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I Driscoll

Publications and source records attributed to I Driscoll.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Differential expression of basic fibroblast growth factor-2 in the developing rat brain.

Basic fibroblast growth factor-2 is a trophic molecule involved in a number of functions within the CNS, including the regulation of CNS responses to injury. Prior studies suggest that rats recover differently from injury inflicted to different regions and at different ages throughout development, and that basic fibroblast growth factor-2 may, at least in part, underlie this phenomenon. In the present study, we describe the distribution of basic fibroblast growth factor-2 at postnatal days 0, 2, 6, 10, 12, 14, 18, 21 and 30 in the indusium griseum, the external capsule, the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex, the motor cortex, the rostral migratory stream, and the subventricular zone. Our results suggest a differential temporal and spatial expression of basic fibroblast growth factor-2 throughout development, which may explain the differential recovery observed from cortical lesions inflicted at different time points after birth.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The aging hippocampus: a multi-level analysis in the rat.

In the current experiment we conducted a multi-level analysis of age-related characteristics in the hippocampus of young adult (3 months), middle-aged (12 months), and old (24 months) Fisher 344xBrown Norway hybrid (FBNF1) rats. We examined the relationships between aging, hippocampus, and memory using a combination of behavioral, non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, and postmortem neuroanatomical measures in the same rats. Aging was associated with functional deficits on hippocampus-dependent memory tasks, accompanied by structural alterations observed both in vivo (magnetic resonance imaging-hippocampal volume) and postmortem (dentate gyrus neuronal density and neurogenesis). Neuronal metabolic integrity, assessed by levels of N-acetylaspartate with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, was however, preserved. Further, our results suggest that neurogenesis (doublecortin) seems to be related to both performance deficits on hippocampus-dependent tasks and hippocampal volume reduction. The observed pattern of age-related alterations closely resembles that previously reported in humans and suggests FBNF1 rats to be a useful model of normal human aging.

Aging↗
PubMed2005

Basic fibroblast growth factor stimulates functional recovery after neonatal lesions of motor cortex in rats.

Rats were given bilateral lesions of the motor cortex on the tenth day of life, and then received a daily subcutaneously injection of either basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) or vehicle for 7 consecutive days. In adulthood, they were trained and assessed on a skilled forelimb reaching task. Although all lesion groups were impaired at skilled reaching, the postnatal day 10-lesioned group that received FGF-2 was less impaired than the lesion group that received the vehicle. Furthermore, the lesioned rats that received FGF-2 showed a filling of the lesion cavity with tissue, whereas the lesioned vehicle-treated rats still had a prominent lesion cavity. The functionality of the tissue filling the cavity, tissue surrounding it, and tissue from the motor cortex (in control rats) was assessed using intracortical microstimulation, and showed that stimulation of some sites from the filled cavity could evoke movement. The rats were perfused and processed for Golgi-Cox staining. Medium spiny neurons from the striatum were drawn and analyzed, and the results suggest that postnatal day 10 lesions of the motor cortex induced an increase in the length and complexity of these cells compared with those of non-lesioned rats. Our results suggest that FGF-2 may play an important role in recovery from early brain damage.

Analysis of Variance↗