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[Neural pathway of Powassan virus spread in the central nervous system of white mice].

Electron microscopic investigation of the brains and lumbar spinal cords of adult albino mice infected with Powassan virus was carried out. Virus particles were found within all parts of neurons (perikarya, dendrites, axon), as well as within synaptic apparatus and intercellular gaps of the central nervous tissue. The possibility of the virus spread both throughout the cytoplasm of nerve cells and their processes and the extracellular spaces of the brain was confirmed. Localization of virions within neurons, synapses and myelinated fibers of the spinal cord after intracerebral inoculation suggests that virus spread in the CNS can occur through the CNS parenchyma and also through the nervous conduction pathways. The possible mechanisms of virus dissemination in the CNS of albino mice with experimental Powassan virus encephalomyelitis are discussed.

Animals

Mapping of functional neural pathways by autoradiographic survey of local metabolic rate with (14C)deoxyglucose.

An enzymatic preparation from human brain converts tryptamine to tryptoline (9H-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrido(3,4-b)indole) in the presence of 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid. Similarly, N-methyltryptamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine yield 1-methyltryptoline and 5-hydroxytryptoline, respectively. Neither in vitro nor in vivo formation of these compounds by human tissues has been described.

Animals

Splanchnic osmosensation and vasopressin: mechanisms and neural pathways.

Hypertonic (2 ml, 598 mosmol/kgH2O) solutions were infused over 4 min via a stomach tube in 12 groups (n = 5-10) of conscious rats with indwelling arterial catheters. Mean changes over 4-21 min of plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) were 6.1 +/- 0.9 for NaCl (P less than 0.01), 9.3 +/- 3.0 for LiCl (P less than 0.01), 4.5 +/- 1.3 for sodium isethionate (P less than 0.01), 2.8 +/- 0.9 for sucrose (P less than 0.025), 3.9 +/- 2.8 for mannitol (P less than 0.01), and -0.1 +/- 0.1 (SE) pg/ml for urea. The AVP responses to NaCl and sucrose were proportional to the rate of gastrointestinal absorption of radiolabeled NaCl and sucrose, respectively. The AVP response to 598 mosmol/kgH2O NaCl was attenuated by 60.6% (P less than 0.001) in rats with lesion of the side branches of the major splanchnic nerves innervating the mesentery of the upper small intestine and the portal vein area, by 34-37% (P less than 0.05) in rats with right or left splanchnic nerve lesions, and was not affected by subdiaphragmatic vagotomy. Changes in systemic plasma osmolality were small and could not explain the AVP responses. Thus splanchnic receptors are osmosensitive, are situated in the mesentery of the upper small intestine and possibly the portal vein area, and project to the spinal cord via the right and left major splanchnic nerves.

Animals

Afferent neural pathway in the regulation of cardiopulmonary responses to tissue hypermetabolism.

We studied the role of neural transmission from hypermetabolic peripheral tissues in the regulation of cardiac output and pulmonary ventilation in chloralose-anesthetized dogs. Cross-circulation techniques with femoral-femoral or femoral-aortic anastomoses were used to produce a vascularly isolated, but normally innervated, hindlimb or lower half-body, 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) was infused into the arterial side of the perfusion circuit to triple oxygen consumption and to increase lactate production by the cross-perfused area. After infusion of DNP, cardiac output and mean systemic arterial blood pressure increased, but neither heart rate nor pulmonary artery wedge pressure changed significantly. Pulmonary minute ventilation and arterial pH also increased, while arterial PCO2 fell. These changes were abolished when the nerve connections between the perfused limb and its parent body were severed. Normal saline, when administered in a similar manner, did not increase either ventilation or cardiac output, and simple denervation without previous infusions of DNP also had no effect. These results indicate that there are receptors sensitive to metabolic changes in the tissue, and that neural transmission is an important afferent link in regulating the cardiopulmonary responses to increased tissue metabolism.

Afferent Pathways

Neural pathways in chronic pain.

