Preterm infants are subject to fluctuations in blood gas status associated with immature respiratory control. Intermittent hypoxia during early postnatal life has been shown to increase chemoreceptor sensitivity and destabilize the breathing pattern; however, intermittent hypercapnia remains poorly studied. Therefore, to test the hypothesis that intermittent hypercapnia results in altered respi...

It has been shown in animal studies that exposure to brief pulses of bright light can phase shift the circadian pacemaker and that the resetting action of light is most efficient during the first minutes of light exposure. In humans, multiple consecutive days of exposure to brief bright light pulses have been shown to phase shift the circadian pacemaker. The aim of the present study was to dete...

The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38) is a key signaling pathway involved in regulation of inflammatory cytokines. Unexpectedly, several clinical studies using p38 inhibitors found no convincing clinical efficacy in the treatment of chronic inflammation. It was the objective of this study to characterize the population pharmacokinetics (PK) of BCT197 in healthy volunteers and to examin...

Cocaine use produces different effects in the Mesocorticolimbic System (MCL) depending on temporal pattern which they are consumed. The Intermittent Access (IntA) cocaine self-administration is a protocol that better simulates human behavior due to intermittent of drug administration. Unlike Long (LgA) self-administration, generates tolerance, IntA, psychomotor, incentive, and neural sensitizat...

Studies in rats have shown that intermittent footshock stress reinstates drug seeking after prolonged drug-free periods. Recently, we found that another environmental stressor, acute 1 d food deprivation, potently reinstates heroin seeking in rats. Here we report that this effect of food deprivation can be blocked by leptin, a hormone involved in the regulation of energy balance and food intake...

Optimization of oxygen tolerance extension by intermittent exposure was studied in groups of 20 rats exposed to systematically varied patterns of alternating oxygen and normoxic breathing periods at 4.0, 2.0, and 1.5 ATA. Oxygen periods of 20, 60, and 120 min were alternated with normoxic intervals that provided oxygen-to-normoxia ratios of 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, and 1:3. In general, median survival ti...

To the Editor: The article by William et al. (1) reports the lack of activity of high-dose fenretinide (1,800 mg/m/d, given as 900 mg/m twice daily) in patients with oral leukoplakia. The same authors had previously shown that a lower dose of fenretinide (i.e., 200 mg/d, once daily) for 3 months was effective (34% partial responses) with a trough drug concentration in plasma at steady state (Cs...