Religion in Russia: Its impact on university student medical cannabis attitudes and beliefs.

Despite significant research, the benefits and risks of cannabis for medical purposes remain elusive. However, there is one factor about the substance that is clear - there is a dearth of knowledge about attitudes and beliefs toward its use in Russia where the substance in any form is strictly prohibited. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of affiliation with religion on university student attitudes and beliefs toward cannabis for medical conditions.

Nitroxidergic modulation of behavioural, cardiovascular and immune responses, and brain NADPH diaphorase activity upon morphine tolerance/dependence in rats.

Opioid and non-opioid effects of acute and chronic morphine administration on behaviour, cardiovascular responses, cell proliferation and apoptosis and nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) activity were studied in rats. A novel score-point scale was introduced to quantify the signs of opioid withdrawal syndrome. NOS inhibitor L-NAME (N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester) was applied to reveal the role of NOS/NO pathway in the modulation of morphine-induced and responses.

Recovery of whisking function promoted by manual stimulation of the vibrissal muscles after facial nerve injury requires insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).

Recently, we showed that manual stimulation (MS) of denervated vibrissal muscles enhanced functional recovery following facial nerve cut and suture (FFA) by reducing poly-innervation at the neuro-muscular junctions (NMJ). Although the cellular correlates of poly-innervation are established, with terminal Schwann cells (TSC) processes attracting axon sprouts to "bridge" adjacent NMJ, molecular correlates are poorly understood. Since quantitative RT-PCR revealed a rapid increase of IGF-1 mRNA in denervated muscles, we examined the effect of daily MS for 2 months after FFA in IGF-1(+/-) heterozygous mice; controls were wild-type (WT) littermates including intact animals.

Aged human thymus hassall's corpuscles are immunoreactive for IGF-I and IGF-I receptor.

Although Hassall's corpuscles have been proposed to act in both maturation of developing thymocytes and removal of apoptotic cells, their function remains an enigma. The involvement of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in the local autocrine and paracrine control of T-cell development in human thymus is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the structure and distribution of IGF-I and IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR)-immunopositive Hassall's corpuscles in aged human thymus using bright-field immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy.