The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations

A paradigm shift is taking place in medicine from using synthetic implants and tissue grafts to a tissue engineering approach that uses degradable porous material scaffolds integrated with biological cells or molecules to regenerate tissues. This new paradigm requires scaffolds that balance temporary mechanical function with mass transport to aid biological delivery and tissue regeneration. Little is known quantitatively about this balance as early scaffolds were not fabricated with precise porous architecture. Recent advances in both computational topology design (CTD) and solid free-form fabrication (SFF) have made it possible to create scaffolds with controlled architecture. This paper reviews the integration of CTD with SFF to build designer tissue-engineering scaffolds. It also details the mechanical properties and tissue regeneration achieved using designer scaffolds. Finally, future directions are suggested for using designer scaffolds with in vivo experimentation to optimize tissue-engineering treatments, and coupling designer scaffolds with cell printing to create designer material/biofactor hybrids.

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Porous scaffold design for tissue engineering

中枢神経系疾患の治療は正常細胞（ニューロン）の機能維持を目的とするが，脳血管障害のように機能障害の原因が細胞の死滅に基づくことは多い．一方，脳腫瘍の治療においては薬物療法や放射線療法といった腫瘍細胞の死滅を目標とするものが大きな位置を占める．いずれの場合にも，細胞死の機序を理解することは各種病態や治療法の理解のうえで重要である．現在のところ最も研究の進んでいる細胞死の型はアポトーシスである．そのなかで重要な位置を占めるミトコンドリアにおける反応および抗アポトーシス因子について概要を紹介する．

Neuroscience 細胞死：最近の知見

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Prolactin is a protein hormone of the anterior pituitary gland that was originally named for its ability to promote lactation in response to the suckling stimulus of hungry young mammals. We now know that prolactin is not as simple as originally described. Indeed, chemically, prolactin appears in a multiplicity of posttranslational forms ranging from size variants to chemical modifications such as phosphorylation or glycosylation. It is not only synthesized in the pituitary gland, as originally described, but also within the central nervous system, the immune system, the uterus and its associated tissues of conception, and even the mammary gland itself. Moreover, its biological actions are not limited solely to reproduction because it has been shown to control a variety of behaviors and even play a role in homeostasis. Prolactin-releasing stimuli not only include the nursing stimulus, but light, audition, olfaction, and stress can serve a stimulatory role. Finally, although it is well known that dopamine of hypothalamic origin provides inhibitory control over the secretion of prolactin, other factors within the brain, pituitary gland, and peripheral organs have been shown to inhibit or stimulate prolactin secretion as well. It is the purpose of this review to provide a comprehensive survey of our current understanding of prolactin's function and its regulation and to expose some of the controversies still existing.

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Prolactin: Structure, Function, and Regulation of Secretion

IT has generally been accepted that the pre-ovulatory surge of luteinising hormone (LH) is caused by an increased release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) from nerve terminals in the median eminence. So far, however, estimations of the concentrations of GnRH in hypophyseal portal vessel blood by bioassay1 or radioimmunoassay2,3 have failed to demonstrate a surge of GnRH before or during the spontaneous surge of LH. The anaesthetics used (urethane1,3 and sodium pento-barbitone2) block ovulation, and, therefore, are likely to block or truncate a surge of GnRH, if it occurs. We have re-examined this problem using Althesin (Glaxo, Middlesex) an anaesthetic which consists of 9 mg alphaxalone (3α-hydroxy-5α-pregnane-11,20-dione) and 3 mg alphadolone acetate (21-acetoxy-3α-ydroxy-5α-pregnane-11,20-dione) per ml of isotonic aqueous vehicle and show that it does not block the spontaneous LH surge or ovulation. Previous studies on the cat4 suggested that, although it can provide adequate analgesia, Althesin does not interfere with various forebrain functions.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone surge in pro-oestrous rats

Male Germline Transmits Fetal Alcohol Adverse Effect on Hypothalamic Proopiomelanocortin Gene Across Generations

