Effects of systemic inflammation on the network oscillation in the anterior cingulate cortex and cognitive behavior.

Network oscillation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a key role in attention, novelty detection and anxiety; however, its involvement in cognitive impairment caused by acute systemic inflammation is unclear. To investigate the acute effects of systemic inflammation on ACC network oscillation and cognitive function, we analyzed cytokine level and cognitive performance as well as network oscillation in the mouse ACC Cg1 region, within 4 hours after lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 30 μg/kg) administration. While the interleukin-6 concentration in the serum was evidently higher in LPS-treated mice, the increases in the cerebral cortex interleukin-6 did not reach statistical significance.

Correlation Between Cued Fear Memory Retrieval and Oscillatory Network Inhibition in the Amygdala Is Disrupted by Acute REM Sleep Deprivation.

The basolateral amygdaloid complex (BLA) is critically involved in emotional behaviors, such as aversive memory formation. In particular, fear memory after cued fear conditioning is strongly associated with the BLA, whereas both the BLA and hippocampus are essential for contextual fear memory formation. In the present study, we examined the effects of acute (3 h) sleep deprivation (SD) on BLA-associated fear memory in juvenile (P24-32) rats and performed in vitro electrophysiology using whole-cell patch clamping from the basolateral nucleus (BA) of the BLA.

Gartland Type III Pediatric Supracondylar Humerus Fracture with Radial Nerve Laceration: A Case Report.

Case: A 6-year-old boy sustained complete radial nerve palsy with a Gartland type III supracondylar humerus fracture (SCHF). Posteromedial displacement of the distal fragment was so severe that the tip of the proximal fragment protruded subcutaneously at the anterolateral aspect of the antecubital fossa. Immediate surgical exploration was performed to reveal radial nerve laceration.

Ezetimibe impairs transcellular lipid trafficking and induces large lipid droplet formation in intestinal absorptive epithelial cells.

Ezetimibe inhibits Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) protein, which mediates intracellular cholesterol trafficking from the brush border membrane to the endoplasmic reticulum, where chylomicron assembly takes place in enterocytes or in the intestinal absorptive epithelial cells. Cholesterol is a minor lipid constituent of chylomicrons; however, whether or not a shortage of cholesterol attenuates chylomicron assembly is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ezetimibe, a potent NPC1L1 inhibitor, on trans-epithelial lipid transport, and chylomicron assembly and secretion in enterocytes.

Chronic Restraint Stress Affects Network Oscillations in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Mice.

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is vulnerable to stress. Its dysfunction is observed in psychiatric disorders manifested as alterations in network oscillations. Mechanisms linking stress load to disturbed emotional-cognitive behaviors are of essential importance to further elucidate therapeutic strategies for psychiatric diseases.

Acute Sleep Deprivation Reduces Oscillatory Network Inhibition in the Young Rat Basolateral Amygdala.

The amygdala is concerned with the emotional memory consolidation, and is known as a stress-vulnerable region of the brain. Slow network oscillation is considered to play roles in memory consolidation during sleep. We investigated the relationship between the sleep and oscillation in the basolateral nucleus (BL) of the amygdala, in which burst firing is preferentially observed during sleep and the slow inhibitory oscillation is recorded from projection neuron.

Ca-dependent inhibition of branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase by thiamine pyrophosphate.

Catabolism of the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine) is regulated by the branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKDH) complex, which in turn is regulated by phosphorylation catalyzed by BCKDH kinase (BDK). Thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) is required as a coenzyme for the E1 component of the BCKDH complex and can also bring about activation of the complex by inhibiting BDK. The present study shows that free Ca in the physiological range greatly increases the sensitivity of BDK to inhibition by TPP (IC of 2.

Analysis of lipid raft molecules in the living brain slices.

Neuronal plasma membrane has been thought to retain a lot of lipid raft components which play important roles in the neural function. Although the biochemical analyses of lipid raft using brain tissues have been extensively carried out in the past 20 years, many of their experimental conditions do not coincide with those of standard neuroscience researches such as neurophysiology and neuropharmacology. Hence, the physiological methods for lipid raft analysis that can be compatible with general neuroscience have been required.

Evaluation of a novel sugar coating method for moisture protective tablets.

A novel method of manufacturing one-step dry-coated (OSDRC) tablets, which we recently invented, was used to produce sugar-coated tablets protected from moisture without the need for a conventional complicated sugar coating process. Amorphous sucrose was selected for the outer layer of the OSDRC tablets as sugar-coated layer. The isothermal crystallization behavior and characteristics such as water vapor permeability, tensile strength, and disintegration time of compressed amorphous sucrose were investigated.

Unique oxidation reaction of amides with pyridine-N-oxide catalyzed by ruthenium porphyrin: direct oxidative conversion of N-acyl-L-proline to N-acyl-L-glutamate.

Oxidations of alkanes, alkenes, and aromatic rings with pyridine N-oxides are efficiently catalyzed by ruthenium porphyrins under mild conditions. We show here that the oxidation of N-acyl cyclic amines with RuIVtetraarylporphyrin dichloride-2,6-substituted pyridine N-oxides directly gives N-acyl amino acids in modest to good yield via oxidative C-N bond cleavage. N-Acylpyrrolidines and N-acylpiperidines were converted to N-acyl-gamma-aminobutyric acids and N-acyl-delta-aminovaleric acids, respectively.