the hippocampus. In TLE, recurrent mossy fiber sprouting from dentate gyrus granule cells (DGCs) crea an aberrant epileptogenic network between DGCs which operates via ectopically expressed GluK2/GluK5-containing kainate receptors (KARs). TLE patients are often resistant to anti-seizure medications and suffer significant comorbidities; hence, there is an urgent need for novel therapies.

Neuronal Redevelopment and the Regeneration of Neuromodulatory Axons in the Adult Mammalian Central Nervous System.

One reason that many central nervous system injuries, including those arising from traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and stroke, have limited recovery of function is that neurons within the adult mammalian CNS lack the ability to regenerate their axons following trauma. This stands in contrast to neurons of the adult mammalian peripheral nervous system (PNS). New evidence, provided by single-cell expression profiling, suggests that, following injury, both mammalian central and peripheral neurons can revert to an embryonic-like growth state which is permissive for axon regeneration.

Treatment responses in collagenous colitis.

Objective: In the nearly 20 yr since collagenous colitis was first recognized, the results of therapies have not been systematically described in substantial numbers of patients. We have therefore conducted a retrospective analysis of 26 patients treated in this institution during the years 1991-1994.

Methods: Twenty-nine cases of collagenous colitis were obtained by review of biopsy specimens collected between 1991 and 1994 at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Inflammatory bowel disease after 1932.

The clinical diseases of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) were defined by 1932-1933. After that, the major conceptual developments were the recognition that regional enteritis could clearly involve the colon, and that cancer and toxic megacolon could occur in both CD and UC. In the last half of the 20th century the main thrust of gastroenterology at The Mount Sinai Hospital has been in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with contributions to extra-intestinal manifestations, measurement of clinical activity in CD, the natural history of the placebo arm of controlled trials, complications and therapy with corticosteroids, 5-ASA, 6-mercaptopurine, immunomodulators and cyclosporine.

A gastroenterological list for the millennium.

To determine the 10 most significant advances in gastroenterology during this century as we approach the millennium, the authors polled 50 distinguished active clinicians and leading researchers in the field, including workers in liver disease and the pathology of the gut and its associated glands. Forty-five persons (90%) responded and listed 58 different items. These were then organized into four groups: group A, with 10 categories that received between 42 and 11 votes; group B, with 10 categories that received between 10 and 3 votes; group C, with 3 items receiving 2 votes each; and group D, with the remaining 14 items receiving 1 vote each.

Systemic amyloidosis and the gastrointestinal tract.

Systemic amyloidosis is caused by a variety of different diseases and frequently involves the gastrointestinal tract. Each type of amyloid affects the gastrointestinal tract differently. This article reviews the unique pathogenesis, pattern of gastrointestinal disposition, diagnosis, and treatment of the five systemic amyloidoses, and discusses the gastrointestinal diseases that cause systemic amyloidosis: inflammatory bowel disease and familial Mediterranean fever.

[Laparoscopic reposition and fixation of the left displaced abomasum in cattle].

This article explains a minimally invasive technique for surgical correction of the left displaced abomasum in cattle. Endoscopic photographs show how the abomasum will be deflated, replaced and percutaneously fixed. Laparoscopy makes it possible to fix the fundus of the abomasum in all clinical conditions, independent of size, gas filling and fluid in abomasum and rumen.

The role of the fecal stream in Crohn's disease: an historical and analytic review.

Since 1939, a series of clinical reports and laboratory investigations have suggested that the intestinal fecal stream may play a significant part in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). The beneficial effect of exclusion of the stream by ileostomy was followed by improvement in patients with CD of the ileum and colon despite little change in the histopathology of the excluded loop, even to the point of allowing restoration of intestinal continuity in some patients. End ileostomy lowers the risk of recurrence of CD compared with anastomotic operations.

A decade's experience with a preceptorship. A model for gastroenterologic education.

I have conducted an experiment in medical subspecialty education during the last 10 years in the division of gastroenterology of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the form of 3-month preceptorships during the second year of the fellowship. I recognized that our training program, along with other subspecialty training programs, was no longer a purely hospital affair, but its future lay as well in the outpatient setting. I wanted to have the fellows participate in the daily care of patients in the realistic setting of practice.

Celiac sprue, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and hepatic granulomatous disease. An autoimmune linkage?

We report the case of a patient with celiac sprue in whom idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and associated hepatic granulomatous disease developed. We suggest that the three processes are linked through autoimmune mechanisms.