Novel Pathway of Adenosine Generation in the Lungs from NAD: Relevance to Allergic Airway Disease.

Adenosine and uric acid (UA) play a pivotal role in lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the present experiments, we measured adenosine synthesis from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in membranes prepared from wild type (WT) and CD38 knockout (CD38KO) mouse lungs, from cultured airway smooth muscle and epithelial cells, and in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid after airway challenge with epidemiologically relevant allergens. Adenosine was determined using an enzymatically coupled assay that produces ATP and is detected by luminescence.

Dopamine-Evoked Synaptic Regulation in the Nucleus Accumbens Requires Astrocyte Activity.

Dopamine is involved in physiological processes like learning and memory, motor control and reward, and pathological conditions such as Parkinson's disease and addiction. In contrast to the extensive studies on neurons, astrocyte involvement in dopaminergic signaling remains largely unknown. Using transgenic mice, optogenetics, and pharmacogenetics, we studied the role of astrocytes on the dopaminergic system.

Activity-dependent switch of GABAergic inhibition into glutamatergic excitation in astrocyte-neuron networks.

Interneurons are critical for proper neural network function and can activate Ca signaling in astrocytes. However, the impact of the interneuron-astrocyte signaling into neuronal network operation remains unknown. Using the simplest hippocampal Astrocyte-Neuron network, i.

Strain-specific regulation of striatal phenotype in Drd2-eGFP BAC transgenic mice.

Mice carrying bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenes have become important tools for neuroscientists, providing a powerful means of dissecting complex neural circuits in the brain. Recently, it was reported that one popular line of these mice--mice possessing a BAC transgene with a D(2) dopamine receptor (Drd2) promoter construct coupled to an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) reporter--had abnormal striatal gene expression, physiology, and motor behavior. Unlike most of the work using BAC mice, this interesting study relied upon mice backcrossed on the outbred Swiss Webster (SW) strain that were homozygous for the Drd2-eGFP BAC transgene.