PURPOSE In experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU), recent work has demonstrated that retinal damage involves oxidative stress early in uveitis, before macrophage cellular infiltration. The purpose of this study was to determine whether oxidative mitochondrial DNA damage occurs early in EAU, before leukocyte infiltration. METHODS Lewis rats were immunized with S-antigen mixed with complete Freu...

It is well established that the majority of headache and other trigeminal nerve-associated disorders have higher prevalence in females than in males. However, the pathogenesis of many chronic trigeminal pain conditions, such as trigeminal neuralgia, migraine and temporo-mandibular disorders, is still not known. One of the proposed mechanisms involve calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which...

Our previous in vitro studies led to proposals that the atypical chemokine receptor CCX-CKR is a scavenger of CCR7 ligand homeostatic chemokines. In the present study, we generated CCX-CKR(-/-) mice and confirm this scavenger function in vivo. Compared with wild-type mice, CCX-CKR(-/-) have a 5-fold increase in the level of CCL21 protein in blood, and 2- to 3-fold increases in CCL19 and CCL21 i...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA polymerase was released from phorbol ester-treated tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) cells (B95-8) and prepared for use as an antigen by sequential column chromatography with DEAE-Sephadex A-25, DEAE-cellulose, phosphocellulose, and single-stranded DNA cellulose. Proteins from single-stranded DNA cellulose with DNA polymerase activity in 100 mM ammonium sulfate were mixed ...

In a search of peripheral factors that could be responsible for the discrepancy in susceptibility to EAE in Albino Oxford (AO) and Dark Agouti (DA) rats, we estimated the expression of metallothioneins I/II (MT), heat shock protein-gp96, interleukin (IL)-6, and transforming growth factor (TGF)- β in the livers of these animals. Rats were immunized with bovine brain homogenate (BBH) emulsified i...

BACKGROUND This study aims to identify that intrathecal (i.t.) injection of dexmedetomidine (Dex) and ropivacaine (Ropi) induces synergistic analgesia on chronic inflammatory pain and is accompanied with corresponding "neuron-astrocytic" alterations. METHODS Male, adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham, control and i.t. medication groups. The analgesia profiles of i.t. Dex,...

BACKGROUND Previous study showed that extracts from Croton macrostachyus (Euphorbiaceae) exhibit analgesic effects in acute pain models. The present study evaluates the antinociceptive properties of the methanol/methylene chloride extract (MECM) of the stem bark of this plant using mice models of persistent inflammatory and neuropathic pain, and assesses its mechanism of action. METHODS MECM ...

Introduction: The systemic and local content of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines play substantial roles in pathophysiology of arthritis. This study was purposed to verify the roles of synovial TNF-α, IL-6 and fractalkine (Fkn) in edema changes during different stages of Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA)-induced knee arthritis in rats. Methods: 168 male Wistar rats were divided i...

Bioluminescence imaging is a sensitive approach for longitudinal neuroimaging. Transgenic mice expressing luciferase under the promoter of doublecortin (DCX-luc), a specific marker of neuronal progenitor cells (NPC), allow monitoring of neurogenesis in living mice. Since the extent and time course of neurogenesis during autoimmune brain inflammation are controversial, we investigated neurogenes...