Urethane is a fermentation by-product and a potent animal carcinogen. Human exposure to urethane occurs through consumption of alcoholic beverages and fermented foods. Recently, CYP2E1 was identified as the primary enzyme responsible for the metabolism of C-carbonyl-labeled urethane. Subsequently, attenuation of urethaneinduced cell proliferation and genotoxicity in CYP2E1-/mice was reported. P...

Calcium signaling represents the principle pathway by which astrocytes respond to neuronal activity. General anesthetics are routinely used in clinical practice to induce a sleep-like state, allowing otherwise painful procedures to be performed. Anesthetic drugs are thought to mainly target neurons in the brain and act by suppressing synaptic activity. However, the direct effect of general anes...

Cortical circuits spontaneously generate coordinated activity even in the absence of external inputs. The character of this activity depends on cortical state. We investigated how state affects the organization of spontaneous activity across layers of rat auditory cortex in vivo, using juxtacellular recording of morphologically identified neurons and large-scale electrophysiological recordings....

The fetal brain is thought to have a role in the onset and progression of labor. Evidence also exists for fetal oxytocin release just before and during parturition. The present study examined whether activation of the fetal brain could induce uterine myometrial contractions through oxytocin receptors in the dam. Under urethane anesthesia, electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus of fetal rats...

Cannabinoids have been shown to possess anticonvulsant properties in whole animal models of epilepsy. The present investigation sought to examine the effects of cannabinoid receptor activation on kainic acid (KA)-induced epileptiform neuronal excitability. Under urethane anesthesia, acute KA treatment (10 mg kg(-1), i.p.) entrained the spiking mode of simultaneously recorded neurons from random...

Urethanes have marked physiological activity in plants and animals. Lefevre (1939) found that phenyl urethane affects wheat germination, and subsequently Templeman and Sexton (1946) showed that a variety of urethanes suppress the germination of wheat and oats without affecting charlock. The most active urethanes (for example, isopropylphenylcarbamate;ethylphenylcarbamate) are effective at a con...

1. After section of the spinal cord in cats in the cervical region, as low as the last cervical segment, epinephrin continues to be liberated from the adrenal glands. This liberation has all the characters of the normal secretion with intact central nervous system. It is sustained through the same nerve paths connecting the cord with the adrenals. 2. After section of the cord in the middorsal r...