Purpose To measure the maximum, objectively measured, accommodative amplitude, produced by pharmacologic stimulation. Methods Thirty-seven healthy subjects were enrolled, with a mean age of 20.2±1.1 years, corrected visual acuity of 20/20, and mean spherical equivalent refraction (SER) =-0.83±1.60 diopters. For each subject, the right pupil was dilated with phenylephrine 10%. After 30 minutes...

The muscarinic receptor agonist xanomeline was examined and compared with the antipsychotics clozapine and/or haloperidol in the following in vivo rat models: apomorphine-induced disruption of prepulse inhibition (PPI), amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion, and the conditioned emotional response (CER) test. The effects of xanomeline were also assessed ex vivo on dopamine turnover in the rat medi...

BACKGROUND It is estimated that 39,000 Australians die from malignant disease yearly. Of these, 60% to 88% of advanced cancer patients suffer xerostomia, the subjective feeling of mouth dryness. Xerostomia has significant physical, social and psychological consequences which compromise function and quality of life. Pilocarpine is one treatment for xerostomia. Most studies have shown some variat...

Hippocampal neurogenesis in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) may result in alteration of the excitability of neurons, which contributes to spontaneous recurrent seizures. Axon initial segment (AIS) structural and functional plasticity is important in the control of neuronal excitability. It remains to be elucidated whether the plasticity of AIS occurs in hippocampal newly‑generated neurons that are...

BACKGROUND Benzodiazepines (BZDs), the most commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs with anxiolytic action, may cause hyposalivation. It has been previously shown that BZDs can cause hypertrophy and decrease the acini cell number. In this study, we investigated the effects of BZDs and pilocarpine on rat parotid glands, specifically on acinar, ductal, and myoepithelial cells. METHODS Ninety mal...

Several lines of evidence have indicated that many nuclei in the brain including preoptic nucleus, AV3V, subfornical organ, septal area and lateral hypothalamus are the targets of efferents from chemo-sensitive and pressure-sensitive systems. These areas may concern with regulation of fluid homeostasis. In the present study, intracerebroventricular injections were carried out in all experiments...

Epilepsy represents a personal and major community burden because about one-third of epileptic patients remain resistant to medical treatment. Flupirtine, as potassium channel opener, can be rational template for the treatment epilepsy. To investigate flupirtine +/- celecoxib versus diazepam anticonvulsant role on induced epilepsy in mice. Generalized seizures status epilepticus were by pentyle...

Astrocytes are relatively resistant to injury compared to neurons and oligodendrocytes. Here, we report transient region-specific loss of astrocytes in mice early after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE). In the dentate hilus, immunoreactivity for glial acidic fibrillary protein (GFAP) was decreased, and the number of healthy appearing GFAP- or S100beta-positive cells was significantly...

The rodent pilocarpine model of epilepsy exhibits hippocampal sclerosis and spontaneous seizures and thus resembles human temporal lobe epilepsy. Use of the many available mouse mutants to study this epilepsy model would benefit from a detailed neuropathology study. To identify new features of epileptogenesis, we characterized glial and neuronal pathologies after pilocarpine-induced status epil...