Search

Cortical lesions can cause major sensory and motor impairments, representing a significant challenge in neuroscience and clinical medicine. Limbal mesenchymal stem cells (LMSCs), renowned for their remarkable ability to proliferate and distinct characteristics within the corneal epithelium, offer a promising opportunity for regenerative treatments. This study aimed to assess whether the transplantation of LMSCs could improve tactile ability in rats with lesions of the barrel cortex.

Objective: Stroke is a highly prevalent and devastating condition affecting millions worldwide. The Devil's Claw (DCW) plant is a native African plant whose anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties have been investigated. We postulated that DCW could protect the brain injury caused by cerebral ischemia. Materials and Methods: The rats were randomly divided into four groups. The sham and control (Ctrl) groups received pretreatment with a distilled water vehicle. Doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg were selected for pretreatment with DCW. The filament or intravascular occlusion method was used for middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). The Triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining method was used to investigate the infarct zone and penumbra volume. The neuroprotective effect of DCW was measured by hematoxylin staining. Movement performance was evaluated from neurological deficit score, rotarod performance, and open field tests. Results: TTC staining showed that the DCW/400 group could maintain the penumbra's structure and reduce the infarct volume compared to the Ctrl group (p<0.001). Histological studies confirmed the neuroprotective properties of DCW at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg compared to the Ctrl group (p<0.01 and p<0.0001, respectively). The results of behavioral tests showed an improvement in behavioral performance in pretreatment 400 mg/kg doses compare to Ctrl group (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The study showed that pretreatment with DCW with its neuron protection potential reduces the infarct area and restores motor function after MCAO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Stem cells (SCs) can improve the functional defects of brain injury. Rodents use their whiskers to get tactile information from their surroundings. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the transplantation of SCs into the lesioned barrel cortex can help neuronal function in the contralateral cortex. Materials and Methods: Sixteen male Wistar rats (200-230 g) were used in this experimental study. We induced a mechanical lesion in the right barrel cortex area of rats by removing this area by a 3 mm skin punch. Four groups containing one intact group of rats: group 1: control, and three lesion groups, group 2: lesion+un-differentiated dental pulp SCs (U-DPSCs), group 3: lesion+differentiated dental pulp SCs (D-DPSCs), and group 4: cell medium (vehicle) that were injected in the lesion area. Three weeks after transplantation of SCs or cell medium, the rats’ responses of left barrel cortical neurons to controlled deflections of right whiskers were recorded by using the extracellular single-unit recordings technique. Results: The results showed that the neural spontaneous activity and response magnitude of intact barrel cortex neurons in the lesion group decreased significantly (P<0.05) compared to the control group while ON and OFF responses were improved in the D-DPSCs (P<0.001) group compared to the vehicle group three weeks after transplantation. Conclusion: Transplantation of dental pulp mesenchymal SCs significantly improved the neural responses of the left barrel cortex that was depressed in the vehicle group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Success in anesthesia administration relieves the perception of pain during surgery. Lidocaine is the most commonly used local anesthetic agent in clinical medicine. Moreover, anesthetic agents’ temperature changes can influence cell membrane permeability. Here, the effectiveness of different temperatures of Lidocaine (Lid.) on anesthesia success rate has been investigated in rats. Methods: Wistar male rats were pretreated by fast injection of lidocaine or saline into the hind paw or intradermal cheek at Room Temperature (RT) and Body Temperature (BT) (22°C and 37°C, respectively). Then, rat behaviors were evaluated by formalin-induced hind paw pain and orofacial pain tests, respectively. Moreover, using a single-unit recording technique, the spontaneous activity of the marginal nerve was recorded at room temperature in the RT-Lid. and BT-Lid. groups. Results: Data analysis revealed that lidocaine had significant antinociceptive effects in both the BT-Lid. and RT-Lid. groups compared to the control groups (P<0.05). Also, the number of spikes in the BT-Lid. and RT-Lid. groups were significantly lower than their baselines (P<0.05). However, lidocaine at body temperature decreased the total time spent licking the hind paw, the number of lip rubbings, and the number of spikes firing by about 10%-15% compared to room temperature. Conclusion: In both behavioral and neural levels of the study, our results showed that an increase in the temperature of lidocaine toward body temperature could increase anesthesia success rate compared to administration of lidocaine at room temperature. These findings can be considered in the treatment of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whiskers are important sensory organs that play a key role in rodents' discriminative and exploration behaviours and unilateral injuries of the somatosensory cortex related to whisker barrel cortex can change the activity of neurons in the intact contralateral barrel cortex. We evaluated the effects of unilateral mechanical lesion of right barrel cortex on novel texture discrimination in behavioural test and neuronal responses of left barrel cortex. Ten days after a unilateral mechanical lesion in the right barrel cortex, adult male rats were experimented regarding three paired different textures in novel texture discrimination test dependent on whiskers. In addition, responses of left barrel cortical neurons to controlled deflections of right whiskers were recorded using extracellular single-unit recordings technique. Data analysis showed that the discrimination ratio and preference indexes as criteria to find a novel texture significantly decreased in the lesion group compared to the intact rats (p <.05). In electrophysiological level, the barrel neural cortical spontaneous activity and the ON and OFF response magnitude of intact barrel cortex neurons in the lesion group decreased compared to the intact group (p <.05). The present study showed that unilateral mechanical lesion in the rats' barrel cortex cause a decrease in their abilities for discriminating textures, as well as, the anaesthetized rats whose response properties of intact barrel cortical area changed to whisker deflection, too. These changes can influence on the ability of rats to differentiate textures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]