background and objective: sciatic nerve transection is characterized by a rapid wave of motoneuron death associated with progressive synaptic lesions. the purpose of this study was to evaluate the long term synaptic changes. materials and methods: this basic study was carried out on paraffin- or resin-embedded tissue blocks for evaluation of synaptophysin and choline acetyl transaferase (chat) ...

Recently, mutations in several genes have been identified as primary causes for the degeneration of motoneurons and their axons. Strikingly, mutations in the same genes were associated with clinically different motoneuron syndromes. The identity of these genes also shed light on the mechanisms of motoneuron degeneration and revealed that overlapping motoneuron phenotypes might be caused by hete...

To understand better how spontaneous motoneuron activity and intramuscular nerve branching influence motoneuron survival, we chronically treated chicken embryos in ovo with either d-tubocurarine (dTC) or muscimol during the naturally occurring cell death period, assessing their effects on activity by in ovo motility measurement and muscle nerve recordings from isolated spinal cord preparations....

The influence of motoneuron pool properties on the stability of the stretch reflex at the ankle in subjects with spinal cord injury was tested using a comprehensive model of the reflex pathway. This model included the passive and active components of the triceps surae muscles, muscle spindles, neural transport delays, limb mechanical properties, and a lumped parameter model of the motoneuron po...

BACKGROUND Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is neurodegenerative disease characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy due to progressive motoneuron loss. The death of motoneuron is preceded by the failure of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and axonal retraction. Thus, to develop an effective ALS therapy you must simultaneously preserve motoneuron somas, motor axons and NMJs. A conditioning le...

Motoneuron disease is a term encompassing three phenotypes defined largely by the balance of upper versus lower motoneuron involvement, namely amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, primary lateral sclerosis and progressive muscular atrophy. However, neuroradiological and pathological findings in these phenotypes suggest that degeneration may exceed the neuronal system upon which clinical diagnosis is ...

Development of motoneuron electrical properties and excitability was studied in spinal cord explants of rat embryos cultured for 1-3 weeks. The morphological organization of the spinal cord and synaptic inputs onto motoneurons were maintained in organ culture. The rate of differentiation of motoneuron resting potential and increase in membrane excitability was similar in vitro and in vivo, sugg...

cell replacement therapy has provided the basis for future clinical applications to treat central nervous system injury, a common result of car accidents. induced functional motoneurons are an option for replacing the lost motoneurons. adipose derived stem cells (adscs) are an appropriate source of cells for autologous cell therapy with the ability of neural differentiation. in this study, adsc...

The effect of short duration and sustained manual acupuncture on alpha-motoneuron excitability was studied using the Soleus H-reflex. The acupuncture points GB-34 and SP-9 were needled and stimulated manually. Normalised H-reflex and M-wave recruitment curves were constructed and the ratio of the slope of the ascending part of the H-reflex recruitment curve (Hslp) to the slope of the ascending ...