Changes in synaptic transmission and protein expression in the brains of adult offspring after prenatal inhibition of the kynurenine pathway

During early brain development, N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are involved in cell migration, neuritogenesis, axon guidance and synapse formation, but the mechanisms which regulate NMDA receptor density and function remain unclear. The kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism includes an agonist (quinolinic acid) and an antagonist (kynurenic acid) at NMDA receptors and we have previously shown that inhibition of the pathway using the kynurenine-3-monoxygenase inhibitor Ro61-8048 in late gestation produces rapid changes in protein expression in the embryos and effects on synaptic transmission lasting until postnatal day 21 (P21). The present study sought to determine whether any of these effects are maintained into adulthood. After prenatal injections of Ro61-8048 the litter was allowed to develop to P60 when some offspring were euthanized and the brains removed for examination. Analysis of protein expression by Western blotting revealed significantly reduced expression of the GluN2A subunit (32%) and the morphogenetic protein sonic hedgehog (31%), with a 29% increase in the expression of doublecortin, a protein associated with neurogenesis. No changes were seen in mRNA abundance using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Neuronal excitability was normal in the CA1 region of hippocampal slices but paired-pulse stimulation revealed less inhibition at short interpulse intervals. The amount of long-term potentiation was decreased by 49% in treated pups and recovery after low-frequency stimulation was delayed. The results not only strengthen the view that basal, constitutive kynurenine metabolism is involved in normal brain development, but also show that changes induced prenatally can affect the brains of adult offspring and those changes are quite different from those seen previously at weaning (P21). Those changes may be mediated by altered expression of NMDAR subunits and sonic hedgehog

Grassroots Agency: Participation and Conflict in Buenos Aires Shantytowns seen through the Pilot Plan for Villa 7 (1971–1975)

open access articleIn 1971, after more than a decade of national and municipal policies aimed at the top-down removal of shantytowns, the Buenos Aires City Council approved the Plan Piloto para la Relocalización de Villa 7 (Pilot Plan for the Relocation of Shantytown 7; 1971–1975, referred to as the Pilot Plan hereinafter). This particular plan, which resulted in the construction of the housing complex, Barrio Justo Suárez, endures in the collective memory of Argentines as a landmark project regarding grassroots participation in state housing initiatives addressed at shantytowns. Emerging from a context of a housing shortage for the growing urban poor and intense popular mobilizations during the transition to democracy, the authors of the Pilot Plan sought to empower shantytown residents in novel ways by: 1) maintaining the shantytown’s location as opposed to eradication schemes that relocated the residents elsewhere, 2) formally employing some of the residents for the stage of construction, as opposed to “self-help” housing projects in which the residents contributed with unpaid labor, and 3) including them in the urban and architectural design of the of the new housing. This paper will examine the context in which the Pilot Plan was conceived of as a way of re-assessing the roles of the state, the user, and housing-related professionals, often seen as antagonistic. The paper argues that residents’ fair participation and state intervention in housing schemes are not necessarily incompatible, and can function in specific social and political contexts through multiactor proposals backed by a political will that prioritizes grassroots agency

Signos conductuales y neurovegetativos del trastorno compulsivo canino (TCC)

El trastorno compulsivo canino se manifiesta a través de distintas signologías que derivan de pautas de conductas normales –como locomoción, exploración, vocalización, alimentación o acicalamiento– y son excesivas en duración, frecuencia e intensidad. En algunos casos suelen estar acompañadas de signos neurovegetativos, como taquicardia, taquipnea, midriasis, fasciculaciones musculares, eliminación inadecuada y enuresis, en ausencia de un estímulo provocador

Tipo de autolesión según el patrón conductual en el trastorno compulsivo canino (TCC)

Las manifestaciones clínicas más frecuentes del trastorno compulsivo canino (TCC) consisten en la persecución de la cola con mordisqueo y el lamido de los miembros. Son muy evidentes en su fenomenología y generan consecuencias nocivas que incluyen severas autolesiones. Objetivos Analizando las categorías correspondientes a conducta autocentrada, zona afectada y autolaceración ocasionada, se busca establecer la presentación de sus distintas combinaciones y determinar la existencia de una asociación estadísticamente significativa

Fenomenología del trastorno compulsivo canino

Todas las conductas anormales caracterizadas por acciones repetitivas y persistentes, relativamente invariables y sin beneficio para el individuo o la especie, son consideradas compulsiones. Si bien derivan de pautas de conductas normales, son excesivas en duración, frecuencia e intensidad. Objetivos Mostrar los distintos patrones de comportamientos compulsivos que se presentan frecuentemente en la clínica médica o etológica

Trastorno compulsivo canino (TCC): tipos de conductas autocentradas y autolesiones que lo caracterizan

Ciertas conductas de los caninos domésticos son excesivas en duración, frecuencia e intensidad, y en muchos casos están acompañadas de autolesiones. Actualmente se consideran comportamientos anormales (compulsiones), relativamente invariables y sin beneficio para el individuo o la especie. Objetivos Presentar las características clínicas más comunes del trastorno, en cuanto al foco de la conducta autocentrada, el tipo de acto que la compone y la autolesión que genera