The evidence for changes in function of the central nervous system in cases of chronic pain is persuasive. We are not dealing with a passively wired system but one which changes structure and function and even connectivity in response to incoming sensory information. Whether these changes are capable of reversal with time and treatment remains to be shown. An optimist would suggest that physiological changes without abnormalities are indeed capable of reversal given time and appropriate neural input that matches normal non-painful afferent stimulation. That this is feasible is suggested by strategies of management with successful outcomes in patients with chronic pain, especially when pain is due to intermittent or limited ongoing stimulation of nociceptors. Clinical experience suggests, however, that deafferentation pain syndromes where pain is a consequence of damage directly to the nervous system cannot be viewed in such an optimistic light. A great deal more knowledge is required of how both the peripheral and central nervous system react to damage before we will be in a position to manage this source of chronic pain successfully.

Afferent Pathways

Efferent neural pathways of the lamina terminalis subserving osmoregulation.

Studies in rats and sheep show that neurons in the CVOs of the lamina terminalis provide extensive neural input to the vasopressin-containing cells of the supraoptic nucleus. This input is both by direct pathways and via a synapse in the MnPO which also has projections to the vasopressin-containing cells of the SON. Neurons throughout the lamina terminalis (including possible osmoreceptors in the OVLT and subfornical organ) are activated by systematic hypertonicity. It is likely that in response to hypertonicity they signal the SON and PVN to release vasopressin and elsewhere to elicit other osmoregulatory responses such as thirst and the excretion of sodium.

Animals

Regulation of cholecystokinin secretion by food, hormones, and neural pathways in the rat.

Regulation of cholecystokinin (CCK) secretion was studied in conscious unrestrained rats by simultaneous duodenal perfusion with foodstuffs, intravenous infusion of hormones or neural agents, and arterial blood sampling for CCK bioassay. Duodenal infusion of casein resulted in elevation of plasma CCK from fasting level of 0.5 +/- 0.1 to 3.8 +/- 0.4 pM. Casein hydrolysate, calcium, and glucose did not elevate plasma CCK. Infusion of intact fat had a small, but nonsignificant, effect (1.4 +/- 0.4 pM), whereas infusion of oleate increased plasma CCK to 3.7 +/- 0.6 pM. Thus intact protein and fatty acids are the major dietary intestinal stimuli for CCK release in the rat. The CCK response to protein could be inhibited by somatostatin but not by peptide YY (0.2, 2, or 20 micrograms.kg-1.h-1); intravenous infusion of 1 or 10 micrograms.kg-1.h-1 somatostatin decreased casein-stimulated CCK levels to 1.5 +/- 0.2 and 0.9 +/- 0.3 pM, respectively. Stimulation of vagal discharge with 2-deoxy-D-glucose had no effect on basal or protein-stimulated plasma CCK levels; thus CCK release in the rat does not appear to be modulated by central vagal pathways. Gastrin-releasing peptide increased fasting plasma CCK levels to 1.6 +/- 0.1 pM. Administration of the cholinergic agonist bethanechol, while having no effect on fasting CCK level, inhibited protein-stimulated plasma CCK from 3.9 +/- 0.6 to 1.3 +/- 0.3 pM. Cholinergic blockade with atropine, in contrast, had no effect on basal or protein-stimulated plasma CCK. Thus CCK release is stimulated by dietary protein or fatty acid and by gastrin-releasing peptide and inhibited by somatostatin and bethanechol.

Animals

Differences in reaction times and average evoked potentials as a function of direct and indirect neural pathways.

Average evoked potentials and manula response latencies were collected during a simple detection task in which brief visual stimuli were presented to the left and right visual fields. Latencies generated by the ipsilateral stimulus-hand combinations were shorter than contralateral combinations only under certain conditions, impugning the hypothesis that the reaction time difference reflects interhemispheric transfer time. Certain evoked potential components recorded contralateral to the stimulus occurred earlier than their ipsilateral counterparts, but whether this difference can be interpreted as representing interhemispheric transfer time is also questioned.

Adult

Neural pathways from the vestibular labyrinths to the flocculus in the cat.

