1,721,157 research outputs found
Effects of cholinesterase inhibitor galantamine in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease, the anti-NGF AD11 mice
No full textProfessor Adriana Fiorentini: 1/11/1926-29/2/2016
No full textAdriana Fiorentini was for many decades a pillar of the CNR Institute for Neurophysiology (then Neuroscience). On February 29, 2016, she passed away peacefully in her sleep, with a smile. A whole generation of vision scientists remembers her with love and respect. Her wisdom, intelligence, dedication to science, enthusiasm for research, and love of knowledge set an example to us all. She was a role model of respect, generosity, patience, collaboration, and true humility: discrete and reserved, always there for her students and colleagues
A Richness that Cures
Full text linkA study in Nature by Fischer et al. shows that environmental enrichment or increasing histone acetylation rescue the ability to form new memories and re-establish access to remote memories even in the presence of brain degeneration. Chromatin remodeling may be the final gate environmental enrichment opens to enhance plasticity and represents a promising target for therapeutical intervention in neurodegenerative diseases
Extracellular Matrix and Visual Cortical Plasticity Freeing the Synapse
No full textAbstractThe effects of monocular deprivation (MD) on the ocular dominance of visual cortical neurons are a paradigmatic example of experience-dependent plasticity. Here we review recent data showing that extracellular matrix (ECM) plays an important role in the control of experience-dependent plasticity both in the developing and adult visual cortex
Environmental enrichment prevents the onset of memory deficits and reduces neuropathological hallmarks in a mouse model of Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration
No full textAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory deficits and cognitive decline. We explored the possibility that Environmental Enrichment (EE) may reduce the disease progression in a comprehensive mouse model for AD like neurodegeneration, the AD11 mice. AD11 mice, which express anti nerve growth factor (NGF) antibodies, develop an age dependent neurodegeneration which encompasses all hallmarks of human AD. We have tested the efficacy of EE starting from 2 months of age, that is before the onset of behavioural deficits in AD11 mice. At 7 months of age, visual recognition memory was tested with the Object Recognition Test (ORT), spatial memory with the Morris Water Maze (MWM) and the presence of AD pathological hallmarks (Abeta clusters, presence of hyperphosphorylated tau and cholinergic deficit) was assessed immunohistochemically. We found that in AD11 mice exposed to EE from 2 to 7 months of age performance in both memory tests was significantly better than in non EE AD11 mice and indistinguishable from that in wild-type mice of the same age. Exposure to EE from 2 to 7 months significantly reduce the appearance of AD neuropathological hallmarks. A group of AD11 mice was tested also at 12 months of age: we found that 12 months old AD11 mice exposed to EE from 2 to 7 months of age performed significantly better than non EE AD11 mice of the same age and did not differ from 12 months old wt mice. Thus, EE is able to prevent the onset of memory deficits up to at least 12 months of age and to restrain the progression of neurodegeneration in a mouse model of AD
Effects of dark rearing on phosphorylation of neurotrophin Trk receptors
No full textTotal lack of visual experience (dark rearing, DR) is known to affect development of mammalian visual cortex (VC) and to prolong the critical period of visual cortical plasticity. Neurotrophins (NTs) have been proposed to play a relevant role in activity dependent processes important for the final shaping of cortical visual connections. Neurotrophin supply or antagonism of endogenous NT action profoundly affect visual cortical development and plasticity; in particular, exogenous supply of NTs counteracts DR effects on VC development. However, the effects of DR on NT expression are still debated and mounting evidence reports a mismatch between BDNF mRNA and protein expression in DR animals. To gain insight into the effects of DR on expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) and the functional state of NT signalling pathways, we assessed the phosphorylation state of Trk receptors in light-reared animals (LR), in dark-reared animals (DR), in DR animals briefly exposed to light and in DR animals with exogenous supply of NTs [NGF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and NT-4] in the VC. We report that DR increases the expression of NGF but reduces the phosphorylation of TrkA and TrkB receptors with respect to LR; normal phosphorylation is rapidly rescued by a brief exposure to light. Exogenous supply of NGF, BDNF or NT4 in DR animals also rescues the phosphorylation of their receptors
Immunohistochemical Visualization of Hippocampal Neuron Activity After Spatial Learning in a Mouse Model of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Full text link: Induction of phosphorylated extracellular-regulated kinase (pERK) is a reliable molecular readout of learning-dependent neuronal activation. Here, we describe a pERK immunohistochemistry protocol to study the profile of hippocampal neuron activation following exposure to a spatial learning task in a mouse model characterized by cognitive deficits of neurodevelopmental origin. Specifically, we used pERK immunostaining to study neuronal activation following Morris water maze (MWM, a classical hippocampal-dependent learning task) in Engrailed-2 knockout (En2(-/-)) mice, a model of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). As compared to wild-type (WT) controls, En2(-/-) mice showed significant spatial learning deficits in the MWM. After MWM, significant differences in the number of pERK-positive neurons were detected in specific hippocampal subfields of En2(-/-) mice, as compared to WT animals. Thus, our protocol can robustly detect differences in pERK-positive neurons associated to hippocampal-dependent learning impairment in a mouse model of ASD. More generally, our protocol can be applied to investigate the profile of hippocampal neuron activation in both genetic or pharmacological mouse models characterized by cognitive deficits
Introduction, 3 "One More Link in the Chain”: Scribes, Stones, Codices, Libraries
No full textAims and Scope
This book offers the hint for a new reflection on ancient textual transmission and editorial practices in Antiquity.In the first section, it retraces the first steps of the process of ancient writing and editing. The reader will discover how the book is both a material object and a metaphorical personification, material or immaterial. The second section will focus on corpora of Greek texts, their formation, and their paratextual apparatus. Readers will explore various issues dealing with the mechanisms that are at the basis of the assembling of ancient Greek texts, but great attention will also be given to the role of ancient scholarly work. The third section shows how texts have two levels of authorship: the author of the text, and the scribe who copies the text. The scribe is not a medium, but plays a crucial role in changing the text. This section will focus on the protagonists of some interesting cases of textual transmission, but also on the books they manufactured or kept in the libraries, and on the words they engraved on stones. Therefore, the fresh voices of the contributors of this book, offer new perspectives on established research fields dealing with textual criticism
Sezione III - Intellettuali e propaganda
No full textIntroduzione alla terza sezione, intitolata "Intellettuali e propaganda", del convegno The Old Lie. I classici e la Grande Guerra, tenutosi presso l'Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, il 21 marzo 2018
- …
