实验仪器使用技术

Receptors for peptide YY (PYY) were discovered in the rat small intestine epithelium (1) and were defined as PYY-preferring because they display a slightly higher affinity for PYY than for neuropeptide Y (NPY). In contrast, they have a very low affinity for pancreatic polypeptide (PP). They are ex ...

Radioligand binding is an extremely powerful technique that can provide detailed information about receptor-ligand interactions both in vitro and in vivo. Several types of binding assay can be performed, including studies of the kinetics of association or dissociation of the radio ...

Neuropeptide receptors can be used as molecular targets to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs into cancer cells. The gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) receptor was used to deliver a camptothecin (CPT)–bombesin (BB) conjugate into the lung cancer cell line NCI-H1299. The CPT–BB conjugate ...

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) plays a crucial regulatory role in central nervous system (CNS) function and in communication between the CNS and the periphery. In addition to lipophilic molecules, many small proteins are now known to cross the BBB. Such recognition was expedited by techniques ...

Retinal inflammatory disease of a putative autoimmune origin, known as autoimmune uveitis, affects 150,000 persons per year in the developed world and is a potentially blinding disease. The eye can be the only affected organ or uveitis can be part of a systemic syndrome. Animal models of uveitis i ...

Ischemic disorders of the retina constitute a common cause of blindness and visual impairment worldwide. Retinal ischemia is a disorder initially caused by an imbalance between the supply of metabolic substrates to the retina and its demand for nutrients. If treatment cannot be implemen ...

Because repairing visual dysfunction is the primary goal of therapy for retinal disease, a quantification of visual function is imperative for the evaluation of potential treatments for these diseases. The Visual Water Task and the Virtual Optokinetic System have been developed to con ...

The conversion of wavelengths of light into information useful to the brain requires a tremendous degree of anatomic and functional specialization. The mammalian retina is a remarkably refined and adapted tissue that is capable of light detection, processing, and transmission of inf ...

Here we review both established and emerging approaches for studying retinal diseases. We primarily focus on the use of the mouse as a genetic model, as it is a mammalian model with many resources and is amenable to a variety of genetic manipulations. Additionally, we highlight two other organisms, ...

Glaucoma is a relatively common disease in which the pathological death of retinal ganglion cells causes progressive losses of sight, often leading to blindness. The diagnosis of glaucoma and the assessment of progression are based on a clinical quantification of the ocular characteri ...

The generation and advancement of animal models have contributed significantly to the advancement of glaucoma research. This chapter describes and summarizes major nonprimate animal models useful for the study of this disease. Rodent models, both rats and mice, have been popular for gl ...

Diabetic retinopathy threatens vision in millions of patients in the USA. Prolonged hyperglycemia causes irreversible pathological changes in the retina, leading to proliferative diabetic retinopathy with preretinal neovascularization and diabetic macular edema. Mu ...

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a condition affecting premature infants, is characterized by pathological angiogenesis, or neovascularization (NV), of the retina. Much of what is known about the development of the retinal vasculature and the progression of ROP has been learned thr ...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has a number of characteristic features including late onset and accumulation of deposits (drusen) below the retinal pigment epithelium on Bruch’s membrane in the macula. A progressive increase in these deposits (in some individuals) leads to m ...

Retinal degeneration is often used to describe a category of human eye diseases, which are characterized by photoreceptor loss leading to severe visual impairment and blindness. An important, yet heterogeneous group of such diseases is called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). To understand ...

The promoter regions of many detoxification enzymes contain a cis-acting enhancer known as the antioxidant response element (ARE). NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is considered as one of the major transcription factors for the ARE. Nrf2-dependent transcriptional activation by means of ...

NF-κB/Rel transcription factors are critical regulators of immunity, inflammation, development, and cell survival. Activation of NF-κB inhibits programmed cell death (PCD) triggered by tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and several other stimuli. The prosurvival activity of NF-κB is a ...

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been increasingly shown as a critical process that makes certain areas of the brain more susceptible not only to neurological disease but also to aging. Quantitative histochemistry is a series of procedures for measuring select metabolites in discrete ...

Here, we describe the use of a functional cloning approach, based on the screen of a genomewide short hairpin RNA (shRNA) library, to identify novel genes regulating apoptosis in neuronal cells. Apoptosis is induced by doxorubicin and is detected with a fluorometric caspase 3 assay. Moreover, we ...

Organotypic slice cultures of the brain are widely used as a tool to study fundamental questions in neuroscience. In this chapter, we focus on a protocol based on organotypic slice cultures of mouse entorhinal cortex and hippocampus that can be employed to study axonal regeneration and collat ...