Functional brain networks associated with the urge for action: Implications for pathological urge.

Tics in Tourette syndrome (TS) are often preceded by sensory urges that drive the motor and vocal symptoms. Many everyday physiological behaviors are associated with sensory phenomena experienced as an urge for action, which may provide insight into the neural correlates of this pathological urge to tic that remains elusive. This study aimed to identify a brain network common to distinct physiological behaviors in healthy individuals, and in turn, examine whether this network converges with a network we previously localized in TS, using novel 'coordinate network mapping' methods. Systematic searches were conducted to identify functional neuroimaging studies reporting correlates of the urge to micturate, swallow, blink, or cough. Using activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis, we identified an 'urge network' common to these physiological behaviors, involving the bilateral insula/claustrum/inferior frontal gyrus/supplementary motor area, mid-/anterior- cingulate cortex (ACC), right postcentral gyrus, and left thalamus/precentral gyrus. Similarity between the urge and TS networks was identified in the bilateral insula, ACC, and left thalamus/claustrum. The potential role of the insula/ACC as nodes in the network for bodily representations of the urge to tic are discussed.

Determination of an Acclimation Period for Swine in Biomedical Research.

Swine are widely used models in biomedical research due to their physiologic and anatomic similarities to humans. During transport from vendors to research facilities, pigs are subject to a number of stressors, including environmental, social, and stress as a result of deprivation from food and water. As stress can have a number of adverse psychologic and physiologic effects, an acclimation period, defined as the period of time that an animal has to adjust and stabilize in a new environment, is recommended. The literature indicates that swine should be conditioned to their new facility for 5 to 7 d prior to undergoing survival surgery; however, to date, there is no published scientific evidence to support this or any specific acclimation period for swine. To investigate whether a certain length acclimation period leads to decreased stress in swine, we measured 2 stress biomarkers, cortisol and chromogranin A (CgA), from the saliva of 12 naive Yorkshire swine (n = 6 males and 6 females) arriving at our facility for use in research protocols. Noninvasive saliva collection was performed on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 after arrival from the vendor (representing different acclimation periods). We hypothesized that longer acclimation periods would result in reduced levels of both cortisol and CgA, indicating reduced stress. Our data revealed that there was no statistical difference in cortisol levels over time (P = 0.8200), nor between the sexes (P = 0.9886) or individual animals (P = 0.6280). CgA, similarly to cortisol, showed no overall effect of time (P = 0.2017) or sex (P = 0.6598). For this analyte, individual animal was significant (P < 0.0001), which suggests high interanimal variation. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease (P = 0.0077) in salivary CgA from day 1 compared with day 14, suggesting that swine may benefit from an acclimation period of at least 14 d.

Combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation for diabetic nephropathy: an update in ongoing research for a clinically relevant application of porcine islet transplantation.

Combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy represents a compelling and increasingly relevant therapeutic possibility for an ever-growing number of patients who would benefit from both durable renal replacement and cure of the underlying cause of their renal insufficiency: diabetes. Here we briefly review immune barriers to islet transplantation, highlight preclinical progress in the field, and summarize our experience with combined islet and kidney xenotransplantation, including both challenges with islet-kidney composite grafts as well as our recent success with sequential kidney followed by islet xenotransplantation in a pig-to-baboon model.