Gap junctional communication is thought to be involved in epileptogenesis. This communication can be affected by changes in expression of gap junctional protein subunits called connexins (Cxs). One of the main brain regions involved in epileptogenesis is the hippocampus in which there is a network of gap junctional communication between different cell types.

Method: Cx36 and Cx43 expressions at both mRNA and protein level were measured in rat hippocampus during epileptogenesis in the kindling model

of epilepsy.

Results: Cx36 expression at both mRNA and protein level was upregulated during acquisition of focal seizures but returned to basal level after acquisition of secondarily-generalized seizures. No change in Cx43 gene and protein expression was found during kindling epileptogenesis.

Conclusion: These results further selleck inhibitor point out the significance of Cx36 as a target to modify epileptogenic process and to develop antiepileptogenic treatments. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Direct Response Analysis is a general computational tool for quantifying direct functional interactions between components in cellular signalling systems from experimental AMG510 purchase perturbations and measurements alone. This paper aims to reveal the biological meaning of the

direct response coefficients obtained upon applying DRA to simple Michaelis-Menten type proteomic and gene regulatory systems. These systems describe dimer formation and dissociation,

protein preduction and decay, and transcription. We derive explicit formulae for the direct Amine dehydrogenase response coefficients in terms of biochemical reaction rates, and clarify the potential and limitations of the DRA method. We find that response coefficients are strongly asymmetric, and that they balance persistent characteristics of reactions (e.g. the ratios of on- and off rates) against the time-scales over which these reactions act; fast reactions give stronger response coefficients. The direct interactions between protein species, caused by dimer formation, are effectively negative. We illustrate our results with numerical simulations. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Research on early stages of schizophrenia aims to provide early, objective, and stable markers of vulnerability. In this review, we first briefly describe the notion of such markers, or endophenotypes, notably in terms of stability, specificity and heritability. Among other empirical approaches, event-related potentials (ERPs) have been recently considered as putative endophenotypes. The N400 component is an event-related brain potential classically elicited during semantic processing, as suggested by a growing body of empirical studies with a large variety of paradigms. We provide here a short account of its typical descriptions and the interpretations of its functional significance.