Impairment in exploratory behavior is associated with arc gene overexpression in the dorsolateral striatum of rats with nigral injection of l-buthionine sulfoximine.

The aims of the present work were to evaluate the exploratory activity in Sprague-Dawley rats, as well as to analyze the nigral and striatal mRNA expression of the plasticity-related genes bdnf and arc after L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) injection into substantia nigra compacta. Lesioned rats traveled less distance in open field but did not show a decline in the novel object recognition test. On the other hand, RT-PCR analysis showed overexpression of striatal arc 24 h post-lesion; no significant changes in bdnf expression were observed in nigral or striatal tissue. These results suggest that intranigral BSO injection causes impairment in exploratory behavior in these rats, by affecting locomotion, which is associated with changes in striatal synaptic plasticity.

Amygdala stimulation promotes recovery of behavioral performance in a spatial memory task and increases GAP-43 and MAP-2 in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of male rats.

The relationships between affective and cognitive processes are an important issue of present neuroscience. The amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex appear as main players in these mechanisms. We have shown that post-training electrical stimulation of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) speeds the acquisition of a motor skill, and produces a recovery in behavioral performance related to spatial memory in fimbria-fornix (FF) lesioned animals. BLA electrical stimulation rises bdnf RNA expression, BDNF protein levels, and arc RNA expression in the hippocampus. In the present paper we have measured the levels of one presynaptic protein (GAP-43) and one postsynaptic protein (MAP-2) both involved in synaptogenesis to assess whether structural neuroplastic mechanisms are involved in the memory enhancing effects of BLA stimulation. A single train of BLA stimulation produced in healthy animals an increase in the levels of GAP-43 and MAP-2 that lasted days in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. In FF-lesioned rats, daily post-training stimulation of the BLA ameliorates the memory deficit of the animals and induces an increase in the level of both proteins. These results support the hypothesis that the effects of amygdala stimulation on memory recovery are sustained by an enhanced formation of new synapses.

Erythropoietin improves object placement recognition memory in a time dependent manner in both, uninjured animals and fimbria-fornix-lesioned male rats.

An increasing number of reports sustain a possible role of erythropoietin (EPO) as neuroprotective agent. In two previous articles we have evaluated EPO as plasticity promoting agent, and to contribute the restoration of brain function affected by acquired damage. We have shown that EPO is able to induce an increased synaptic efficacy in vivo along with a plasticity promoting effect. In the Morris water maze EPO administration to fimbria-fornix lesioned male rats induces a significant improvement of their spatial memory, affected by the lesion. Singularly, EPO was only effective when administered shortly after training (10 min) but not after several hours (5 h), suggesting a specific EPO effect on time dependent plasticity process. In the present paper we have expanded this line of evidence using a low stress paradigm of object placement recognition in lesioned and healthy male rats. The memory trace in this model is short-lasting; animals could recognize the change in object position when tested 24 h after, but not 48 or 72 h after the acquisition session. EPO administration 10 min after acquisition significantly prolongs retention to, at least, 72 h in healthy rats. No effect was seen if EPO was administered 5 h after training, suggesting a specific EPO modulatory effect on the consolidation process. Remarkably, early EPO treatment to fimbria fornix lesioned animals reverts the memory deficit caused by the lesion. An increased expression of the plasticity related gene arc, was also confirmed in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, that is likely to be involved in the behavioral improvement observed.

Amygdala electrical stimulation inducing spatial memory recovery produces an increase of hippocampal bdnf and arc gene expression.