The concentration of LH releasing factor (LH-RF) was measured by radioimmunoassay in blood collected from the cut pituitary stalk of long-term ovariectomized rats anaesthetized with Althesin. Stalk plasma LH-RF concentrations were increased immediately after ovariectomy (carried out at oestrus) and low at 2 and 4 days after operation. The concentrations then began to increase to reach a level at 24-28 days which was significantly higher than the concentrations during the oestrous cycle except for the time of the ovulatory surge at pro-oestrus. This pattern was similar to that of the concentrations of LH in jugular venous plasma taken from the same animals before exposure of the pituitary stalk. Like peripheral plasma LH concentrations, the concentrations of LH-RF in stalk plasma fluctuated and fell significantly and rapidly after the intravenous injection of 1 microgram oestradiol-17 beta. The release of LH-RF in long-term ovariectomized rats, into which had been implanted an oestradiol-containing Silastic capsule, was similar to the diurnal pattern of LH release; the afternoon increase in stalk plasma LH-RF concentration could be blocked by sodium pentobarbitone administered at 13.00 h and augmented by administering this anaesthetic at 13.00 h of the preceding day. The stalk plasma LH-RF concentrations in animals injected with oestradiol benzoate (OB) followed 72 h later with either OB or progesterone were lower than the concentrations in animals injected only with oil. These data show that in the rat (1) ovarian steroids could moderate LH release ('negative feedback') by inhibiting LH-RF release, and that in long-term ovariectomized animals (2) the oestradiol-induced circadian pattern of LH release is due to a circadian pattern of LH-RF release, and (3) the surge of LH produced by administering OB followed by either OB or progesterone is probably due mainly to a massive increase in the responsiveness of the anterior pituitary gland to LH-RF.

Luteinizing hormone releasing factor in pituitary stalk plasma from long-term ovariectomized rats: effects of steroids.

Various features, components, and functions of the immune system present daily variations. Immunocompetent cell counts and cytokine levels present variations according to the time of day and the sleep-wake cycle. Moreover, different immune cell types, such as macrophages, natural killer cells, and lymphocytes, contain a circadian molecular clockwork. The biological clocks intrinsic to immune cells and lymphoid organs, together with inputs from the central pacemaker of the suprachiasmatic nuclei via humoral and neural pathways, regulate the function of cells of the immune system, including their response to signals and their effector functions. Consequences of this include, for example, the daily variation in the response to an immune challenge (e.g., bacterial endotoxin injection) and the circadian control of allergic reactions. The circadian-immune connection is bidirectional, because in addition to this circadian control of immune functions, immune challenges and immune mediators (e.g., cytokines) were shown to have strong effects on circadian rhythms at the molecular, cellular, and behavioral levels. This tight crosstalk between the circadian and immune systems has wide-ranging implications for disease, as shown by the higher incidence of cancer and the exacerbation of autoimmune symptoms upon circadian disruption.

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Crosstalk between the circadian clock circuitry and the immune system.

A growing body of knowledge is revealing the critical role of circadian physiology in the development of specific pathological entities such as cancer. NK cell function participates in the immune response against infection and malignancy. We have reported previously the existence of a physiological circadian rhythm of NK cell cytolytic activity in rats, suggesting the existence of circadian mechanisms subjacent to NK cell function. At the cellular level, circadian rhythms are originated by the sustained transcriptional-translational oscillation of clock genes that form the cellular clock apparatus. Our aim in this study was to investigate the presence of molecular clock mechanisms in NK cells as well as the circadian expression of critical factors involved in NK cell function. For that purpose, we measured the circadian changes in the expression of clock genes (Per1, Per2, Bmal1, Clock), Dbp (a clock-controlled output gene), CREB (involved in clock signaling), cytolytic factors (granzyme B and perforin), and cytokines (IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha) in NK cells enriched from the rat spleen. The results obtained from this study demonstrate for the first time the existence of functional molecular clock mechanisms in NK cells. Moreover, the circadian expression of cytolytic factors and cytokines in NK cells reported in this study emphasizes the circadian nature of NK cell function.

Dipak K. Sarkar

Papers

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone surge in pro-oestrous rats

Male Germline Transmits Fetal Alcohol Adverse Effect on Hypothalamic Proopiomelanocortin Gene Across Generations

Luteinizing hormone releasing factor in pituitary stalk plasma from long-term ovariectomized rats: effects of steroids.

Crosstalk between the circadian clock circuitry and the immune system.

Circadian Oscillations of Clock Genes, Cytolytic Factors, and Cytokines in Rat NK Cells