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Biomedical subjects

T J Crow

Publications and source records attributed to T J Crow.

At least 379 records · Page 21Linked to original sources
PubMed1977

The involvement of the noradrenergic system arising from the locus coeruleus in the postnatal development of the cortex in rat brain.

The effect on the developing cerebral cortex and hippocampus of removing the noradrenergic input was investigated in 3-month-old rats following unilateral electrolytic lesions performed semistereotaxically at 15 h postnatal. In 5 animals there was a significant reduction (mean = 74%) in noradrenaline in the cortex ipsilateral to the lesion, and the neuronal morphology on the two sides was studied with the Golgi technique. There was no apparent difference in the morphology of pyramidal cells in parietal cortex with respect to soma depth, apical dendritic length, number of basal dendrites or number of spines on selected dendritic regions. There was a small but significant increase in the number of dendritic branches of pyramidal cells in layers II and IV on the side ipsilateral to the lesion. No layer VI cells were identified which had retained their contact with layer I. An examination of the cell morphology of CA1 pyramidal and dentate granule cells in the hippocampus revealed no obvious differences between the two sides. These results suggest that the trophic influence of the noradrenergic innervation on the postnatal development of cells in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, if it exists at all, is relatively minor.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

The nucleus accumbens--possible site of antipsychotic action of neuroleptic drugs?

The hypothesis that neuroleptic drugs exert their therapeutic effects by blocking dopaminergic transmission has been investigated by examining the effects of 3 neuroleptic drugs on dopamine turnover in 2 dopaminergically innervated regions of brain--the neostriatum and nucleus accumbens. The drugs chlorpromazine, thioridazine and fluphenazine, known to be therapeutically active in the treatment of schizophrenia, but to have differing incidences of extrapyramidal side effects, were administered to rats in dose ratios approximating to those effective in man. All 3 drugs induced a similar rise in the content of the dopamine metabolite homovanillic acid (HVA) in the nucleus accumbens, whilst the changes in HVA observed in the neostriatum were in the rank order in which these drugs produce extrapyramidal side effects. While the concentrations of dopamine metabolites in the frontal cortex were too low to assess the possibility that neuroleptic drugs have actions at this level, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that these drugs exert their therapeutic effects by dopamine receptor blockade in the nucleus accumbens.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1977

Anterior pituitary hormone secretion in chronic schizophrenia--an approach to neurohumoral mechanisms.

Prolactin, FSH, LH and TSH were determined in repeated samples of serum from 16 unmedicated male patients with chronic schizophrenia. Changes in the mental states between the 2 occasions were related to changes in hormone levels. Significant inverse correlations were established between prolactin and incoherence of speech, between prolactin and total positive symptoms and between FSH and poverty of speech. A significant positive correlation was established between FSH and delusions. These findings are discussed in the context of evidence concerning the role of monoamines in the control of anterior pituitary function, and of the dopamine and other monoamine hypotheses of schizophrenia. Although prolactin secretion was not as low, as would be predicted on the basis of the dopamine overactivity hypothesis of schizophrenia, the relationship between symptom change and change in prolactin secretion was consistent with the hypothesis that increasing symptom severity is associated with increasing dopamine release from the tubero-infundibular system.

Aged↗