Deficiencies in neurotransmitter-specific cell groups in the midbrain result in prominent neural disorders, including Parkinson's disease, which is caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. We have investigated in mice the role of the engrailed homeodomain transcription factors, En-1 and En-2, in controlling the developmental fate of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. En-1...

Learning and memory is not an attribute of higher animals. Even Drosophila larvae are able to form and recall an association of a given odor with an aversive or appetitive gustatory reinforcer. As the Drosophila larva has turned into a particularly simple model for studying odor processing, a detailed neuronal and functional map of the olfactory pathway is available up to the third order neuron...

Reduction of mitochondrial complex I activity is one of the major hypotheses for dopaminergic neuron death in Parkinson's disease. However, reduction of complex I activity in all cells or selectively in dopaminergic neurons via conditional deletion of the Ndufs4 gene, a subunit of the mitochondrial complex I, does not cause dopaminergic neuron death or motor impairment. Here, we investigated th...

A hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. We derived human neuroepithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells and successfully differentiated them into dopaminergic neurons within phase-guided, three-dimensional microfluidic cell culture bioreactors. After 30 days of differentiation within the microfluidic bioreactors, in situ morpho...

The Cholinergic and GABAergic .bers of the medial septal/diagonal band of Broca (MS/DB) area project to the hippocampus and constitute the septo-hippocampal pathway, which has been proven to play a role in learning and memory. In addition, the hippocampus has bidirectional connections with the septum so that to self-regulate of cholinergic input. The activity of septal and hippocampal neuron...

We examined tyrosine hydroxylase (TH-GAL4) expression and anti-TH immunoreactivity in the Drosophila protocerebrum and characterized single cell clones of the TH-GAL4 neurons. Eight clusters of putative dopaminergic neurons were characterized. Neurons in three of the clusters project to the mushroom body neuropil: PAM neurons project to the medial portion of the horizontal lobes; PPL1 neurons p...

Aim: To differentiate mesenchymal stem cells into functional dopaminergic neurons using an electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) and graphene (G) nanocomposite. Methods: A one-step approach was used to electrospin the PCL nanocomposite, with varying G concentrations, followed by evaluating their biocompatibility neuronal differentiation. Results: exiguous demonstrated ideal nanotopography unpreced...

Parkinson's disease, characterized by motor dysfunction due to the loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, is one of the most prevalent age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Given there is no current cure, the stem cell approach has emerged as a viable therapeutic option to replace the dopaminergic neurons that are progressively lost to the disease. The success of the approach is likely ...

objective(s) the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dexamethasone on striatal dopaminergic, glutamatergic and gamma amino butyric acid (gaba) ergic neurotransmission in normal and parkinsonian rats. materials and methods dexamethasone (0.15, 0.30, 0.60 and 0.8 mg/kg) was administered to normal or parkinsonian rats (i.p.) followed by the analysis of the striatal neurotransmitters c...

Numerous observations strongly support the hypothesis that dopaminergic neurons could be particularly vulnerable to an impairment of their energetic metabolism. In order to demonstrate the existence of such a selective vulnerability, the toxic effects of rotenone, an inhibitor of complex I of the respiratory chain, and of glutamate, which is very likely involved in the neurotoxicity induced by ...