Nervous system

About: Nervous system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 16729 publications have been published within this topic receiving 847181 citations.

The rapid production of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in rhesus monkeys by injection of heterologous and homologous brain tissue with adjuvants

Abstract: 1. A picture resembling acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in the human being has been regularly and rapidly produced in rhesus monkeys by injection of emulsions of adult rabbit and monkey brain administered with adjuvants. 2. No lesions of the central nervous system resulted from injection of similar emulsions of fetal rabbit brain or adult rabbit lung. 3. A description of the gross and histological findings in the central nervous system is given and compared with features of human demyelinating disease. 4. The experimental findings are in accord with the hypothesis that antibody to the injected brain emulsion reacts with the tissues of the nervous system of the animal to produce the pathological changes.

Isolation and functional characterization of Schwann cells derived from adult peripheral nerve

Abstract: To facilitate the development of autologous transplantation techniques with which to test the ability of Schwann cell (ScC) implantations to treat nervous system injury, we have developed a method for procuring large, essentially pure populations of ScCs from adult peripheral nerve. By allowing small explants of peripheral nerve trunk to undergo axonal and myelin breakdown in vitro, rather than dissociating the nerve immediately after harvest, we are able to (1) rid the explant of nearly all fibroblasts and (2) capitalize on the intrinsic ScC mitogenic response to peripheral nerve degeneration. Here, we describe a method that yields up to 98% pure ScC populations from adult rat sciatic nerve (based on cell soma and nuclear morphology, S100 staining, and behavior of dissociated cells on neurites) at cell yields of greater than 2 x 10(4) cells/mg of starting nerve weight. The purification technique was successfully applied to human tissue; human phrenic nerve yielded 98% pure ScC populations at cell yields of 2 x 10(4) cells/mg of initial nerve weight. Similar to neonatally derived ScCs, adult rat cells can be expanded in coculture with dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons or in isolation in the presence of glial growth factor and forskolin. Cells expanded indefinitely on DRG neurons, or up to 10 weeks on chemical mitogens, return to quiescence following removal of the mitogenic stimulus. Expanded adult-derived rat ScCs retain functional capacity, as evidenced by their ability to myelinate DRG neurites and to support regeneration of processes from embryonic rat retinal explants.

Activation of multiple-conductance state chloride channels in spinal neurones by glycine and GABA

Abstract: In the mammalian central nervous system, glycine and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) bind to specific and distinct receptors1–4 and cause an increase in membrane conductance to Cl− (refs 5–7). Neurones in various regions of the nervous system show differential sensitivity to glycine and GABA2,3; thus GABA and glycine receptors are spatially distinct from one another. However, on the basis of desensitization experiments on spinal cord neurones, it was suggested that the receptors for glycine and GABA may share the same Cl− channel8. We now report that in small membrane patches, isolated from the soma of spinal neurones, both receptor channels display several (multiple) conductance states. Two of the states are common to both receptor channels. However, the most frequently observed ‘main conductance states’ of the GABA and glycine receptor channels are different. Both channels display the same anion selectivity. We propose that one class of multistate Cl−channel is coupled to either GABA or glycine receptors. The main conductance state adopted by this channel is determined by the receptor to which it is coupled.