Evaluation of the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic factors in occlusion of the spinal neurocoel during rapid brain enlargement in the chick embryo

Development ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Marye E. Desmond ◽  
Gary C. Schoenwolf

The spinal neurocoel normally occludes during the second day of chick embryogenesis as the lateral walls of the spinal cord become apposed closely in the midline. Concomitantly, the brain initiates its rapid and substantial enlargement. Occlusion, although short-lived, might play a major role in brain enlargement. As a result of occlusion, the brain ventricles are sealed off from the external milieu prior to closure of the posterior neuropore, establishing a closed fluid-filled system. The present study focuses on the mechanisms of occlusion of the spinal neurocoel. We tested two postulated intrinsic factors (microtubule-mediated neuroepithelial cell elongation and microfilament-mediated apical neuroepithelial cell constriction) and five extrinsic factors (three mediad pushing forces generated by the somites, perineural extracellular matrix and expanding surface ectoderm; and two stretching forces generated either vertically by pulling of the elongated notochord or longitudinally by elongation of the embryo) in maintaining occlusion. Our results suggest that occlusion is maintained by other, untested intrinsic factors and/or by forces generated within a perineural collar, composed of cellular and extracellular materials, intimately associated with the basal aspects of the spinal cord. Cytoskeletal-mediated changes in cell shapes, pushing forces and vertical and longitudinal tensions are not involved. Further studies are needed to examine the intrinsic properties of the neuroepithelium and the factors initiating occlusion and reopening.

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1631) ◽  
pp. 20130085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver J. Bosch

The most significant social behaviour of the lactating mother is maternal behaviour, which comprises maternal care and maternal aggression (MA). The latter is a protective behaviour of the mother serving to defend the offspring against a potentially dangerous intruder. The extent to which the mother shows aggressive behaviour depends on extrinsic and intrinsic factors, as we have learned from studies in laboratory rodents. Among the extrinsic factors are the pups’ presence and age, as well as the intruders’ sex and age. With respect to intrinsic factors, the mothers’ innate anxiety and the prosocial brain neuropeptides oxytocin (OXT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) play important roles. While OXT is well known as a maternal neuropeptide, AVP has only recently been described in this context. The increased activities of these neuropeptides in lactation are the result of remarkable brain adaptations peripartum and are a prerequisite for the mother to become maternal. Consequently, OXT and AVP are significantly involved in mediating the fine-tuned regulation of MA depending on the brain regions. Importantly, both neuropeptides are also modulators of anxiety, which determines the extent of MA. This review provides a detailed overview of the role of OXT and AVP in MA and the link to anxiety.


Author(s):  
Fardad T. Afshari ◽  
Sunil Kappagantula ◽  
James W. Fawcett

Spinal cord injury is one of the most devastating conditions that affects the central nervous system. It can lead to permanent disability and there are around two million people affected worldwide. After injury, accumulation of myelin debris and formation of an inhibitory glial scar at the site of injury leads to a physical and chemical barrier that blocks axonal growth and regeneration. The mammalian central nervous system thus has a limited intrinsic ability to repair itself after injury. To improve axonal outgrowth and promote functional recovery, it is essential to identify the various intrinsic and extrinsic factors controlling regeneration and navigation of axons within the inhibitory environment of the central nervous system. Recent advances in spinal cord research have opened new avenues for the exploration of potential targets for repairing the cord and improving functional recovery after trauma. Here, we discuss some of the important key molecules that could be harnessed for repairing spinal cord injury.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
James B. Talmage ◽  
Jay Blaisdell

Abstract Injuries that affect the central nervous system (CNS) can be catastrophic because they involve the brain or spinal cord, and determining the underlying clinical cause of impairment is essential in using the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), in part because the AMA Guides addresses neurological impairment in several chapters. Unlike the musculoskeletal chapters, Chapter 13, The Central and Peripheral Nervous System, does not use grades, grade modifiers, and a net adjustment formula; rather the chapter uses an approach that is similar to that in prior editions of the AMA Guides. The following steps can be used to perform a CNS rating: 1) evaluate all four major categories of cerebral impairment, and choose the one that is most severe; 2) rate the single most severe cerebral impairment of the four major categories; 3) rate all other impairments that are due to neurogenic problems; and 4) combine the rating of the single most severe category of cerebral impairment with the ratings of all other impairments. Because some neurological dysfunctions are rated elsewhere in the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, the evaluator may consult Table 13-1 to verify the appropriate chapter to use.


