Beta-amyloid(1-42)-induced cholinergic lesions in rat nucleus basalis bidirectionally modulate serotonergic innervation of the basal forebrain and cerebral cortex.

Ample experimental evidence suggests that beta-amyloid (A beta), when injected into the rat magnocellular nucleus basalis (MBN), impels excitotoxic injury of cholinergic projection neurons. Whereas learning and memory dysfunction is a hallmark of A beta-induced cholinergic deficits, anxiety, or hypoactivity under novel conditions cannot be attributed to the loss of cholinergic MBN neurons. As mood-related behavioral parameters are primarily influenced by the central serotonergic system, in the present study we investigated whether A beta(1-42) toxicity in the rat MBN leads to an altered serotonergic innervation pattern in the rat basal forebrain and cerebral cortex 7 days postsurgery.

[Time-course of interocular alignment in arteficially esotropic cats].

Strabismus induced by eye-muscle surgery is a widely accepted experimental model of discordant binocular vision. Up to now, no attention was paid to the progress of strabismus in the postsurgical period, although, the grade of the developing strabismus is strongly influenced by the loss of binocularity in the visual system. Following lateral rectus laminotomy of 2-week-old kittens, the Hirschberg method and prisms were used to assess interocular alignment.

Postnatal development of unipolar brush cells in the cerebellar cortex of cat.

The postnatal developmental distribution pattern of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1a) immunoreactive unipolar brush cells (UBCs) was studied in the cerebellar cortex of kittens. On the day of birth (P0) UBCs are already present in the white matter in lobule X of the vermis, but only a few of these cell seemed to migrate to the deeper region of the internal granular layer. By the end of the first week (P8) UBCs were seen to invade the white matter + internal granular layer of lobules IX, VIII, I, and II of the vermis, and they spread further in the transitory area medio-laterally from the vermis toward the cerebellar hemispheres.

Immunocytochemical mapping of NPY and VIP neuronal elements in the cat subcortical visual nuclei, with special reference to the pretectum and accessory optic system.

The aim of this study was to describe the distribution patterns of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-immunoreactive (ir) neuronal elements in subcortical visual centers of the cat. Numerous NPY-ir neurons were present in the feline nucleus of the optic tract and in the anterior pretectal nucleus. Only a few NPY-ir neurons were found in the posterior, medial and olivary pretectal nuclei and in the accessory optic nuclei.

Metabotrop glutamate receptor type 1a expressing unipolar brush cells in the cerebellar cortex of different species: a comparative quantitative study.

Morphology, distribution and number of unipolar brush cells (UBCs) was studied in the cerebellar vermal lobules I-X of the chicken, rat, guinea pig, cat, and monkey using monoclonal mGluR1a antibody as a marker to visualise these recently described nerve cells (Mugnaini and Floris [1994] J. Comp. Neurol.