OBJECTIVES Cognitive defects such as learning and memory impairment are amongst the most repetitious sequelae after sever and moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). It was suggested that ellagic acid (EA), an innate phenol product, display neuroprotective properties against oxidative and inflammatory damages after brain injury. The object of the current study was therapeutic properties of EA on...

Antipsychotics are often administered to traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients as a means of controlling agitation, albeit the rehabilitative consequences of this intervention are not well known. Hence, the goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of risperidone (RISP) and haloperidol (HAL) on behavioral outcome after experimental TBI. Anesthetized rats received either a cortical impact ...

Earlier we reported that the recombinant soluble (pro) renin receptor sPRR-His upregulates renal aquoporin-2 (AQP2) expression, and attenuates polyuria associated with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) induced by vasopressin type 2 receptor (V2R) antagonism. Patients that receive lithium therapy develop polyuria associated NDI that might be secondary to downregulation of renal AQP2. We hypot...

Clinical and neurobiological findings suggest that the cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system may be implicated in the pathophysiology and treatment of schizophrenia. We described that the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) strain presents a schizophrenia behavioral phenotype that is specifically attenuated by antipsychotic drugs, and potentiated by proschizophrenia manipulations. Based...

Several recent studies suggest an important role for the brain renin-angiotensin system in the pathogenesis of heart failure. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity and binding of angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptors, which mediate the central effects of ANG II, are increased in heart failure. The present study examined the relationship between brain ACE activity and the autonomic dysregula...

PURPOSE To determine whether long-term brimonidine (BRI) treatment prevents the hyperglycemia-induced increase in vitreoretinal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. METHODS Brown Norway/Long-Evans rats were divided into three groups with similar distributions of blood glucose and bo...

Corticosterone (CORT), the predominant glucocorticoid in rodents, elevated for 21 days damages hippocampal subregion CA3. We tested the hypothesis that CORT would impair spatial memory, a hippocampal function. In each of the three experiments, rats received daily, subcutaneous injections of either CORT (26.8 mg/kg body weight in sesame oil) or sesame oil vehicle alone (VEH). CORT given for 21 o...

The aim of this research is to evaluate whether posttraining systemic epinephrine is able to improve object recognition memory in rats with memory deficits produced by traumatic brain injury. Forty-nine two-month-old naïve male Wistar rats were submitted to surgical procedures to induce traumatic brain injury (TBI) or were sham-operated. Rats were trained in an object recognition task and, imme...

The increased pericardial fat which often accompanies overall obesity is thought to alter cardiac structure/function and increase the risk for atrial fibrillation. We hypothesized that chronic exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) would induce pericardial fat, cardiac hypertrophy or arrhythmia. C57bl/6n dams were exposed to BPA (25 ng/ml drinking water) beginning on gestation day 11 and progeny continu...

Pressure overload in the heart induces pathological hypertrophy and is associated with cardiac dysfunction. Apoptosis and fibrosis signaling initiated by the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is known to contribute to these maladaptive effects. The aim of this study was to investigate whether reduction of ERS by a known chemical chaperone, tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) can attenuate pressu...