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Contributed by Lesley E. Northrop, Nicole Cameron and Mary Erskine, Department of Biology, Boston University The posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) is involved in processing the information from genito- sensory stimuli which is needed for mating-induced pseudopregnancy. The amygdala complex is known to be involved in memory storage and consolidation, processes known to be influenced by […]

Contributed by ATS’s 2004 Society for Neuroscience Poster of the Year Award Winner:Michelle Pearson, Purdue Pharma, Discovery Research, 6 Cedar Brook Drive, Cranbury NJ 08540 Neuropathic pain results in hyperalgesia and allodynia. It has been proposed that sprouting of myelinated touch-responsive Aβ-fibers into the innervation territory of pain-sensitive C-fibers in the spinal cord contributes to

Contributed by Dr. Naoki Yoshimura, Dept Urology/Pharmacology, Univ Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh PA 15213.Dr. Yoshimura summarizes his work with IB4-SAP. A complete report was published in Eur J Neurosci 20(2):474-482, 2004. It has been demonstrated that hyperexcitability of C-fibers in bladder afferent pathways can contribute to bladder overactivity and/or bladder pain under pathological conditions

Contributed by Dr. Fiorenzo Stirpe, Dipartimento di Patologia sperimentale, Università di Bologna, I-40125 Bologna, Italy Saporin from Saponaria officinalis (soapwort plant of the Caryophyllaceae family) was discovered as part of research on plant toxins we undertook around 1970, when we became interested in the study of the mechanism of action of ricin. Ricin, from Ricinus

Contributed by Dr. James Smith, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem NC 27157 Recent data implicate cholinergic neurons in the brain processes that underlie reinforcement. The involvement of cholinergic neurons in cocaine self-administration has been recently demonstrated using muscarinic and nicotinic agonists and antagonists, microdialysis, assessment

Contributed by ATS’s 2003 Society for Neuroscience Poster of the Year Award Winner:Dr. Jill McGaughy, Boston University, 64 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215 Muscarinic cholinergic receptor activation in entorhinal cortex (EC) activates intrinsic depolarizing membrane currents, which cause self-sustained spiking activity in single neurons.[1] This effect may underlie delay activity and match-dependent activity changes in

Our thanks to Drs. Frank Porecca, Victory Hruby and Josephine Lai, Department of Pharmacology, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for sharing the results of their studies. Cholecystokinin (CCK) is widely distributed in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. The 33-amino acid peptide contains a carboxyl terminal octapeptide sequence Asp-Tyr-Met-Gly-Trp-Met-Asp-Phe-NH2 which confers

Contributed by Dr. Patrick O. Kanold, Dept Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.Dr. Kanold summarizes his work with ME20.4-SAP. A complete report was published in Science 301:521-525. The processing of information in the visual system happens in multiple stages. Retinal neurons in the eye connect to neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), that

Dopaminergic neurons are widely studied because of their role in one of the devastating diseases of old age, Parkinson’s. Lesioning studies using 6-hydroxydopamine or MPTP have been useful in research on Parkinson’s Disease. However, these reagents have limitations such as MPTP affecting catecholaminergic neurons and 6-OHDA stability and specificity issues. Targeting dopaminergic neurons with an

For the IB4-SAP (Cat. #IT-10) illustration (Figure 1), our thanks to Christopher N. Honda, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University ofMinnesota, 6-145 Jackson Hall, 321 Church Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455 This issue of our quarterly newsletter addresses the use of biotinylated materials in targeting. ATS is now offering a biotinylation service (see p. 7)