Meloxicam improves object recognition memory and modulates glial activation after splenectomy in mice.

Context: Surgery-induced neuroinflammation has been implicated in the development of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD).

Objective: To test the hypothesis that meloxicam, a selective cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor, preserves postoperative cognitive function and inhibits surgery-induced neuroinflammation in a mouse model.

Design: A mouse model of splenectomy-induced inflammation.

Nimodipine-induced hypotension but not nitroglycerin-induced hypotension preserves long- and short-term memory in adult mice.

Background: Acute hypotension may be implicated in cognitive dysfunction. L-type calcium channel blockers in the setting of hypoxia are protective of learning and memory. We tested the hypothesis that hypotension induced by nimodipine (NIMO) and nicardipine (NICA) would be protective of long- and short-term memory compared to hypotension induced by nitroglycerin (NTG).

Nimodipine prevents memory impairment caused by nitroglycerin-induced hypotension in adult mice.

Background: Hypotension and a resultant decrease in cerebral blood flow have been implicated in the development of cognitive dysfunction. We tested the hypothesis that nimodipine (NIMO) administered at the onset of nitroglycerin (NTG)-induced hypotension would preserve long-term associative memory.

Methods: The passive avoidance (PA) paradigm was used to assess memory retention.

A developmental switch in acute sensitization of small dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to capsaicin or noxious heating by NGF.

Using dissociated rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, we have explored the ability of nerve growth factor (NGF) to acutely (within minutes) sensitize responses of nociceptors to capsaicin or noxious heat during postnatal development. While robust sensitization of noxious heat or capsaicin responses by NGF is observed in adult DRG neurons, responses to such stimuli in trkA-positive neurons from early postnatal animals are not sensitized by NGF. Neurons acquire sensitivity to the hyperalgesic effects of NGF between postnatal days 4 and 10 (P4-P10).

Mechanisms of sensitization of the response of single dorsal root ganglion cells from adult rat to noxious heat.

We investigated the regulation by nerve growth factor of the response of sensory neurons to noxious heat (>43 degrees C). In dissociated dorsal root ganglion neurons (<30 micro m) from adult rat we demonstrated, using perforated patch clamp recording, that the inward current elicited in response to noxious heating is enhanced by nerve growth factor and reduced by capsazepine. The tachyphylaxis observed in response to the second of two heat pulses was reversed in most cells when nerve growth factor was introduced into the medium during the 5 min between the two heat stimuli, similar to findings using capsaicin [X.