Retained fetal bone post-abortion causing infertility.

Fetal bone retention is a rare but under-diagnosed complication after abortion. If left untreated, it can cause menstrual dysfunction and secondary infertility. We present a case of a 39-year-old woman who undergone abortion 20 years ago but suffered with secondary infertility due to retained fetal bone.

Interactions of cone cannabinoid CB1 and dopamine D4 receptors increase day/night difference in rod-cone gap junction coupling in goldfish retina.

Key Points: Although cone and rod photoreceptor cells in the retina have a type of cannabinoid receptor called a CB1 receptor, little is known about how cannabinoids, the active component in marijuana, affect retinal function. Studies have shown that a circadian (24-h) clock in the retina uses dopamine receptors, which are also on photoreceptors, to regulate gap junctions (a type of cell-to-cell communication) between rods and cones, so that they are functional (open) at night but closed in the day. We show that CB receptors have opposite effects on rod-cone gap junctions in day and night, decreasing communication in the day when dopamine receptors are active and increasing communication when dopamine receptors are inactive.

A Circadian Clock in the Retina Regulates Rod-Cone Gap Junction Coupling and Neuronal Light Responses Activation of Adenosine A Receptors.

Adenosine, a major neuromodulator in the central nervous system (CNS), is involved in a variety of regulatory functions such as the sleep/wake cycle. Because exogenous adenosine displays dark- and night-mimicking effects in the vertebrate retina, we tested the hypothesis that a circadian (24 h) clock in the retina uses adenosine to control neuronal light responses and information processing. Using a variety of techniques in the intact goldfish retina including measurements of adenosine overflow and content, tracer labeling, and electrical recording of the light responses of cone photoreceptor cells and cone horizontal cells (cHCs), which are post-synaptic to cones, we demonstrate that a circadian clock in the retina itself-but not activation of melatonin or dopamine receptors-controls extracellular and intracellular adenosine levels so that they are highest during the subjective night.

Hypnotic effect of jujubosides from Semen Ziziphi Spinosae.

Ethnopharmacological Significance: Semen Ziziphi Spinosae, the seed of Ziziphus jujuba Mill. var. spinosa (bunge) Hu ex H.