2,752 research outputs found
Microarray analysis of GFP-expressing mouse Dopamine neurons isolated by laser capture microdissection
No full textThe Central Nervous System (CNS) contains an enormous variety of cell types which organize in complex networks. The lack of adequate markers to discern unequivocally among this cellular heterogeneity make the task of dissecting out such neural networks and the cells that comprise them very challenging. The present study represents a “bottom-up” approach that entails a description of A9 and A10 nuclei, which are components of the mesencephalic dopaminergic system, and the identification of their molecular make-up through microarray analysis of their gene expression profiles. These mesencephalic dopaminergic nuclei give rise to the mesocortical and mesostriatal projections and are well known for their roles in initiation of movement, reward behaviour and neurobiology of addiction. Moreover, in post mortem brains of Parkinson Disease patients a specific topographic pattern of degeneration of these neurons, also recapitulated in experimental animal models, is noted, with A9 neurons presenting with a higher vulnerability to degeneration with respect to A10 cells among which, neuron loss is almost negligible. Molecular differences may be at the basis of this different susceptibility. In this study we have optimized a protocol for laser-assisted microdissection of fluorescent-expressing cells and have taken advantage of a line of transgenic mice TH-GFP/21-31, which express GFP under the TH promoter in all CA cells, to guide laser capture microdissection of A9 and A10 mDA neurons for differential informative cDNA microarray profiling. Results show that our optimized method retains the GFP-fluorescence of DA cells and achieves good tissue morphology visualization. Moreover, RNA of high quality and good reproducibility of hybridizations support the validity of the protocol. Many of the genes that resulted differentially expressed from this analysis were found to be genes previously known to specifically define the different identities of the two DA neuronal nuclei. Transcripts were verified for expression, in DA neurons, using the collection of in situ hybridization in the Allen Brain Atlas. We have identified 592 differentially expressed transcripts (less than 8%) of which 242 showing higher expression in A9 and 350 showing higher expression in A10. Categorical analysis showed that transcripts associated with mitochondria and energy production were enriched in A9, while transcripts involved in redox homeostasis and stress response resulted enriched in A10. Of all the differentially expressed genes, eight transcripts (Mif, Hnt, Ndufa10, Aurka, Cs, enriched in A9 neurons and Pdia5, Whrn, and Gpx3 enriched in A10 neurons), verified with the Allen Brain Atlas and not noted or confirmed as differentially expressed before, emerged from this analysis. These and other selected genes are discussed
Differential spatio-temporal expression of alpha-dystrobrevin-1 during mouse development.
No full textDystrobrevins are a family of dystrophin-related and dystrophin-associated proteins. alpha-dystrobrevin-1 knockout mice suffer from skeletal and cardiac myopathies. It has been suggested that the pathology is caused by the loss of signalling functions but the exact role of dystrobrevins is largely unknown. We have analysed the spatial and temporal expression of alpha-dystrobrevin-1 during mouse embryogenesis and found striking developmental regulation and distribution patterns. During development this protein was expressed not only in muscle but also in the CNS, sensory organs, epithelia and skeleton. Particularly interesting was the correlation of alpha-dystrobrevin-1 expression with the induction of various differentiation processes in the developing eye, inner ear, pituitary, blood-brain barrier, stomach epithelium and areas of the brain, dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord. In contrast, this specific expression at the induction phase decreased/disappeared at later stages of development
Christina and Me
No full textBestselling Maine author Christina Baker Kline tells the background story of why she chose to write her novel Christina\u27s World which is based on the relationship between Maine artist, Andrew Wyeth and his muse, Christina Olson
Christina Gillis, author of Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life,
No full textChristina Gillis, author of Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life, delves into old letters written by Maine writer Ruth Moore in the 1950s. Moore was selling her family\u27s Gotts Island house to Phyllis and Richard Strauss, Gillis\u27s sister and brother-in-law
Religious intellectuals : the poetic gravity of Emily Brontë and Christina Rossetti
No full textThis thesis examines the writing of Emily Brontë and Christina Rossetti in terms of its
expression of religious culture and belief. It is my argument that Brontë and Rossetti
experienced religion as intellectuals, questioning and exploring doctrine and dogma neither
as sentimental lady Christians nor dismissive, secular critics. I contend that by close
reading their poetry, the genre both women privileged as most appropriate for the
consideration of religious matters, the reader may trace the sermons and theological works
they read. Moreover, their writing, I suggest, evinces their intellectual response to
theological, ecclesiological and ecclesiastical developments that took place in the
nineteenth century. I thus label Brontë and Rossetti 'religious intellectuals,' a phrase
suggestive of their intense understanding of, rather than their mild acquaintance with,
religious debate. Many women writing within the nineteenth century found that religion
granted them a field within which to freely read and research, but were denied the
professional title of 'theologian.' Brontë and Rossetti are thus examples of a wider
phenomenon wherein women encountered religion like scholars, one disregarded by current
criticism unable as it is to categorize a female activity simultaneously religious and
intellectual. I use Brontë and Rossetti as examples of what I call the 'religious intellectual'
because they represent different sides of this classification. Where Brontë struggled away
from her Methodist background, serving as a cultural commentator on its enthusiastic
belief-system, Rossetti forged a scholarly identity as a late member of the High Church
Oxford Movement. Both poets, I contend, wrote about religion in order to signal their
intellectual ability. I conclude that Brontë's interest in Methodism and Rossetti's
fascination with Tractarianism reveals the poets to be both independent of family pressures
and false consciousness, and fully engaged with a subject central to their age
Leonora Christina
No full textShort presentation of Danish author Leonora Christina and her main work
Beyond cost savings: The value of OER and open pedagogy for student learning
No full textThis workshop was delivered by Dr. Christina Hendricks, from the University of British Columbia, for the 2018 Open Education Week Celebration at Mount Royal. The presentation outline approaches to open education - including OER, open pedagogy, and open educational practices
Book Review on Christina Sharpe’s Ordinary Notes
No full textThis is a brief book review of Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe. Published in April 2023, the text deals with various aspects of Black life, such as memory, trauma, and ongoing racial violence. Being an acclaimed scholar of the Black community, Christina Sharpe shares a surfeit of memories throughout her text, which is why I found this book to be an excellent addition to Black memory studies. The author argues on the functionality of museums and memorials. While many may insist on the necessity of these sites of memory, the author argues that memorial narratives fail to provide ‘reconciliation and healing’. She also asserts how language is usually manipulated by white supremacists, and hence, memory is manipulated as well. Motherhood is also a dominant topic that Sharpe explores in her book
Christina of Markyate – introduction to the “life”
No full textThis article presents information about Christina, saint, eremite and subsequent superior in Markyate, who lived in England in the 12th century. The study aims to elucidate the person of the saint, so little known in Poland. In order to encourage reading of the “Life,” the author, apart from sketching the saint’s biography, discusses the role of women during the Middle Ages as well as refers to an extraordinary friendship between Christina and an abbot from one of the most influential monasteries of the twelfth-century England - Geoffrey of Gorham – who was a cause of damnatio memoriae after his death
The Forgotten Gothic of Christina Rossetti
No full textIn this essay, the author analyzes the Gothic of Christina Rossetti in such poems as A Coast Nightmare, Shut Out, but also the well-known Goblin Market and the Prince's Progress. Interested in what the imagery of these poems convey, and intent on declaring Rossetti as a prominent example of Gothic poets, the author makes a strong case for the including of Rossetti among the great Gothics
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