The effect of spatial learning on the number of astrocytes in rat dentate gyrus

In this study, we evaluated the effect of spatial learning on the number of astrocytes in the rat dentate gyrus with Morris water maze. Fifteen male albino Wistar rats were divided into three groups as control, reference memory and working memory groups. Each group was consisted of 5 rats. After spatial learning, the brains were histologically examined; the slides were stained with phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin (PTAH) staining to show the astrocytes. We found significant difference in the number of astrocytes in dentate gyrus between control and reference memory groups, and between control and working memory groups as well. When compared two learning groups there was a significant difference in the number of astrocytes between them, being higher in the working memory group. We concluded that the number of astrocytes increased due to spatial learning and this increase can be affected to the period of learning. Our studies of spatial learning and effect of learning techniques (reference and working memory) showed that the technique that has longer period of learning has more effect on the number of astrocytes

The similarity of astrocytes number in dentate gyrus and CA3 subfield of rats hippocampus

The dentate gyrus is a part of hippocampal formation that it contains granule cells, which project to the pyramidal cells and interneurons of the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus. Astrocytes play a more active role in neuronal activity, including regulating ion flux currents, energy production, neurotransmitter release and synaptogenesis. Astrocytes are the only cells in the brain that contain the energy molecule glycogen. The close relationship between dentate gyrus and CA3 area can cause the similarity of the number of astrocytes in these areas. In this study 5 male albino wistar rats were used. Rats were housed in large plastic cage in animal house and were maintained under standard conditions, after histological processing, The 7 μm slides of the brains were stained with PTAH staining for showing the astrocytes. This staining is specialized for astrocytes. We showed that the number of astrocytes in different (ant., mid., post) parts of dentate gyrus and CA3 of hippocampus is the same. For example, the anterior parts of two area have the most number of astrocytes and the middle parts of two area have the least number of astrocytes. We concluded that dentate gyrus and CA3 area of hippocampus have the same group of astrocytes. © 2007 Asian Network For Scientific Information

The effect of spatial learning on the number of astrocytes in the CA3 subfield of the rat hippocampus

Introduction: Astrocytes play an important role in the hippocampus, probably in memory and learning. The aim of this study was to evaluate the number of astrocytes in the CA3 subfield of the rat hippocampus after spatial learning using the Morris water maze with reference and working memory methods. Methods: 45 male albino wistar rats were divided into three groups, with 15 rats in the control group and 15 rats in each of the other two groups. The two study groups of rats underwent spatial learning using the Morris water maze, with one group trained using the reference memory and the other, the working memory technique, respectively. After histological processing, the slides of the brains were stained with the phosphotanguestic acid haematoxylin staining method for detection of the astrocytes. Results: There was a significant difference in the number of astrocytes in the CA3 area between the control and reference memory groups. The difference between control and working memory groups was significant as well. Additionally, when comparing the two learning groups, we also found significant differences between them. Conclusion: The number of astrocytes increased due to spatial learning

A case report of variation in subclavian artery branches

The subclavian artery is a major branch of the Aorta. In the left, the subclavian artery arises from Aortic arch and in the right it arises from the Brachiocephalic trunk. This artery passes from the subclavian groove on the first rib and continues as Axillary artery. The subclavian artery has several branches that supply chest wall, Thyroid gland and cervical regions. Several variations about the subclavian artery and it's branches were have been reported. In this case, from the first part of this artery, we found a common trunk that gives the ascending cervical, Transvers cervical, Suprascapular and Dorsal scapular arteries. The inferioe thyroid artery was absent

Variation in axillary artery branches (a case report)

The axillary artery, a continuation of the subclavian artery, begins at the first rib's outer border and ending normally at the inferior border of the Teres major muscle and continuing further distally as Brachial artery. The axillary artery has several branches that supplies axillary region. Several variations about the Axillary artery and it's branches were have been reported. In this case, from the second part of this artery, we found a common trunk between Lateral thoracic and Subscapular arteries. Other branches of subscapular also has been separated from this trunk

Expression of an innate immune element (mouse hepcidin-1) in baculovirus expression system and the comparison of its function with synthetic human hepcidin-25

Hepcidin is an innate immune element which decreases the iron absorption from diet and iron releasing from macrophage cell. In contrast to the chemical iron chelators, there has been limited effort applied to the specific use of hepcidin as a new drug for decreasing the iron overload. Hepcidin is produced in different biological systems. For instance, E-coli is used for human hepcidin expression, however, post-translational modification is impaired. We have used a simple baculovirus expression system (BES) to improve the hepcidin folding and activity. Hepcidin Messenger Ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was isolated from mouse liver cells and its complementary Deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) was produced and amplified. PFastBac HTB vector was used for recombinant bacmid production. Recombinant baculovirus was produced using SF-9 cell line. The mouse hepcidin-1 protein was expressed in a large quantity and functional tests were performed for this recombinant peptide. The yield of hepcidin in BES was 20 μg/mL and anti-histidine (anti-His) tag antibody was used for the confirmation of hepcidin on western blot nitrocellulose paper. Functional tests showed that mouse hepcidin accumulates iron in the macrophage cell line J774A.1 up to 63%. In addition, our data showed that the mouse hepcidin-1 has less toxicity compared to the synthetic human hepcidin-25 (p = 0.000). © 2011 by School of Pharmacy

A Graph Model for Opportunistic Network Coding

Recent advancements in graph-based analysis and solutions of instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) trigger the interest to extend them to more complicated opportunistic network coding (ONC) scenarios, with limited increase in complexity. In this paper, we design a simple IDNC-like graph model for a specific subclass of ONC, by introducing a more generalized definition of its vertices and the notion of vertex aggregation in order to represent the storage of non-instantly-decodable packets in ONC. Based on this representation, we determine the set of pairwise vertex adjacency conditions that can populate this graph with edges so as to guarantee decodability or aggregation for the vertices of each clique in this graph. We then develop the algorithmic procedures that can be applied on the designed graph model to optimize any performance metric for this ONC subclass. A case study on reducing the completion time shows that the proposed framework improves on the performance of IDNC and gets very close to the optimal performance