In the rat spinal cord, we found substantial co-existence of fibroblast growth factor-2, fibroblast growth factor receptor (type-1 or flg) immunoreactivity and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-diaphorase activity (a histochemical marker for neuronal nitric oxide synthase) in preganglionic autonomic cell groups of intermediate layers VI, VII and X. Anti-fibroblast grow...

Neurons in the human striatum have been divided into five or seven different types, respectively. To further characterize these interneurons, we investigated the putamen of five brains by means of NADPH-diaphorase staining and compared our results to previous classifications in man. The NADPH-diaphorase method is selective for nitric oxide synthase (NOS); in the human striatum, predominantly in...

Nitric oxide has several biological roles and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is expressed in the nervous system, and co-localizes with NADPH-diaphorase. The superficial layers of the superior colliculus (SC), which receive retinal and cortical inputs, present NADPH-d staining in a sub-population of neurons that include all cell types. We have previously shown, by NADPH-diaphorase, that eye enuclea...

Nitric oxide serves as a messenger molecule in some neuronal systems that use glutamate as a transmitter and it has been shown that glutamate mediates the transmission of photic signals by retinal ganglion cell axons terminating in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus, site of the circadian pacemaker in rodents. Recent experiments have demonstrated that pharmacological treatments which bloc...

The presence of Cajal-Retzius cells in the adult human prefrontal and visual cortices has been demonstrated with calcium binding protein immunocytochemistry and NADPH-diaphorase histochemistry. These cells expressed parvalbumin, calbindin and calretinin calcium binding proteins and displayed NADPH-diaphorase enzyme activity. The three basic morphological profiles-horizontal, pyriform and multip...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on retinal ganglion cell (RGC) survival and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression in the retina during the early phase of optic nerve (ON) injury, and to examine whether intraperitoneal application of the NOS scavenger nitro-l-arginine (l-NA) could protect the injured RGCs. ME...

The distribution patterns of NADPH-diaphorase activity in the nucleus olfactorius anterior (NOA) and anterior commissure (AC) of the rat were described using an histochemical technique. In the lateral, dorsal, ventral, medial and posterior subdivisions of the NOA we have demonstrated heavily stained elements (neurons and processes), and slightly labelled cell bodies. The neurons were mainly loc...

NADPH-diaphorase is a useful technique to reveal NO producing neurons at light microscopic level (LM). A modification of the technique using the tetrazolium salt BSPT as substrate, is useful to study the ultrastructure of NO neurons. The aim of this work was to perform a detailed analysis of NADPH-diaphorase reactive neurons in rat mesencephalon both at light and electron microscopic levels. NA...

We carried out this work with the purpose of studying the effects of protein and vitamin B deficiency on the morphologic and quantitative aspects of the myenteric plexus of the descending colon of adult Rattus norvegicus. Twenty-eight rats were divided in two groups, one of them receiving chow with 22% protein level (control) and the other fed with chow having 8% protein level without vitamin B...