In senescent cells, a DNA damage response drives not only irreversible loss of replicative capacity but also production and secretion of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and bioactive peptides including pro-inflammatory cytokines. This makes senescent cells a potential cause of tissue functional decline in aging. To our knowledge, we show here for the first time evidence suggesting that DNA damage...

multiple sclerosis (ms) is a complex disease resulting from the occurrence of intermingled episodes of neuro-inflammation and degeneration. the temporal and spatial patterns in which these events occur are not well understood as well as the molecular substrates underlying it. myelin loss and gain, as well as axonal damage are considered crucial events influencing the course of the disease but t...

Dopamine acts through two classes of G protein-coupled receptor (D1-like and D2-like) to modulate neuron activity in the brain. While subtypes of D1- and D2-like receptors are coexpressed in many neurons of the mammalian brain, it is unclear how signaling by these coexpressed receptors interacts to modulate the activity of the neuron in which they are expressed. D1- and D2-like dopamine recepto...

Neurons in the accessory optic system (AOS) and pretectum are involved in the analysis of optic flow and the generation of the optokinetic response. Previous studies found that neurons in the pretectum and AOS exhibit direction selectivity in response to large-field motion and are tuned in the spatiotemporal domain. Furthermore, it has been emphasized that pretectal and AOS neurons are tuned to...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) show great promise in drug discovery and clinical application. Yet few efforts have been made to optimize biocompatible materials for such be expanded used conditions. We previously demonstrated that NSCs are readily cultured on substrates of certain recombinant spider silk protein without addition animal- or human-derived components. The question remains however whethe...

Introduction: Cell therapy has been widely considered as a therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative diseases and nervous system damage. Cholinergic neurons as one of the most important neurons that play a significant role in controlling emotions, mobility, and autonomic systems. In this study, human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) were differentiated into the cholinergic neurons by β-mercapto...

Dopamine is a major neurotransmitter in neural systems innervating the striatum, and dopamine receptors are expressed during early pattern formation in the developing striatum. To test for the functional responsiveness of developing striatal neurons to dopaminergic stimulation, we established an organotypic slice culture of newborn rat striatum. We analyzed the effects of dopamine receptor agon...