signaling by grafted neuroectodermal stem cells rescues motoneurons destined to die. Summary Avulsion of one or more ventral roots from the spinal cord leads to the death of the majority of affected motoneurons. This process is due to a cascade of events involving activation of astrocytes and microglial cells and the excessive amounts of excitotoxic glutamate release in the injured cord. The ai...

The ciliary neurotrophic factor alpha-receptor (CNTFRalpha) is required for motoneuron survival during development, but the relevant ligand(s) has not been determined. One candidate is the heterodimer formed by cardiotrophin-like cytokine (CLC) and cytokine-like factor 1 (CLF). CLC/CLF binds to CNTFRalpha and enhances the survival of developing motoneurons in vitro; whether this novel trophic f...

Antidromic action potentials following distal stimulation of motor axons occasionally fail to invade the soma of alpha motoneurons in spinal cord, due to their passing through regions of high non-uniformity. Morphologically detailed conductance-based models of cat spinal alpha motoneurons have been developed, with the aim to reproduce and clarify some aspects of the electrophysiological behavio...

To assess the significance of GABAA-receptor heterogeneity, which is based on a family of at least 15 subunits, the cellular localization and subunit composition of GABAA-receptor subtypes were analyzed immunohistochemically in the rat spinal cord. The distribution of subunits alpha 1, alpha 2, alpha 3, alpha 5, beta 2,3, and gamma 2 was investigated with subunit-specific antibodies, and their ...

Interfacing with human neural cells during natural tasks provides the means for investigating working principles of central nervous system and developing human-machine interaction technologies. Here we present a computationally efficient non-invasive, real-time interface based on decoding activity spinal motoneurons from wearable high-density electromyogram (EMG) sensors. We validate this by co...

Building largely on the results of previous studies of motor control in respiration the role of proprioceptive control of respiratory movements is discussed with particular reference to the significance of the following points: (i) The co-activation of fusimotor and alpha motoneurons in load compensation and in the control of velocity and force of the respiratory movements. (ii) The convergence...

Our previous studies have shown that median and ulnar nerve lesion induced calbindin (CB) immunoreactivity in some injured motoneurons in developing rats. Motoneuron death induced by sciatic nerve transection in neonatal rats has been related to induction of neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). The present study investigated whether expression of CB and nicotinomid adenin dinucleot...