Hippocampal state-dependent behavioral reflex to an identical sensory input in rats.

We examined the local field potential of the hippocampus to monitor brain states during a conditional discrimination task, in order to elucidate the relationship between ongoing brain states and a conditioned motor reflex. Five 10-week-old Wistar/ST male rats underwent a serial feature positive conditional discrimination task in eyeblink conditioning using a preceding light stimulus as a conditional cue for reinforced trials. In this task, a 2-s light stimulus signaled that the following 350-ms tone (conditioned stimulus) was reinforced with a co-terminating 100-ms periorbital electrical shock. The interval between the end of conditional cue and the onset of the conditioned stimulus was 4±1 s. The conditioned stimulus was not reinforced when the light was not presented. Animals successfully utilized the light stimulus as a conditional cue to drive differential responses to the identical conditioned stimulus. We found that presentation of the conditional cue elicited hippocampal theta oscillations, which persisted during the interval of conditional cue and the conditioned stimulus. Moreover, expression of the conditioned response to the tone (conditioned stimulus) was correlated with the appearance of theta oscillations immediately before the conditioned stimulus. These data support hippocampal involvement in the network underlying a conditional discrimination task in eyeblink conditioning. They also suggest that the preceding hippocampal activity can determine information processing of the tone stimulus in the cerebellum and its associated circuits

Uncharted waters: rare and unclassified cardiomyopathies characterized on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has undergone considerable technology advances in recent years, so that it is now entering into mainstream cardiac imaging practice. In particular, CMR is proving to be a valuable imaging tool in the detection, morphological assessment and functional assessment of cardiomyopathies. Although our understanding of this broad group of heart disorders continues to expand, it is an evolving group of entities, with the rarer cardiomyopathies remaining poorly understood or even unclassified. In this review, we describe the clinical and pathophysiological aspects of several of the rare/unclassified cardiomyopathies and their appearance on CMR

Claudins in lung diseases

Tight junctions are the most apically localized part of the epithelial junctional complex. They regulate the permeability and polarity of cell layers and create compartments in cell membranes. Claudins are structural molecules of tight junctions. There are 27 claudins known, and expression of different claudins is responsible for changes in the electrolyte and solute permeability in cells layers. Studies have shown that claudins and tight junctions also protect multicellular organisms from infections and that some infectious agents may use claudins as targets to invade and weaken the host's defense. In neoplastic diseases, claudin expression may be up- or downregulated. Since their expression is associated with specific tumor types or with specific locations of tumors to a certain degree, they can, in a restricted sense, also be used as tumor markers. However, the regulation of claudin expression is complex involving growth factors and integrins, protein kinases, proto-oncogens and transcription factors. In this review, the significance of claudins is discussed in lung disease and development

Stem Cell Therapy: Pieces of the Puzzle

Acute ischemic injury and chronic cardiomyopathies can cause irreversible loss of cardiac tissue leading to heart failure. Cellular therapy offers a new paradigm for treatment of heart disease. Stem cell therapies in animal models show that transplantation of various cell preparations improves ventricular function after injury. The first clinical trials in patients produced some encouraging results, despite limited evidence for the long-term survival of transplanted cells. Ongoing research at the bench and the bedside aims to compare sources of donor cells, test methods of cell delivery, improve myocardial homing, bolster cell survival, and promote cardiomyocyte differentiation. This article reviews progress toward these goals

GABA, glutamine, glutamate oxidation and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase expression in human gliomas

Bioenergetic characterisation of malignant tissues revealed that different tumour cells can catabolise multiple substrates as salvage pathways, in response to metabolic stress. Altered metabolism in gliomas has received a lot of attention, especially in relation to IDH mutations, and the associated oncometabolite D-2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) that impact on metabolism, epigenetics and redox status. Astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas, collectively called diffuse gliomas, are derived from astrocytes and oligodendrocytes that are in metabolic symbiosis with neurons; astrocytes can catabolise neuron-derived glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) for supporting and regulating neuronal functions.Metabolic characteristics of human glioma cell models - including mitochondrial function, glycolytic pathway and energy substrate oxidation - in relation to IDH mutation status and after 2-HG incubation were studied to understand the Janus-faced role of IDH1 mutations in the progression of gliomas/astrocytomas. The metabolic and bioenergetic features were identified in glioma cells using wild-type and genetically engineered IDH1-mutant glioblastoma cell lines by metabolic analyses with Seahorse, protein expression studies and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.U251 glioma cells were characterised by high levels of glutamine, glutamate and GABA oxidation. Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) expression was correlated to GABA oxidation. GABA addition to glioma cells increased proliferation rates. Expression of mutated IDH1 and treatment with 2-HG reduced glutamine and GABA oxidation, diminished the pro-proliferative effect of GABA in SSADH expressing cells. SSADH protein overexpression was found in almost all studied human cases with no significant association between SSADH expression and clinicopathological parameters (e.g. IDH mutation).Our findings demonstrate that SSADH expression may participate in the oxidation and/or consumption of GABA in gliomas, furthermore, GABA oxidation capacity may contribute to proliferation and worse prognosis of gliomas. Moreover, IDH mutation and 2-HG production inhibit GABA oxidation in glioma cells. Based on these data, GABA oxidation and SSADH activity could be additional therapeutic targets in gliomas/glioblastomas