Amygdala seems to promote the consolidation of plastic modification in different brain areas and these long-term brain changes require a rapid de novo RNA and protein synthesis. We have previously shown that basolateral amygdala electrical stimulation produces a partial recovery of spatial memory in fimbria-fornix lesioned animals and it is also able to increase the BDNF protein content in the hippocampus. The emerging question is whether these increased BDNF protein content arises from previously synthesized RNA or from de novo RNA expression. Now we address the question if amygdala electrical stimulation 15min after daily water maze training produces a rapid de novo RNA synthesis in the hippocampus, a critical brain area for spatial memory recovery in fimbria-fornix lesioned animals. In addition, we also study RNA arc expression, a gene which is essential for memory and neural plasticity processes. To this purpose, we study amygdala stimulation effects on the expression of plasticity related-early-genes bdnf and arc in the hippocampus of fimbria-fornix lesioned animals trained in a water-maze for 4days. We also checked on the expression of both genes in non-lesioned, untrained animals (acute condition) at 0.5, 1, 2 and 24h after basolateral amygdala electrical stimulation. Our data from trained animals confirm that daily amygdala electrical stimulation 15min after water maze training produces a partial memory recovery and that is coupled to an increase of bdnf and arc genes expression in the hippocampus. Additionally, the acute study shows that a single session of amygdala stimulation induces a transient increase of both genes (peaking at 30min). These results confirm the memory improving effect of amygdala stimulation in fimbria-fornix-lesioned animals and sustain the assumption that the memory improving effect is mediated by newly synthetized BDNF acting on a memory relevant structure like the hippocampus. The increased amount of BDNF within the hippocampus seems to be locally synthetized by mechanisms activated by the amygdala stimulation.

BDNF in quinolinic acid lesioned rats after bone marrow cells transplant.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentration was measured in the striatum and cortex after quinolinic acid intrastriatal lesion and transplantation of bone marrow cells (BMSC). The results showed a significant increase of the BDNF levels in the striatum and cortex of the lesioned animals and the ability of the transplanted cells to increase the levels of BDNF in both sites. This recovery of BDNF production and distribution might have beneficial effects and ameliorate the negative consequences of the striatal lesion, a mechanism of potential interest for the treatment of Huntington's disease (HD).

[Epidemiologic, clinical and microbiological characteristics of nosocomial urinary infection in the spinal cord lesioned patient]. / Caracteristicas epidemiológicas, clínicas y microbiológicas de las infecciones nosocomiales urinarias en las lesiones medulares espinales.

UNLABELLED: Urinary infections constitute one of the main causes of intrahospitalary infections. At the Clinic for the attention of spinal cord injured (SCI) patients, we observed that these can be the causes of high incidence rates as a consequence of multiple risk factors associated with the neurogenic bladder as: vesical urethral reflux, vesicle lithiasis, diverticula and pseudodiverticula, urethral stenosis and permanent or intermittent catheterization. OBJECTIVES: To describe forms of presentation of urinary tract infections (UTI) in spinal cord lesioned patients with neurogenic bladder as well as their microbiological behavior. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We performed a descriptive, retrospective-type study on 28 patients in order to schedule a neurorestorative treatment for the affectation of the SCI for six months. They all received clinical, imaging test and bacteriologic assessment, that is, urocultures, uretheral and vaginal exudates to determine risk factors, forms of presentation of the infection, as well as associated complications and microbiological behavior. RESULTS: The most frequent forms of presentation of infections are: recurrent symptomatic bacteriuria, asymptomatic bacteriuria, bacterial urethritis, bacterial vaginosis and acute pyelonephrites. Most acute germs are: E. coli (for a 60% of isolation), followed by P. mirabilis (14%), K pneumoniae (10%), Staphylococcus sp. (4%), and other enterobacteria. Sensitiveness to aminoglycosides was kept high, where we observed a growing resistance to sulphas (>70%) and fluoroquinolones (>45%) as well as the frequent circulation of multirresistant microorganisms. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical peculiarities of urinary infections in the patient with neurogenic bladder, allow to perform more adequate strategies for treatment as to the clinical, microbiological and epidemiologic criteria.

[Evaluation of the survival of bone marrow mononucleate cells transplanted in a rat model of striatal lesion with quinolinic acid]. / Evaluacion de la supervivencia de las células mononucleadas de la médula ósea trasplantadas en un modelo de ratas con lesión estriatal por ácido quinolínico.

INTRODUCTION: Transplant is one of the alternatives available for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases aimed at replacing the cells lost during the course of the disease. One promising source of cells for the development of transplants could be the mononucleate cells from bone marrow. AIMS. The purpose of this study was to study the capacity of bone marrow mononucleate cells to survive the transplant process, and to search for a method that enables tracking of these cells in vivo once they have been implanted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bone marrow mononucleate cells were extracted from the femur of rats by means of a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient. The cells under study were modified genetically with an adenovirus that expresses the PFV or which are marked with Hoechst dye. The marked cells were implanted in the striatum of rats with lesions caused by quinolinic acid. RESULTS: The viability of the genetically modified cells was low, whereas that of the cells marked with Hoechst dye was above 90%. The implanted cells survived the transplant at least a month and dispersed away from the site of entry towards the corpus callosum and cortex. CONCLUSIONS: We consider that the use of Hoechst dye offers more advantages for tracking these cells in vivo. Mononucleate cells have a number of characteristics that allow them to be included as candidate sources of cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