Author(s):  
Devi Angrahini Anni Lembana ◽  
Yu Yu Chang ◽  
Wen Ke Liang

From the intentionality-based view, individuals' actual behaviors to initiate a new venture is driven by their entrepreneurial intentions. Company employees have accumulated professionalism and practical experience, which both enable them to discover some unmet market demand and industrial gaps. However, in establishing a new business, not everyone with certain knowledge or expertise has the desire to become an entrepreneur. Prior research has shown that entrepreneurial intentions are under the profound influences of intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. On the one hand, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is one of the key psychological states that makes someone dare to initiate entrepreneurial activities. Institutional environment, on the other hand, can either enhance and hinder an individuals' entrepreneurial motivation by offering incentives or causing barriers. Little work has been done to understand how the institutional environment and entrepreneurial self-efficacy jointly affect company employees' intention to quit their job and start an enterprising career. By using hierarchical regression on a sample of 325 Indonesian company employees, this paper shows that the entrepreneurial cognition and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are positively related to employees' entrepreneurial intentions. Also, entrepreneurial self-efficacy strengthens the effect of normative Approval on entrepreneurial intention, whereas the regulatory Support from Government is detrimental to company employees' intention to start a new venture regardless the entrepreneurial self-efficacy is high or low.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 2420-2426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl V. Clemons ◽  
Raymond A. Sobel ◽  
Paul L. Williams ◽  
Demosthenes Pappagianis ◽  
David A. Stevens

ABSTRACT The efficacy of intravenously administered liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome [AmBi]) for the treatment of experimental coccidioidal meningitis was compared with those of oral fluconazole (FLC) and intravenously administered conventional amphotericin B (AMB). Male New Zealand White rabbits were infected by intracisternal inoculation of arthroconidia of Coccidioides immitis. Starting 5 days postinfection, animals received one of the following: 5% dextrose water diluent; AMB given at 1 mg/kg of body weight; AmBi given at 7.5, 15, or 22.5 mg/kg intravenously three times per week for 3 weeks; or oral FLC given at 80 mg/kg for 19 days. One week after the cessation of therapy, all survivors were euthanatized, the numbers of CFU remaining in the spinal cord and brain were determined, and histological analyses were performed. All AmBi-, FLC-, or AMB-treated animals survived and had prolonged lengths of survival compared with those for the controls (P < 0.0001). Treated groups had significantly lower numbers of white blood cells and significantly lower protein concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid compared with those for the controls (P < 0.01 to 0.0005) and had fewer clinical signs of infection (e.g., weight loss, elevated temperature, and neurological abnormalities including motor abnormalities). The mean histological scores for AmBi-treated rabbits were lower than those for FLC-treated and control rabbits (P < 0.016 and 0.0005, respectively); the scores for AMB-treated animals were lower than those for the controls (P < 0.0005) but were similar to those for FLC-treated rabbits. All regimens reduced the numbers of CFU in the brain and spinal cord compared with those for the controls (P ≤0.0005). AmBi-treated animals had 3- to 11-fold lower numbers of CFU than FLC-treated rabbits and 6- to 35-fold lower numbers of CFU than AmB-treated rabbits. Three of eight animals given 15 mg of AmBi per kg had no detectable infection in either tissue, whereas other doses of AmBi or FLC cleared either the brain or the spinal cord of infection in fewer rabbits. In addition, clearance of the infection from both tissues was achieved in none of the rabbits, and neither tissue was cleared of infection in AMB-treated animals. Overall, these data indicate that intravenously administered AmBi is superior to oral FLC or intravenous AMB and that FLC is better than AMB against experimental coccidioidal meningitis. These data indicate that AmBi may offer an improvement in the treatment of coccidioidal meningitis. Additional studies are warranted.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Ganchimeg Davaa ◽  
Jin Young Hong ◽  
Tae Uk Kim ◽  
Seong Jae Lee ◽  
Seo Young Kim ◽  
...  

