Methods for Animal Brain Mapping

Measurements of brain electrical activity in animals are essential for the validation of the pharmaco-effect of drugs. The way to evaluate these recordings should be comparable to that of EEG in humans. Methods that visualize the results of the measured EEG recording include brain mapping in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space. The most commonly used methods of interpolation techniques in humans are spherical splines and 3D splines. We measured nine brains of Wistar rats and compared them with a brain model from the atlas (Brain Atlas Reconstructor, BAR). We validated the brain model of Wistar rat for future use. We implemented a module in MATLAB 2015a for brain mapping, specifically, we implemented algorithms for spherical and 3D spline mapping. The root mean square error of the spherical spline method is 0.5943 in the case of testing signal and 0.6291/0.6388 in the case of real data estimation. The root mean square error of the 3D spline method is 0.4334 in the case of testing signal and 0.0849/0.0768 in the case of real data estimation. Our results show that the 3D spline method with the projection on sphere gives significantly better 3D potential map than spherical splines

Znalecky posudek k hydrogeologicke a inzenyrskogeologicke problematice zalozeni kostela Most - Dekansky kostel.

Available from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi

RESEARCH ARTICLE Biochemical, Histopathological and Morphological Profiling of a Rat Model of Early Immune Stimulation: Relation to

Perinatal immune challenge leads to neurodevelopmental dysfunction, permanent immune dysregulation and abnormal behaviour, which have been shown to have translational validi-ty to findings in human neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, autism, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease). The aim of this animal study was to elucidate the influence of early immune stimulation triggered by systemic post-natal lipopolysaccharide administration on biochemical, histopathological and morphologi-cal measures, which may be relevant to the neurobiology of human psychopathology. In the present study of adult male Wistar rats we examined the brain and plasma levels of mono-amines (dopamine, serotonin), their metabolites, the levels of the main excitatory and inhibi-tory neurotransmitters glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid and the levels of tryptophan and its metabolites from the kynurenine catabolic pathway. Further, we focused on histopatho-logical and morphological markers related to pathogenesis of brain diseases- glial cell acti-vation, neurodegeneration, hippocampal volume reduction and dopaminergic synthesis in the substantia nigra. Our results show that early immune stimulation in adult animals alter

Biochemical, Histopathological and Morphological Profiling of a Rat Model of Early Immune Stimulation: Relation to Psychopathology

<div><p>Perinatal immune challenge leads to neurodevelopmental dysfunction, permanent immune dysregulation and abnormal behaviour, which have been shown to have translational validity to findings in human neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, autism, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease). The aim of this animal study was to elucidate the influence of early immune stimulation triggered by systemic postnatal lipopolysaccharide administration on biochemical, histopathological and morphological measures, which may be relevant to the neurobiology of human psychopathology. In the present study of adult male Wistar rats we examined the brain and plasma levels of monoamines (dopamine, serotonin), their metabolites, the levels of the main excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid and the levels of tryptophan and its metabolites from the kynurenine catabolic pathway. Further, we focused on histopathological and morphological markers related to pathogenesis of brain diseases - glial cell activation, neurodegeneration, hippocampal volume reduction and dopaminergic synthesis in the substantia nigra. Our results show that early immune stimulation in adult animals alters the levels of neurotransmitters and their metabolites, activates the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism and leads to astrogliosis, hippocampal volume reduction and a decrease of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the substantia nigra. These findings support the crucial pathophysiological role of early immune stimulation in the above mentioned neuropsychiatric disorders.</p></div

Brain and plasma levels of glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid.

<p>Values (ng/ml) represent mean ± SEM.</p><p>Brain and plasma levels of glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid.</p

Chromatographic separation of the subject analytes.

<p>Chromatographic separation of the subject analytes.</p

Number of TH-positive cells in the substantia nigra, pars compacta.

<p>Values represent mean ± SEM (* indicates p<0.05 from the control group).</p

Microphotographs of GFAP immunoreactivity in the dentate gyrus (scale bar = 200μm).

<p>a) LPS treated group, b) Control group.</p

Percentage of the area containing GFAP immunoreactivity.

<p>Values (%) represent mean ± SEM (* indicates p<0.05 from the control group). a) hilus of the dentate gyrus, b) substantia nigra.</p