大鼠脑组织中不同部位单胺类神经递质含量的HPLC测定

单胺类神经递质,多巴胺(DA)、去甲肾上腺素(NA)和肾上腺素(A)是哺乳动物和人类中枢重要的信息传递物质。了解脑组织中各部位单胺类神经递质的含量对于研究其生理功能、有关疾病的诊断和药物及手术疗效的评价均有重要的意义。     

Classification of malignant gliomas by infrared spectroscopic imaging and linear discriminant analysis

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy provides a sensitive molecular fingerprint for tissue without external markers. Supervised classification models can be trained to identify the tissue type based on the spectroscopic fingerprint. Infrared imaging spectrometers equipped with multi-channel detectors combine the spectral and spatial information. Tissue areas of 4 x 4 mm(2) can be analyzed within a few minutes in the macroscopic imaging mode. An approach is described to apply this methodology to human astrocytic gliomas, which are graded according to their malignancy from one to four. Multiple IR images of three tissue sections from one patient with a malignant glioma are acquired and assigned to the six classes normal brain tissue, astrocytoma grade II, astrocytoma grade III, glioblastoma multiforme grade IV, hemorrhage, and other tissue by a linear discriminant analysis model which was trained by data from a single-channel detector. Before the model is applied here, the spectra are shown to be virtually identical. The first specimen contained approximately 95% malignant glioma regions, that means astrocytoma grade III or glioblastoma. The smaller percentage of 12-34% malignant glioma in the second specimen is consistent with its location at the tumor periphery. The detection of less than 0.2% malignant glioma in the third specimen points to a location outside the tumor. The results were correlated with the cellularity of the tissue which was obtained from the histopathologic gold standard. Potential applications of IR spectroscopic imaging as a rapid tool to complement established diagnostic methods are discussed.     

Treatment-related central nervous system toxicity: MR imaging evaluation with CT and clinical correlation

Thirteen patients with abnormal brain MR scans attributable to treatment-induced injury were retrospectively reviewed. All patients were treated with radiation therapy and 62% received chemotherapy. Five patients were graded as having severe white matter (WM) changes, four had moderate WM changes, and four had mild WM changes. CT was generally equivalent to MR in evaluation of severe and moderate WM abnormalities, whereas MR was superior to CT in detection of mild WM abnormalities. In general, the severity of changes depicted by MR/CT correlated with the extent of neurologic dysfunction. The most severe changes were seen in those patients treated with combination irradiation and chemotherapy.     

High-Density Optophysiology Platform for Recording Intracellular and Extracellular Signals across the Brain of Free-Moving Animals

Developing a novel tool capable of real-time monitoring and simultaneously quantifying of both intra/extracellular chemical signals across the large-scale brain is the key bottleneck for understanding the interactions between the molecules inside and outside neurons. Here we built up a high-density intra/extracellular optophysiology platform, together with developing two probes for specific recognition of L-cysteine (Cys) and dopamine (DA), for simultaneously quantifying of both intracellular Cys and extracellular DA with high selectivity and accuracy across the brain of freely moving animals, as well as recording electrical signals. Using this powerful tool, it was found that intracellular Cys regulated extracellular DA through inducing the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase in the depressed mice brain. We also established the functional networks of Cys and DA across 32 brain regions in freely moving animals. More importantly, it was discovered that depression reduced the correlations between adjacent brain regions, which was recovered by the treatment of N-acetyl-l-cysteine.     

In vivo NMR imaging and T1 measurements of water protons in the human brain

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) proton density images of the human brain have been made by the FONAR method. Spin-lattice relaxation times, T₁, of water hydrogen protons have been determined at random positions within frontal and temporal regions of the human brain. The primary purpose of this ongoing research is to accumulate a large data base of normal T₁ values for water protons in normal human brain tissue. Our experience to data includes 31 measurements on 18 volunteer subjects, and the mean value ± standard deviation is 215 ± 42 msec. In addition, two metastatic lesions of the brain were studied and found to have T₁ values longer than those for normal brain tissue.     

Progress and problems in the application of focused ultrasound for blood-brain barrier disruption

Advances in neuroscience have resulted in the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic agents for potential use in the central nervous system (CNS). However, the ability to deliver the majority of these agents to the brain is limited by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a specialized structure of the blood vessel wall that hampers transport and diffusion from the blood to the brain. Many CNS disorders could be treated with drugs, enzymes, genes, or large-molecule biotechnological products such as recombinant proteins, if they could cross the BBB. This article reviews the problems of the BBB presence in treating the vast majority of CNS diseases and the efforts to circumvent the BBB through the design of new drugs and the development of more sophisticated delivery methods. Recent advances in the development of noninvasive, targeted drug delivery by MRI-guided ultrasound-induced BBB disruption are also summarized.     

Neuronal projections from ventral tegmental area to forebrain structures in rat studied by manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) has been widely applied to trace neuronal tracts and to monitor morphological and functional responses of specific brain circuits to changes in physiological and/or environmental conditions. In this study, we traced the efferent axonal projections from ventral tegmental area (VTA) to forebrain structures, an integrating part of the reward circuit implicated in drug addiction, in rats using MEMRI. Urethane- and chloral hydrate-anesthetized rats received injection of 100 nl of 200 mM MnCl(2) solution into the right VTA. Mn(2+)-induced signal enhancements were monitored 24 h after injection. The dose of MnCl(2) injection was shown, by histological evaluation, to have minor toxic effects to the neurons in/near the injection site. Dynamic Mn(2+)-induced signal intensity changes in urethane-anesthetized rats during a 24-h period were fit to a sigmoidal function to obtain parameters slope and t(50), which describe the dynamics of apparent Mn(2+)accumulation. The results showed that most of the forebrain structures known to receive neuronal projections from the VTA, including prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, globus pallidus and caudate putaman, were enhanced at 24 h after injection of MnCl(2) into the ipsilateral VTA, and anesthesia seemed have little effects on the amount of Mn(2+)being transported from the VTA to these structures.     

Fibronectin: An Interesting Vocal Fold Protein

A great deal of information is accruing regarding the function of the extracellular matrix. Once thought to be simply a structural entity to surround cells, it is now known to do much more. Fibronectin in particular has received specific attention. Fibronectin is a ubiquitous glycoprotein found most abundantly in the extracellular matrix of regenerating, healing, and embryonic tissue. Vast evidence supports the fact that fibronectin participates in many diverse functions throughout the body that are relevant to vocal fold biology. This article introduces the structure of fibronectin and its isoforms and provides an introduction to some of the many functions it plays. It also reviews the evidence about fibronectin's place in vocal folds and vocal fold pathology. It discusses fibronectin's presence in vocal nodules, vocal polyps, vocal scarring, and Reinke's edema, and reviews the data on its role in mucosal wave impairment. Lastly, it discusses preliminary microarray data that show gene expression for fibronectin to be upregulated in true vocal folds when compared to false vocal folds.     

新生儿脑部光学参数的无损检测

生物组织的光学参数与组织中各种生化、生理以及病理过程密切相关。利用频域近红外光谱技术,使用一个140 MHz的射频振荡源对不同波长的半导体激光管进行调制,通过精确测量距离光源一定距离处光子密度波的相位延迟和幅度衰减,并借助于一个光学参数已知的校准模型,实现了对23个新生儿头部组织光学参数的定量测量。并且根据两个波长(788和832 nm)下的吸收系数的测量结果进一步得到了新生儿脑部组织的生理学参数。实验结果表明,这种便携式的频域近红外光谱系统可以有效地获取新生儿头部的光学和生理学参数。