[Bone marrow stromal cells. An alternative source of restorative therapy in degenerative diseases of the central nervous system]. / Células estromales de la médula ósea: una fuente terapéutica alternativa en la restauración de enfermedades degenerativas del sistema nervioso central.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to describe the capacity of bone marrow cells to limit or slow down the damage and chronic neuronal degeneration produced by degenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), as well as the potential capacity of the method to provide other substances or genetic material. DEVELOPMENT: The search for new sources of cells that maintain the ability to divide and distinguish themselves from different cellular phenotypes opens up huge new opportunities in the restorative therapy of these clinical entities. Bone marrow cells, and especially stromal stem cells, have been seen to conserve a high capacity to distinguish and originate different strains of characteristic brain cells (neurons, astrocytes, and glial cells), and also the capacity to restore the population of stem cells when they are stimulated in a suitable fashion. CONCLUSIONS: Future experimental studies will be aimed at searching for new ways to enhance the composition, viability and differentiation of the cells to be implanted and will evaluate their effects on diseases of the CNS.

[Ex vivo gene therapy in the treatment of Parkinson s disease]. / Terapia génica ex vivo en el tratamiento de la Enfermedad de Parkinson.

OBJECTIVE: Taking into account the growing development and application of in vivo and ex vivo gene therapy in neurodegenerative disorders we review this kind of therapy applications in Parkinson s disease. DEVELOPMENT: Gene therapy carried out to this illness includes the liberation of genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes for dopamine synthesis: tyrosine hydroxylase, AADC and GTP cyclohydrolase and neurotrophic factors like GDNF which promotes the survival and maintenance of dopamin rgic neurons. Ex vivo gene therapy allows the control of the gene transfer before implantation, however one of the fundamental problems of this procedure is given by the immunologic rejection, so the use of autologous sources is recommended. CONCLUSIONS: Ex vivo gene therapy is advantageous in relation to in vivo gene therapy because it allows the control of gene transfer before the implantation; looking for cellular sources of neural origin or pluripotent stem cells which can be differenciated toward a wanted cellular type in order to achieve the structural and functional integration of the cells implanted in the central nervous system are recommended; however it becomes necessary the development of vectors of new generation to avoid biosafety problems involved in the gene therapy.

[Cysteine-dependent protease in Trypanosoma cruzi useful for the diagnosis of Chagas disease]. / Proteasa dependiente de cisteína en Trypanosoma cruzi útil en el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de Chagas.

An immunoenzymatic system on solid phase for the detection of IgG antibodies in serum from chronic Chagasic patients was standardized. A protease from Trypanosoma cruzi (GP57/51KDa) was used as an antigen. The sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of the procedure were calculated taking into account the results obtained from conventional serology (CS), indirect immunofluorescence (IIF), indirect hemagglutination (IHA) and complement-mediated lysis test (CML) for the detection of anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies in serum. Except one, the positive samples obtained by those techniques were also positive by our method. These results show that GP 57/51 is useful in the serodiagnosis of Chagas disease.

[Prevalence of toxoplasmosis in pregnant women of the province of La Habana]. / Prevalencia de infección toxoplásmica en gestantes de la provincia La Habana.

A seroepidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii was carried out in four municipalities of Havana Province from October 1990 to April 1991 using a 10 microL ultra micro-ELISA. We tested 362 serum samples, from pregnant women, and 71% of toxoplasmic infection was found. Toxoplasmic infection was more frequent in women living in rural zones having domestic contacts with cats. The relationship of toxoplasmic infection and spontaneous abortion antecedent in this group was analyzed but no statistically significant differences were found.

[Applying an ultramicroanalytical system to the diagnosis of infectious diseases]. / Algunas aplicaciones del sistema ultramicroanalítico al diagnóstico de enfermedades infecciosas.

The multiple applications and advantages of the ultramicro analytical system in the serodiagnosis of different diseases produced by viruses, bacteria, and parasites are briefly reported. Also, perspectives in the use of this technology, not only for the diagnosis, but for the detection of microbial antigens are pointed out.