The natural history of fetal diagnosed isolated ventricular septal defect.

Objective: This study was undertaken to clarify the natural course of ventricular septal defect, and to find an index that would help in prenatal counseling.

Methods: Between January 2010 and December 2014, 18 188 fetuses underwent echocardiographic examinations. Of these, 228 isolated ventricular septal defect cases were retrospectively reviewed.

Clinical characteristics of prenatally diagnosed persistent left superior vena cava in low-risk pregnancies.

Objective: To determine the incidence and clinical characteristics of persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC) among low-risk pregnancies. We have also compared electrocardiography (ECG) parameters of infants with PLSVC with those of normal controls.

Method: At our institute, fetal echocardiogram is routinely performed in the midtrimester.

Preference for distinct functional conformations of the dopamine transporter alters the relationship between subjective effects of cocaine and stimulation of mesolimbic dopamine.

Background: Subjective effects of cocaine are mediated primarily by dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) blockade. The present study assessed the hypothesis that different DAT conformational equilibria regulate differences in cocaine-like subjective effects and extracellular DA induced by diverse DA-uptake inhibitors (DUIs).

Methods: The relationship between cocaine-like subjective effects and stimulation of mesolimbic DA levels by standard DUIs (cocaine, methylphenidate, WIN35,428) and atypical DUIs (benztropine analogs: AHN1-055, AHN2-005, JHW007) was investigated using cocaine discrimination and DA microdialysis procedures in rats.

Aromatic radiofluorination and biological evaluation of 2-aryl-6-[18F]fluorobenzothiazoles as a potential positron emission tomography imaging probe for β-amyloid plaques.

To develop agents for radionuclide imaging Aβ plaques in vivo, we prepared three fluorine-substituted analogs of arylbenzothiazole class; compound 2 has a high affinity for Aβ (K(i)=5.5nM) and the specific binding to Aβ in fluorescent staining. In preparation for the synthesis of these arylbenzothiazole analogs in radiolabeled form as an Aβ plaques-specific positron emission tomography (PET) imaging probe, we investigated synthetic route suitable for its labeling with the short-lived PET radionuclide fluorine-18 (t(1/2)=110min) and diaryliodonium tosylate precursors (12, 13a-e and 14).

Glutamate regulates neurite outgrowth of cultured descending brain neurons from larval lamprey.

In larval lamprey, descending brain neurons, which regenerate their axons following spinal cord injury, were isolated and examined in cell culture to identify some of the factors that regulate neurite outgrowth. Focal application of 5 mM or 25 mM L-glutamate to single growth cones inhibited outgrowth of the treated neurite, but other neurites from the same neuron were not inhibited, an effect that has not been well studied for neurons in other systems. Glutamate-induced inhibition of neurite outgrowth was abolished by 10 mM kynurenic acid.

Effect of nitric oxide synthase inhibitor and NMDA receptor antagonist on the development of nicotine sensitization of nucleus accumbens dopamine release: an in vivo microdialysis study.

We have previously found that the neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) and the noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist MK-801 prevent behavioral sensitization to nicotine. This study aimed to investigate the effect of L-NNA and MK-801 on a neurochemical component of nicotine sensitization by evaluating the effect of the drugs on nicotine sensitization of nucleus accumbens dopamine (DA) release. Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with L-NNA (15 mg/kg, i.

Immunocytochemical localization of calretinin in the superficial layers of the cat superior colliculus.

We localized calretinin-immunoreactive (IR) fibers and cells in the superior colliculus (SC) of the cat and studied the distribution and effect of enucleation on the distribution of this protein. Calretinin was localized with antibody immunocytochemistry. A dense plexus of anti-calretinin-IR fibers was found within the upper part of the superficial gray layer.