Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience - Volume 10, issue 3

Authors: Molander, C. | Wang, H.F. | Rivero-Melián, C. | Grant, G.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Isolectin B4 from Griffonia simplicifolia I (B4) has a high binding affinity to a large population of unmyelinated primary sensory neurons (Wang et al., Neuroscience 62 (1994) 539–551). Using immunohistochemical techniques, binding and transganglionic transport of B4 in the spinal cord was investigated, both at short and long survival times, after sciatic nerve transection and ligation or crush in the adult rat. Nerve transection and ligation resulted in nearly complete disappearance of B4 immunolabelling in the sciatic nerve territory of the superficial dorsal horn after B4 binding, as well as after transganglionic transport of B4 by 2 weeks postinjury. Partial …recovery of both B4 binding and B4 transport was found by 8 months, and nearly complete recovery by 16 months, indicating that reappearance of B4 binding is not critically dependent on peripheral reinnervation. Crush injury made by jeweller's forceps resulted in partial depletion of binding and transport by 2 weeks and a nearly complete recovery by 10 weeks. The results show that binding and transganglionic transport of B4 can be used to label dorsal horn connections of unmyelinated primary afferents during the process of regeneration after crush injury. Furthermore, as B4 binding and transport recover at long survival times in the absence of reestablished peripheral connections, the same techniques can be used to study central primary afferent connections at long survival times after nerve transection. Binding and transganglionic transport of B4 offer alternatives to the use of previous techniques such as transganglionic transport of wheat germ agglutinin conjugated horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) to study central connections of fine primary afferents after injury. Show more

Keywords: Immunohistochemistry, Lectins, Nerve injury, Nerve regeneration, Primary afferent neuron, Sciatic nerve, Substantia gelatinosa

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10301

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 123-133, 1996

Authors: Shaughnessy, Laura W. | Barone Jr., Stanley | Mundy, William R. | Tilson, Hugh A.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Experimentally-induced lesions of the basal forebrain have been used to test the hypothesis that the cholinergic system plays a critical role in learning and memory. In the present study, a basal forebrain infusion of colchicine, a microtubule assembly inhibitor, was used to characterize the relationship between a cholinergic marker and behavioral function. Bilateral infusions were made in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) of male Long-Evans rats. At 4 weeks post-lesion, behavioral assessments were made on half of the rats in each group. These rats were sacrificed 1 week later and regional choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity was measured. The remaining rats …were behaviorally tested 11 weeks post-lesion and sacrificed 12 weeks post-lesion. The brains of additional rats were studied for Nissl-staining, ChAT-, GAD- and metEnk immunoreactivity (IR) and AChE histochemistry. At 5 weeks after colchicine infusion, there was a significant decrease in parietal and frontal cortical ChAT activity, impaired acquisition of a water maze spatial navigation task and decreased passive avoidance cross-over latency. At 12 weeks after colchicine infusion, ChAT activity was decreased in frontal but not parietal cortex; acquisition of the water maze task was not significantly different from vehicle-infused rats, and a significant deficit was observed in passive avoidance latency. ChAT-IR in the NBM showed a significant decrease at both time points, while changes in AChE-stained cortical fibers paralleled the ChAT activity. GAD- and metEnk-IR were decreased but were not different between the two time points. These data show task-specific behavioral recovery associated in time with recovery of regional cholinergic markers. Show more

Keywords: ChAT activity, Lesion-induced compensation, Nucleus basalis, Passive avoidance, Water maze

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10302

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 135-146, 1996

Authors: Hertl, M. Catherine | Strasberg, Suzanne R. | Mackinnon, Susan E. | Mohanakumar, T. | Hunter, Daniel A. | Mike Nyack, L. | Miyasaka, Masayuki

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Donor-specific immunosuppression using anti-intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and anti-lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) has been shown to inhibit nerve allograft rejection without side effects. This dose-response study evaluated several dosing regimens using a 2-week course of three monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against ICAM-1 and LFA-1 in combination on peripheral nerve allograft rejection in a rat model. Assessments of regeneration included walking track, electrophysiological, and histomorphologic analyses. Donor (ACI)-specific tolerance induction was assessed. Toxicity and mAb serum levels were monitored. At 18 weeks post engraftment, intermediate and high-dose groups were histologically indistinguishable from isograft controls, and superior to the untreated allograft group which …demonstrated a significantly lower percent nerve tissue than all other groups. There were no differences in print length factor after 12 weeks or conduction velocity at sacrifice between any groups. Tolerance induction was not demonstrated. During mAb administration, animals in higher dose groups experienced temporary systemic side effects. This study demonstrated that a short course of mAb therapy directed against ICAM-1/LFA-1 inhibits rejection in rat peripheral nerve allografts by an unknown mechanism. The use of immune modulation in nerve transplantation may eliminate the need for systemic immunosuppression. Show more

Keywords: Adhesion molecules, Allograft, Immunosuppression, ICAM-1, LFA-1, Monoclonal antibody, Rat

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10303

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 147-159, 1996

Authors: Takeichi, Yasuhiro | Nakasu, Yoko | Tooyama, Ikuo | Kimura, Hiroshi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This experiment was designed to determine if basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) had neurotrophic effects on vasopressin neurons after hypophysectomy. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received 1 μg bFGF (bFGF group) or 0.1% bovine serum albumin (BSA group) to the sellar cavity immediately after hypophysectomy via parapharyngeal approach. Seven sham-operated non-hypophysectomized rats were used as control. Later (7 weeks) the number of arginine vasopressin (AVP) neurons was quantitatively examined in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the supraoptic nucleus (SON) by immunohistochemistry. AVP neurons in both the PVN and SON of the hypophysectomy groups exhibited a significant reduction in number, compared with …the control group. In the PVN, the number of AVP neurons was significantly greater in the FGF group than in the BSA group. Particularly, the difference was confirmed in the posterior magnocellular division, that consists of AVP neurons mainly projecting their axons to the posterior pituitary. In the SON, however, there was no difference in the number of AVP neurons between the bFGF group and BSA group. These results suggest that bFGF has a preserving effect on AVP neurons in the PVN following hypophysectomy. Show more

Keywords: Arginine vasopressin, Axotomy, Basic fibroblast growth factor, Hypophysectomy, Hypothalamus, Neurosecretory system, Retrograde degeneration

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10304

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 161-166, 1996

Article Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10305

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 167-183, 1996

Authors: Graham, Steven H. | Chen, Jim | Stetler, R. Anne | Zhu, R. Li | Jin, Kun Lin | Simon, Roger P.

Article Type: Other

DOI: 10.3233/RNN-1996-10306

Citation: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 185-185, 1996