Asa Petersen

..Reduced hippocampal neurogenesis may be a novel neuropathological feature in R6/2 mice that could be assessed when evaluating potential therapies...

..CNTF has previously been shown to protect striatal neurons against excitotoxic insults both in vitro and in vivo, but it did not improve striatal graft survival when added to the cell suspension prior to implantation...

..These results suggest that oxidative stress, opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and activation of caspases are important steps in A23187-induced cell death...

..Furthermore, we show that the addition of GDNF to the hibernation medium and/or to the final cell suspension does not significantly increase the survival of the dopaminergic neurons...

..We conclude that striatal neurons of R6 mice develop resistance to DA-induced toxicity with age...

..R6/2 transgenic HD mice were treated with this cytokine from five to twelve weeks of age...

..Our results show that the loss of orexin is a novel and potentially very important pathology in HD...

..These findings support the view that orexin may be involved in depression and strengthen the notion that the "depressed" brain responds differently to pharmacological interventions than the normal brain...

..Our results indicate that a decrease in mRNA levels underlie the depletion of protein levels of rabphilin 3A, and we suggest that this reduction may be involved in causing impaired synaptic transmission in R6/1 mice...

....

..This progressive increase in cortisol may contribute to the clinical symptoms, such as muscular wasting, mood changes and some of the cognitive deficits that occur in HD...

....

..This may lead to a better understanding of HD and provide novel therapeutic targets for symptomatic treatment in HD...

..The blunting of exocytosis could be attributed to a 96% reduction in the number of insulin-containing secretory vesicles. Thus, diabetes in R6/2 mice is caused by a combination of deficient beta-cell mass and disrupted exocytosis...

..Our results confirm human genetic studies indicating CART as a neurobiological correlate of depression and anxiety, and suggest that its differential regulation in specific brain regions may play a role for the behavioral phenotypes...

..We have previously shown that levels of both orexin-A and CART in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are related to specific psychiatric symptoms...

..Further studies on the role of CART in psychiatric diseases where concentration difficulties are prominent, such as attention deficit disorder, are warranted...

..Together, these data demonstrate that weight loss in R6/2 mice is associated with increased metabolism and changes in several weight-regulating factors...

..Increased CART levels in HD therefore hold promise as a biomarker as well as a potential pathogenic mediator of symptoms...

..Our results suggest that suicidal patients with MDD have distinct neurobiological features, involving compromised levels of hypothalamic peptides regulating the state of arousal...

..Investigating neuroendocrine changes in HD opens up the possibility of finding biomarkers to evaluate future therapies for HD, as well as of identifying novel targets for therapeutic interventions...

....

..They may be important in the development of psychiatric symptoms and metabolic disturbances in HD, and may provide potential targets for therapeutic interventions...

..Our preliminary results suggest that reduced CSF CART is a sign of hypothalamic dysfunction in DLB and that it may serve as a biomarker for this patient group...

..This review summarizes the current state of knowledge derived from neuroendocrine studies in rodent models of HD in light of clinical relevance and points to future implications for this emerging field...

..In conclusion, our study shows, for the first time, that alterations in grey matter contents in the hypothalamic region occur at least a decade before clinical diagnosis in HD using MRI...

..Aneuploidy is normally a feature closely connected to neoplastic disease. To further explore this unexpected aspect of HD, we studied cultures derived from 6- and 12-week-old R6/2 fibroblasts, skeletal muscle cells, and liver cells...

..In the present study, we investigated the relationship between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) orexin and specific psychiatric symptoms in suicidal patients...

..Gonadotropic hormone replacement did not mitigate weight loss or restore motor function in R6/2 males...

..The study also emphasizes the importance of the immediate time after grafting for transplant survival, with relevance both for primary mesencephalic implants and stem cell grafts...