Melatonin (MT) is a neurohormone synthesized and secreted by the pineal gland. MT plays an important role in the regulation of physiological and neuroendocrine functions. The purpose of this study was to assess the overall effect of melatonin on neuropathic pain, the type of melatonin receptor involved, and potential role of the opioid system and GABA(A) receptors. The experiments were conducte...

The main axons of mammalian sensory neurons are usually viewed as passive transmitters of sensory information. However, the spindle afferents of jaw-closing muscles behave as if action potential traffic along their central axons is phasically regulated during rhythmic jaw movements. In this paper, we used brainstem slices containing the cell bodies, stem axons, and central axons of these sensor...

A mixture of eight fatty acids (linoleic, oleic, palmitic, stearic, myristic, elaidic, lauric, and palmitoleic acids) at similar concentrations that have been identified in human amniotic fluid exerts anxiolytic-like effects similar to diazepam in adult Wistar rats through actions at γ-aminobutyric acid-A (GABAA) receptors, but unknown is whether any of these fatty acids exerts a predominant ac...

The mechanism of cardiovascular changes produced by activation of the central nervous system with picrotoxin (2 mg/kg, iv) was studied in chloralose-anesthetized cats. Effects occurred in two phases. During the early phase, there were decreases in arterial blood pressure and heart rate, and in a few cats, bradyarrhythmias. These changes were transient and superceded by an increase in arterial b...

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by a hyperexcitable brain tissue and unpredictable seizures, i.e., aberrant firing discharges in large neuronal populations. It is well established that proinflammatory cytokines, in addition to their canonical involvement in the immune response, have a crucial role in the mechanism of seizure generation. The purpose of the present study was to ...