Gonadal hormones down-regulate reactive gliosis and astrocyte proliferation after a penetrating brain injury

Astrocytes are a target for gonadal steroids in the normal brain. The putative modulation by gonadal hormones of the astrocytic reaction to brain injury was assessed in this study. Male and female adult Wistar albino rats were gonadectomized and, one month later, their brains were lesioned by a longitudinal incision crossing the parietal cerebral cortex, the CA1 field of the dorsal hippocampus and the dentate gyrus. Males were injected either with testosterone (20 μg/rat) or vehicle immediately after surgery. Females were injected either with 17β estradiol (250 μg/rat), progesterone (500 μg/rat) or vehicle. Hormonal injections were repeated 24 and 48 h after brain injury. All animals received injections of 5′-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to label proliferating cells. Histological sections from the brain of animals killed 72 h after surgery were used for the double immunohistochemical localization of BrdU and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The number of GFAP-immunoreactive astrocytes and the number of double labelled astrocytes (GFAP+BrdU) were recorded as a function of the distance to the lesion site in the parietal cerebral cortex, the CA1 field of the hippocampus and the dentate gyrus. Testosterone, estradiol and progesterone treatments resulted in a significant decrease in the number of GFAP-immunolabelled reactive astrocytes in the vicinity of the wound. The number of double labelled cells and the labelling index (proportion of GFAP-immunoreactive astrocytes labelled with BrdU) varied according to the cerebral area, the distance to the wound and the sex of the animals, and were significantly decreased by gonadal steroids in all the areas examined. These results ndicate that gonadal hormones may decrease gliosis and astrocyte proliferation after a penetrating brain injury.     

Testosterone-dependent increase of gap-junctions in HVC neurons of adult female canaries

Singing of canaries is controlled by a chain of interconnected brain areas. One of these areas, the caudal nucleus of the ventral neostriatum (HVC), is sensitive to androgens and estrogens. In adult canaries, both male and female sing. Female song is structured differently from the male singing and characterized by a higher variability. Singing females were implanted with testosterone propionate (n = 5) or with empty silastic tubes (n = 5). Testosterone treated females developed a male-like song and had an increased number of neuronal soma-somatic gap junctions in the HVC compared with the untreated singing females. Electric coupling of HVC neurons could be important for the testosterone-dependent changes of the song pattern of canaries.     

Orthograde transport and release of insulin-like growth factor I from the inferior olive to the cerebellum

Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and its receptor are expressed in functionally related areas of the rat brain such as the inferior olive and the cerebellar cortex. A marked decrease of IGF-I levels in cerebellum is found when inferior olive neurons are lesioned. In addition, Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex depend on this growth factor to survive and differentiate in vitro. Thus, we consider it possible that IGF-I forms part of a putative trophic circuitry encompassing the inferior olive and the cerebellar cortex and possibly other functionally connected areas. To test this hypothesis we have studied whether IGF-I may be taken up, transported, and released from the inferior olive to the cerebellum. We have found that ¹²⁵I-IGF-I is taken up by inferior olive neurons in a receptor-mediated process and orthogradely transported to the cerebellum. Thus, radioactivity found in the cerebellar lobe contralateral to the injection site in the inferior olive was immunoprecipitated by an anti-IGF-I antibody, co-eluted with ¹²⁵I-IGF-I in an HPLC column, and co-migrated with ¹²⁵I-IGF-I in an SDS-urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Time-course studies indicated that orthograde axonal transport is relatively rapid since 30 min after the injection, radiolabeled IGF-I was already detected in the contralateral cerebellum. Furthermore, transport of IGF-i from the inferior olive is specific since when ¹²⁵I-neurotensin was injected in the inferior olive or when ¹²⁵I-IGF-I was injected in the pontine nucleus, no radiactivity was found in the contralateral cerebellum. In addition, no specific transport of ¹²⁵I-IGF-I was found in climbing fiber-deafferented rats or when excess unlabeled IGF-I was co-injected with ¹²⁵I-IGF-I. We next studied whether IGF-I is released by inferior olive neurons. We found that the release of IGF-I from cerebellar slices of normal rats was significantly greater in response to depolarizing stimuli than that from slices obtained of climbing fiber-deafferented animals. Indeed, in vitro release of IGF-I in response to KCI or veratridine was almost completely abolished in the latter. These data suggest that IGF-I is taken up by inferior olive neurons through IGF-I receptors and transported to the cerebellum through their axons without any major modification. Moreover, the release of IGF-I from the cerebellum after depolarization depends on the presence of climbing fiber afferents. Altogether these results indicate that the olivo-cerebellar pathway is able to take up, orthogradely transport, and release IGF-I. Since a similar process has been described in the visual system for basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), we propose that IGF-I, bFGF, and possibly other growth factors may constitute afferent trophic signals involved in plastic mechanisms within specific neural circuitries. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Sex differences in plasma membrane concanavalin A binding in the rat arcuate neurons

