Biomedical subjects

Th Arendt

Publications and source records attributed to Th Arendt.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Transgenic activation of Ras in neurons increases synapse formation in mouse neocortex.

The small G protein Ras, which is a molecular switch in neurotrophic signal transduction, is implicated in synaptic plasticity and synapse development during ontogeny and in the adult nervous system. To characterise the involvement of Ras-dependent signaling in synaptogenesis, the cortical synapse-to-neuron ratio was investigated in synRas mice overexpressing Val12-Ha-Ras in postmitotic neurons (introduced by Heumann, 2000). The number of synapses per neuron was analysed in cortical layers II/III of the somatosensory cortex at different stages of postnatal development by stereological methods. The synapse-to-neuron ratio was still identical in wild-type and synRas mice at postnatal day 4 before the onset of transgene expression. At P12, P47 and in the adult, analyses revealed a significant increase in the synapse-to-neuron ratio in synRas mice which correlated with the strength of transgene expression. The data presented here provide evidence that Ras activity might be profoundly involved in synaptogenesis by reinforcing the formation or maintenance of synapses during the development and in the adult.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Analyzing the neocortical fine-structure.

Cytoarchitectonic fields of the human neocortex are defined by characteristic variations in the composition of a general six-layer structure. It is commonly accepted that these fields correspond to functionally homogeneous entities. Diligent techniques were developed to characterize cytoarchitectonic fields by staining sections of post-mortem brains and subsequent statistical evaluation. Fields were found to show a considerable interindividual variability in extent and relation to macroscopic anatomical landmarks. With upcoming new high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols, it appears worthwhile to examine the feasibility of characterizing the neocortical fine-structure from anatomical MRI scans, thus, defining neocortical fields by in vivo techniques. A fixated brain hemisphere was scanned at a resolution of approximately 0.3 mm. After correcting for intensity inhomogeneities in the dataset, the cortex boundaries (the white/grey matter and grey matter/background interfaces) were determined as a triangular mesh. Radial intensity profiles following the shortest path through the cortex were computed and characterized by a sparse set of features. A statistical similarity measure between features of different regions was defined, and served to define the extent of Brodmann's Areas 4, 17, 44 and 45 in this dataset.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Principles of rat subcortical forebrain organization: a study using histological techniques and multiple fluorescence labeling.

In the present study, we introduce new views on neuro- and chemoarchitectonics of the rat forebrain subcortex deduced from traditional and current concepts of anatomical organization and from our own results. It is based on double and triple immunofluorescence of markers for transmitter-related enzymes, calcium-binding proteins, receptor proteins, myelin basic protein (MBP) and neuropeptides, and on histological cell/myelin stains. The main findings can be summarized as follows: (i) the dorsal striatum of rat and other myomorph rodents reveals a small caudate equivalent homotopic to the caudate nucleus (C) of other mammals, and a large putamen (Pu). (ii) Shell and core can be distinguished also in the 'rostral pole' of nucleus accumbens (ACC) with the calretinin/calbindin and neuropeptide Y (NPY) immunostaining. The shell reveals characteristics of a genuine striatal but not of an extended amygdala (EA) subunit. (iii) EA and lateral septum show striking similarities in structure and fiber connections and may therefore represent a separate parastriatal complex. (iv) The meandering dense layer (DL) of olfactory tubercle (OT) forms longitudinal gyrus- and sulcus-like structures converging in its rostral pole. (v) The core regions of the islands of Calleja that border the ventral pallidum (VP) sharing some of its features are invaded by myelinated fibers of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB). The island of Calleja magna is also apposed to an inconspicuous, slender dorsal appendage of VP. (vi) The VP is composed of a large dorsal reticulated part traversed by the myelinated GABAergic parvalbumin-immunoreactive axons of the MFB and a slender ventral non-reticulate part close to the islands of Calleja. (vii) Considering their close association to the limbic system, ventral striatum (VS) and VP may represent the oldest part of basal ganglia, whereas dorsal striatopallidal subunits were progressively developed in parallel to the growing neocortical influence on motor behavior.

Amygdala↗