Nicotine more addictive when combined with other tobacco smoke chemicals, UCI study finds
...elf-administration test. Adolescent and adult male rats were tested in a procedure during which each nose ...ability to other abused drugs. Although adolescent rats are more responsive to the nicotine-acetaldehyde mix than adult rats, the young rats were not more r...Research on nerve cell circuitry reveals clue about schizophrenia
...n if they hear a not-so-loud noise first. Mice and rats have responses similar to normal people. The researchers will study mice to see if a shortage of RGS4 causes an abnormal startle response and schizophrenia-like symptoms. Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness that affects about 2 million Ame...Several new techniques show promise for spinal cord repair
...ich nerve cells were removed from Rolipram-treated rats and exposed them to molecules that inhibited nerve...of cAMP and nerve regrowth. To treat seven female rats injured on one side of their spinal cords at the C3/4 location, researchers implanted embryonic tiss...New insights into hormone therapy highlight when estrogen best aids brain
...previously demonstrated that ovary removal in aged rats enhanced spatial working memory while simultaneous...o determine whether giving the aged ovariectomized rats progesterone reversed these positive cognitive effects. Thirty rats were used in the study. Ten rat...Mixed signals to blame for restless legs syndrome
... brains of iron deficient rats. After weaning, the rats were divided into two groups. One group was given ...ain and elevated TH. However, the TH levels of the rats that had started a normal diet immediately after weaning eventually returned to normal. "This shows ...Jefferson neuroscientists find evidence of lead exposure affecting recovery from brain injury
...ists at Jefferson Medical College shows that young rats exposed to low levels of lead take significantly l...overy of function in both groups, the lead-exposed rats did not recover as much or as quickly as did the unexposed animals. Dr. Schneider presents his group...New hope for ALS seen with genetic techniques, growth factors
...tigators first delivered VEGF to the brains of ALS rats with a surgically implanted needle. The compound was added to the cerebrospinal fluid, which constantly "washes" the entire brain and spinal cord. "When VEGF was administered one month before the disease symptoms showed up," Storkebaum says, "treatm...Exercising limbs protects brain cells affected by Parkinson's, study in rodents shows
...f Medicine, the researchers examined the brains of rats that had been forced to exercise for seven days be...We also plan to look at the effects of housing our rats in an enriched environment." As an extension to their animal research, Dr. Zigmond has enlisted Anth...Olfactory bulb stem cells and Lou Gehrig's disease
...acterized cells from the olfactory bulb in people, rats and mice, grew clusters of neuronal stem cells taken from the olfactory bulb of normal mice and froze them. Retrieved cells were then transplanted into the spinal cords of genetically engineered mice that develop the equivalent of ALS. Animals that g...Gender and sex hormones affect the brain's pain response and more, according to new studies
...humans and other primates and the estrous cycle in rats and mice involve constantly changing levels of rep...r colleagues removed the ovaries from adult female rats (to eliminate naturally produced estrogens) and then gave the rats various levels of estradiol. "We ...Promise of stem cells amplified
... maturation. When the OPCs were transplanted into rats just seven days after a spinal cord injury, the rats regained the ability to walk nine weeks later. Rats that had to wait until ten weeks after injury, h...Mothers have brains primed for care
...examined predatory behaviors in age-matched female rats kept in a large open enclosure. One group of rats had never borne offspring. The other group was lactating. The rats were deprived of food for a perio...High-fat diets hammer memory, more than a waistline worry
...enated fats affected working memory in middle-aged rats (corresponding to 60 and older for humans). The investigators gave the 16-month-old rats a diet containing 2 percent cholesterol and 10 percent hydrogenated coconut oil for eight weeks. Con...Human spinal cord cells help rats with Lou Gehrig's disease
...sis by a week when implanted in the spinal cord of rats destined to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ...thin two or three weeks of symptoms appearing, the rats have to be euthanized -- so the delay we saw is quite significant," says the study's senior author, ...Accelerated heartbeart mystery: Is odd electrical wave the key?
...researchers collect ventricular cells from newborn rats and remove the connective tissue. The remaining cardiac cells are placed in a nutrient solution, where they thrive and establish electrical connections with one another. The result is a roughly circular single-cell layer of cardiac cells, about 2 cen...Mayo Clinic research shows stroke rehabilitation best served by physical training
...To correct this, they designed an investigation in rats that had brain damage similar to that suffered by ...ound that physical training consisting of teaching rats to walk along a beam had the most powerful effect on recovery. This raises significant questions abo...'Energy blocker' kills big tumors in rats
... more than a year after treatment was stopped, the rats are still cancer free. While the results are drama...of the cancers to disappear within four weeks. The rats otherwise appeared unaffected, although Ko will examine the animals when they are euthanized -- prob...Testosterone may help in recovery from strokes, suggests preliminary findings in study
... The scientists compared two groups of castrated rats that had suffered strokes. Half received testosterone and half a placebo. The rats that received testosterone showed significant improvement in neurological deficits while those in th...Lab studies show two proteins prevented progressive nerve cell loss in Parkinson's disease
...t the nerve cells in the brain from dying in adult rats with Parkinson's," commented Maria Castro, Ph.D., ...Shh, Gli-1 and Nurr1 into the brains of laboratory rats with Parkinson's disease. The investigators found that nerve cells in the rats treated with Shh and ......ity: implications for addiction Samaha et al. Only rats that received rapid cocaine delivery (the same dose given over five rather than 100 seconds) displayed psychomotor sensitization on the second day of drug delivery. In orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and caudate-putamen,...