Previous studies have shown that synaptic connections and organization of neuronal membranes are sexually dimorphic in the arcuate nucleus of developing and adult rats. These sex differences can be abolished by the perinatal androgenization of females. In this study the label-fracture method of Pinto da Silva and Kan was used in order to determine whether membrane sex differences are related to the glycoconjugates in neuronal plasma membranes. Six Sprague-Dawley female rats treated with testosterone on the day of birth, six control females injected with vehicle and six intact males were studied when they were 100 days old. The arcuate nucleus was dissected and incubated for 2 hours in a solution of 0.25 mg/ml concanavalin A, washed in buffer and incubated for 3 hours in a suspension of horseradish peroxidase-coated colloidal gold. Then, freeze-fracture replicas of the arcuate nucleus were prepared. Colloidal gold labeling was observed to be codistributed with intramembrane particles in the outer membrane face of the neuronal perikaryal plasma membrane. The numerical density of small (less than 10 nm) intramembrane particles and colloidal gold particles was significantly greater in control female membranes when compared to males or to androgenized females. The labeling was significantly reduced when the arcuate nucleus was incubated with concanavalin A in presence of 0.5 M methyl-alpha-manopyranoside. These findings indicate a sex difference in the density and distribution of glycoconjugates and intramembranous particles in the neuronal plasma membrane that is dependent on the perinatal levels of sex steroids and is concordant with, and could be the cause of, sex differences in the pattern of synaptic contacts.     

Metastatic colon cancer: correlation of oxygen levels with I-131 F(ab')2 uptake

Tumor oxygen levels were measured with an electrode in 13 patients with colon carcinoma metastases. These measurements were correlated with images obtained with radiolabeled monoclonal antibody 1083-17-1A. Only those tumors or tumor regions with a mean PO2 of 16 mm Hg or greater were successfully imaged. Tumors and tumor regions with a mean PO2 of less than 16 mm Hg were not imaged, even when the presence of antigen was confirmed with biopsy. These data suggest that physiologic factors other than antigen expression may affect antibody uptake.     

Suspected leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm: use of sonography in the emergency room

To determine the value of sonography in the emergent evaluation of suspected leaking abdominal aortic aneurysms, the authors examined 60 patients in the emergency department using sonography and a protocol involving advance radio notification from the ambulance; arrival of sonographic personnel and equipment in the triage room before patient arrival; and, during other triage activities, rapid sonographic evaluation of the aorta for aneurysm and of the paraaortic region for extraluminal blood. Sonographic findings were correlated with surgical results and clinical outcome. When performed under these circumstances, sonography was accurate in demonstrating presence or absence of aneurysm (98%), but its sensitivity for extraluminal blood was poor (4%). A combination of sonographic confirmation of aneurysm, abdominal pain, and unstable hemodynamic condition resulted in the correct decision to perform emergent surgery in 21 of 22 patients (95%). An abbreviated sonographic examination done in the emergency room can provide accurate, useful information about the presence of aneurysm; this procedure does not significantly delay triage of these patients.     

Role of iron ions on tannin-iron method histochemical specificity (author's transl)]

In this work is studied the tannin-iron method specificity when the ferrous chloride is replaced by other iron compounds. Nervous tissue and rat duodenum cuts are used. Cuts were treated with tannic acid and after with FeCl3; FeCl2; FeOHCl2; FeAc2; Fe2O3; FeSO4; NH4Fe(SO4)2 or colloidal iron solution. Dilution effect from every one of aforementioned iron compounds too is studied. The obtained results with those furnished by the OTA method by using the tannic acid in identical conditions are compared. Also several treatments of blockade were carried-out. The obtained results prove that iron ions play a different role in the mucins staining than in other demonstrable substances coloration in the nervous tissue. In the same way evidences that the iron ion that joins the mucins in the tannin-iron method is the FeOH++ ion were obtained.     

Aromatase in the brain: not just for reproduction anymore

Aromatase, the enzyme that synthesises oestrogens from androgen precursors, is expressed in the brain, where it has been classically associated with the regulation of neuroendocrine events and behaviours linked with reproduction. Recent findings, however, have revealed new unexpected roles for brain aromatase, indicating that the enzyme regulates synaptic activity, synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis and the response of neural tissue to injury, and may contribute to control nonreproductive behaviours, mood and cognition. Therefore, the function of brain aromatase is not restricted to the regulation of reproduction as previously thought.