In decerebrate, unanesthetized cats, responses in the flocculus were evoked by electric stimulation of the vestibular nerves and by natural stimulation of horizontal head angular acceleration. Field potentials in the flocculus and intracellular recording from Purkinje cells following vestibular nerve stimulation indicated that the responses were produced by mossy fiber inputs. Field potentials evoked from the contralateral labyrinth were as large as those from the ipsilateral one. There was considerable convergence of bilateral labyrinthine mossy fiber inputs to a Purkinje cell. In view of the effects of incision at the midline of the cerebellum and the brain stem, inputs from the contralateral labyrinth were mainly conveyed through the midline of the brain stem and partly through the midline of the cerebellum. Primary vestibular afferents were involved in the transcerebellar crossed pathway. Fibers of the secondary vestibular neurons projecting to the contralateral flocculus were implicated in the brain stem-mediated pathway and, in part, presumably in the transcerebellar crossed pathway. About one-third of the axon spikes examined in the flocculus responded to horizontal head angular acceleration. Commissural inhibition was observed in more than half of the axon spikes in the flocculus which were presumed to be mono- or polysynaptically activated from the vestibular nerve.

Animals

Structural modeling of functional neural pathways mapped with 2-deoxyglucose: effects of acoustic startle habituation on the auditory system.

This paper describes the first application of structural modeling to neuroscience. Structural modeling (also known as path analysis) is a method to assess the relative impact of directional links in a system and how these interrelations may change under different conditions. The objective was to demonstrate how structural modeling can be used to determine the functional interrelationships between brain structures that form the auditory system. Using structural modeling, changes in auditory system 2-DG uptake were examined during long- and short-term habituation of the acoustic startle reflex. Models were based on the anatomical connections between central auditory system structures. Using functional 2-DG data, the correlations between these structures were calculated and numerical weights were computed for each anatomical link. The analysis revealed that the lemniscal path was dominant during short-term habituation, while during long-term habituation this influence was modified through extra-lemniscal pathways. The models are discussed in the context of previous findings to demonstrate how structural modeling can not only complement, but also extract more information from 2-DG mapping experiments.

Acoustic Stimulation

Neural pathway mediating somatic evoked responses in the caudate nucleus of cats.

The course of somatic afferents to caudate nucleus (CN) was investigated. In curaized cats discrete lesions in intralaminar nuclei, n. centralis medialis (NCM) affect evoked response (ER) in CN to radial nerve stimulation. NCM lesions totally abolish these somatic responses, while after subthalamic lesions ER appear only when a high stimulus intensity is used. Lesions in the specific relay nuclei, ventralis posterior lateralis (VPL) have no effect on somatic ER in CN. Barbiturates (10 mg/kg) abolish somatic ER in CN. Stimulation of the ponto-mesencephalic reticular formation (RF) in a region where visual and somatic responses are recorded shows lowest threshold values for eliciting evoked responses in NCM and CN. The potentials in CN to RF stimulation are restricted to this nucleus and disappear in the internal capsule.

Afferent Pathways

The Passover locus in Drosophila melanogaster: complex complementation and different effects on the giant fiber neural pathway.

Drosophila melanogaster bearing the Passover mutation fail to jump in response to a light-off stimulus. Pas also disrupts some of the synapses between the neurons of the giant fiber system which mediate this escape behavior. We have mapped Pas to the 19E subdivision of the polytene X chromosome. Our genetic analyses reveal that deletions of either of two nonoverlapping regions fail to fully complement Pas. Heterozygotes of Pas with chromosomal deletions in the vicinity of polytene band 19E3 exhibit the full set of neuronal defects shown by Pas homozygotes. Alleles of the R-9-29 complementation group, which maps to band 19E3, exhibit a complex pattern of complementation with Pas. Heterozygotes combining the lethal R-9-29 alleles with Pas are all viable, some complement the neuronal defects of Pas, but most exhibit these defects. The viable shaking-B2 mutation also fails to complement Pas, the R-9-29 alleles or the 19E3 deficiencies. The R-9-29 locus may contain two functional domains, one required for viability the other for normal neuronal phenotype, trans-Heterozygotes bearing mutant alleles or a deficiency of the first region (19E3) together with deficiencies of the second region (19E5-6) also exhibit some of the neuronal defects shown by the Passover mutant. Deficiencies which delete the entire 19E3 to 19E6 interval do not produce this phenotype when heterozygous with a normal X chromosome. Thus normal function requires a cis-interaction between the two regions. These findings raise the possibility that the gene mutated by Pas is split or separated from a cis-activator by at least one other gene.

Alleles