Exercise training is a traditional method to maximize remaining function in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), but the exact mechanism by which exercise promotes recovery after SCI has not been identified; whether exercise truly has a beneficial effect on SCI also remains unclear. Previously, we showed that epigenetic changes in the brain motor cortex occur after SCI and that a treatment leading to epigenetic modulation effectively promotes functional recovery after SCI. We aimed to determine how exercise induces functional improvement in rats subjected to SCI and whether epigenetic changes are engaged in the effects of exercise. A spinal cord contusion model was established in rats, which were then subjected to treadmill exercise for 12 weeks. We found that the size of the lesion cavity and the number of macrophages were decreased more in the exercise group than in the control group after 12 weeks of injury. Immunofluorescence and DNA dot blot analysis revealed that levels of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in the brain motor cortex were increased after exercise. Accordingly, the expression of ten-eleven translocation (Tet) family members (Tet1, Tet2, and Tet3) in the brain motor cortex also elevated. However, no macrophage polarization was induced by exercise. Locomotor function, including Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) and ladder scores, also improved in the exercise group compared to the control group. We concluded that treadmill exercise facilitates functional recovery in rats with SCI, and mechanistically epigenetic changes in the brain motor cortex may contribute to exercise-induced improvements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joddat Fatima ◽  
Muhammad Usman Akram ◽  
Amina Jameel ◽  
Adeel Muzaffar Syed

AbstractIn human anatomy, the central nervous system (CNS) acts as a significant processing hub. CNS is clinically divided into two major parts: the brain and the spinal cord. The spinal cord assists the overall communication network of the human anatomy through the brain. The mobility of body and the structure of the whole skeleton is also balanced with the help of the spinal bone, along with reflex control. According to the Global Burden of Disease 2010, worldwide, back pain issues are the leading cause of disability. The clinical specialists in the field estimate almost 80% of the population with experience of back issues. The segmentation of the vertebrae is considered a difficult procedure through imaging. The problem has been catered by different researchers using diverse hand-crafted features like Harris corner, template matching, active shape models, and Hough transform. Existing methods do not handle the illumination changes and shape-based variations. The low-contrast and unclear view of the vertebrae also makes it difficult to get good results. In recent times, convolutional nnural Network (CNN) has taken the research to the next level, producing high-accuracy results. Different architectures of CNN such as UNet, FCN, and ResNet have been used for segmentation and deformity analysis. The aim of this review article is to give a comprehensive overview of how different authors in different times have addressed these issues and proposed different mythologies for the localization and analysis of curvature deformity of the vertebrae in the spinal cord.


2021 ◽  
Vol 383 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-206
Author(s):  
Sharon R. Hill ◽  
Rickard Ignell

AbstractMosquitoes are emerging as model systems with which to study innate behaviours through neuroethology and functional genomics. Decades of work on these disease vectors have provided a solid behavioural framework describing the distinct repertoire of predominantly odour-mediated behaviours of female mosquitoes, and their dependence on life stage (intrinsic factors) and environmental cues (extrinsic factors). The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of how intrinsic factors, including adult maturation, age, nutritional status, and infection, affect the attraction to plants and feeding on plant fluids, host seeking, blood feeding, supplemental feeding behaviours, pre-oviposition behaviour, and oviposition in female mosquitoes. With the technological advancements in the recent two decades, we have gained a better understanding of which volatile organic compounds are used by mosquitoes to recognise and discriminate among various fitness-enhancing resources, and characterised their neural and molecular correlates. In this review, we present the state of the art of the peripheral olfactory system as described by the neural physiology, functional genomics, and genetics underlying the demonstrated changes in the behavioural repertoire in female mosquitoes. The review is meant as a summary introduction to the current conceptual thinking in the field.


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