Caloric restriction enhances fear extinction learning in mice.

Fear extinction learning, the ability to reassess a learned cue of danger as safe when it no longer predicts aversive events, is often dysregulated in anxiety disorders. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) enhance neural plasticity and their ability to enhance fear extinction learning may explain their anxiolytic properties. Caloric restriction (CR) has SSRI-like effects on neural plasticity and anxiety-related behavior.

Downregulation of GluA2 AMPA receptor subunits reduces the dendritic arborization of developing spinal motoneurons.

AMPA receptors lacking the GluA2 subunit allow a significant influx of Ca(2+) ions. Although Ca(2+)-permeable AMPA receptors are a familiar feature at early stages of development, the functional significance of these receptors during the maturation of the nervous system remains to be established. Chicken lumbar motoneurons express Ca(2+)-permeable AMPA receptors at E6 but the Ca(2+) permeability of AMPA receptors decreases ∼3-fold by E11.

Pharmacological manipulation of GABA-driven activity in ovo disrupts the development of dendritic morphology but not the maturation of spinal cord network activity.

Background: In the adult nervous system, GABA acts as a major inhibitory neurotransmitter; however, at early stages of neurodevelopment, GABA receptor activation leads to membrane depolarization and accumulation of [Ca2+]i. The role of excitatory GABAergic neurotransmission in the development of the nervous system is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the role of excitatory GABA-driven activity in regulating the dendritic morphology and network function in the developing chicken spinal cord.

Inhibition of electrical activity by retroviral infection with Kir2.1 transgenes disrupts electrical differentiation of motoneurons.

Network-driven spontaneous electrical activity in the chicken spinal cord regulates a variety of developmental processes including neuronal differentiation and formation of neuromuscular structures. In this study we have examined the effect of chronic inhibition of spinal cord activity on motoneuron survival and differentiation. Early spinal cord activity in chick embryos was blocked using an avian replication-competent retroviral vector RCASBP (B) carrying the inward rectifier potassium channel Kir2.

FasL shedding is reduced by hypothermia in experimental stroke.

Protection by mild hypothermia has previously been associated with better mitochondrial preservation and suppression of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. It is also known that the brain may undergo apoptotic death via extrinsic, or receptor-mediated pathways, such as that triggered by Fas/FasL. Male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to 2 h middle cerebral artery occlusion with 2 h intraischemic mild hypothermia (33 degrees C) were assayed for Fas, FasL and caspase-8 expression.

Reduction in levels of matrix metalloproteinases and increased expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 in response to mild hypothermia therapy in experimental stroke.

Object: Mild hypothermia is a robust neuroprotectant, and the results of prospective clinical trials have indicated that it may improve neurological outcome in certain instances. One aspect of this protection has been associated with the prevention of blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been implicated in BBB disruption because they can degrade the extracellular matrix.