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A Gallitano

Publications and source records attributed to A Gallitano.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The neurobiology of the stress cascade and its potential relevance for schizophrenia.

This review explores the neurobiology of stress and its possible role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Major life events may play a role in onset and relapse in schizophrenia. Other data suggest that early stress exposure increases schizophrenia risk, especially in individuals with latent vulnerability. Animal research has led to an elucidation of the mechanisms by which stress and cortisol are toxic to the hippocampus and impair cognition. Associations among these factors have been found in a variety of human conditions, including psychiatric illness and normal aging. These mechanisms are plausible in schizophrenia, which is characterized by a degree of cortisol dysregulation, hippocampal abnormality, and cognitive impairment. Characterization of the role of the stress cascade in schizophrenia has implications for novel pharmacologic and other treatment, especially for cognitive symptoms, which are debilitating and largely refractory to treatment.

Journal Article↗

Water intake during chronic preoptic infusions of osmotically active or inert solutions.

To further elucidate the role of the lateral preoptic area (LPO) as an osmoreceptive region, rats received chronic infusions (2 weeks) of low volumes (0.5 microliters/h) solutions of hypertonic sodium chloride (NaCl; 0.16 M), hypertonic potassium chloride (KCl; 0.16 M), hypertonic (0.32 M) or hypotonic (0.16 M) mannitol, isotonic saline, or water delivered bilaterally via subcutaneous osmotic minipumps attached to intracranial cannulae. All cannulae terminated within the anterior hypothalamus-preoptic region. Hypertonic NaCl and KCl increased water intake over preinfusion levels in the majority of animals tested. However, the effects were variable, including some sizable increases as well as decreases. Hypertonic mannitol decreased daily water intake in 15 of 25 rats and produced essentially no change in the average intake of the group. Isotonic NaCl produced smaller increases and decreases, while water produced larger changes in individual rats, but neither solution had a significant effect on the average intake of the group. None of the infusates significantly altered food intake.

Animals↗

Dopamine D1 receptor development depends on endogenous dopamine.

Profound depletion of forebrain dopamine by 6-hydroxydopamine in neonatal rats (day 3) was associated with up to 82% loss of D1 receptor sites labeled with [3H]SCH-23390 at day 21. Administration of the selective D1 agonist SKF-38393 (days 6-18) abolished the correlation between D1 receptor density and DA concentrations, even with greater than 99% depletion of DA. In intact control animals, there was an inverse correlation between spontaneous variation in levels of DA and D1 receptor site density in forebrain tissue (r = -0.79) which also was abolished by treatment with the D1 agonist. Thus, D1 receptor density may be regulated by reciprocal regulatory processes during normal development, but may fail to develop in the absence of an adequate level of stimulation.

2,3,4,5-Tetrahydro-7,8-dihydroxy-1-phenyl-1H-3-ben↗