Dendritic/axonal growth has been examined in long-term organotypic neocortical explants taken from neonatal rat pups and grown either as isolated slices or as co-cultures. The quantitative light microscopic measurement of dendritic and axonal branching patterns within both types of explants was carried out on Golgi-stained materials. Spontaneous bioelectric activity (SBA) was blocked within bot...

Vitamin C is transported in the brain by sodium vitamin C co-transporter 2 (SVCT-2) for ascorbate and glucose transporters for dehydroascorbate. Here we have studied the expression of SVCT-2 and the uptake and release of [(14)C] ascorbate in chick retinal cells. SVCT-2 immunoreactivity was detected in rat and chick retina, specially in amacrine cells and in cells in the ganglion cell layer. Acc...

Neuronal avalanches are a ubiquitous form of activity characterized by spontaneous bursts whose size distribution follows a power-law. Recent theoretical models have replicated power-law avalanches by assuming the presence of functionally feedforward connections (FFCs) in the underlying dynamics of the system. Accordingly, avalanches are generated by a feedforward chain of activation that persi...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of hyperbaric pressure on purified retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and the additive effect of hyperbaric pressure on glutamate-induced RGC death. METHODS An RGC primary culture from 8-day-old Wistar rats was prepared and cultured in a hyperbaric chamber. The RGC survival rate under various pressure conditions and with 5 or 25 µM of glutamate stimulation was det...

Intracellular microelectrode measurements revealed that a resting potential (RP), an action potential (AP) and a calcium component of AP (named voltage transient, VT) can be influenced by glutamic acid (Glu) and aminoacetic acid (glycine, Gly) in the liverwort Conocephalum conicum. In the continuous presence of 5mM Glu or 5mM Gly, the RP hyperpolarized constantly and the plants became desensiti...

although the epileptogenic properties of estrogens have been widely demonstrated in several models and species, the mechanism(s) by which estrogens can acutely change seizure parameters including after discharge and seizure duration remain remains to be determined. in the present study, we examined the role of nmda (n-methyl-d-aspartate), non-nmda and estrogenic receptors in estradiol benzoate ...