实验仪器使用技术

A number of brain insults including traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result in excitotoxic consequences largely attributable to pathological increases in intracellular calcium (1,2). Loss of calcium homeostasis can result in activation of the calcium-dependent proteases, or ca ...

The use of human postmortem brain tissue in neurochemical and neuropharmacological research has received increasing attention over recent years. In fact, there is one work that, more than any other, can be identified as being responsible for the interest in this approach. It was Birkmayer and ...

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides information that is rarely obtainable by other noninvasive means, or even by invasive methods using radioactive labels. For example, it provides the means to monitor in time and in space changes in various metabolic pools and allows one to thi ...

Cell culture has proven to be a very powerful approach in addressing neurobiological questions. The reasons for this include the ability to isolate the effects of specific variables on cells and, more importantly, to ask questions of a specific cell type in isolation of other cells. The power of cell ...

In the last twenty years, the availabihty of radioactively labeled compounds that bind with high affinity and selectivity to pharmacological receptors has enabled the direct measurement of such binding sites. After initial studies, carried out with tissue homogenates, membrane pr ...

The aim of the present review is to summarize the methods used to estimate the turnover of various neurotransmitters of low molecular weight in the intact animal brain First, some introductory remarks and definitions are given. The following description of the terms used is derived mainly from ...

The term fluorescence commonly refers to the phenomenon in which light from the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum is absorbed by a substance and emitted in the visible spectrum. Certain organic molecules absorb light energy, resulting in various interatomic bonds being raised to higher energy l ...

Investigations in vitro on the transport of biogenic amines have done much to expand our knowledge of neurotransmission in general, of the role of amines in nervous function, and of the actions of a wide variety of psychotropic drugs In this review, we will be describing techniques that are employed ...

Gas chromatography (GC) is a technique used to separate and quantify the components of a mixture of volatile compounds by partitioning them as vapors between two phases—a stationary and a mobile phase. The stationary phase is contained in a narrow tube (the column) through which the mixture of com ...

It is evident that an explosive growth has occurred over the past ten years in the high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis of catecholamines, indoleamines, and the trace amines In part, this expansion can be attributed to a growing interest in the monoamines; however, the incr ...

The biogenic amines 5-hydroxytryptamme (5-HT; serotonin), dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), adrenaline (A), and histamine (HA) are present in mammalian brain, in which they play fundamental roles as neurotransmitters. Concentrated in a few brain nuclei and tracts (Dahlstrom and Fux ...

One of the fundamental goals of neuroscience is an understanding of the relationship between neurotransmission and behavior. Although considerable information has come from methods such as push-pull perfusion, obtaining data about neurotransmitter release in behaving ani ...

Mass spectrometry (MS) is now widely used in the neurosciences to identify and quantify a variety of biogenic compounds. When used in combination with chromatography, i.e., packed column or high resolution capillary column gas chromatography (CC or HRGC) or thin layer chromatography (TLC ...

The so-called trace amines or noncatecholic biogenic amines have recently attracted a considerable amount of attention among neuropharmacologists and psychiatrists. Some of these amines, e.g., phenylethylamine (PEA) and tyramme, are suspected to play some yet undetermined role ...

Immunologic techniques are being used extensively in investigation of brain transmitters and there are prospects for significant advances in the the use of this approach. A variety of techniques has been developed for production of antisera with characteristics that make them suita ...

Many of the most significant advances in neurobiology in the 1970s relate to the study of receptor function Receptors are proteinaceous membrane components that, when occupied by a specific ligand (neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, or hormone), will initiate a cellular response T ...

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are ligand-gated ion channels belonging to the family of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Functional NMDARs are heterotetrameric assemblies of NR1 subunits with at least one type of NR2 subunits. Various combinations of these subunits f ...

Electrophysiological techniques can be used to great effect to help determine the mechanism of action of a compound. However, many factors can compromise the resulting data and their analysis, such as the speed of solution exchange, expression of additional ion channel populations incl ...

Hypofunctioning of glutamate synaptic transmission in the central nervous system (CNS) has been proposed as a factor that may contribute to cognitive deficits associated with various neurological and psychiatric disorders. Positive allosteric modulation of the α-amino-3-h ...

The voltage-clamp electrophysiology method is the gold standard for measuring the function of ion channels. In the past, this technique has had limited applicability in pharmaceutical drug discovery because of its low throughput, steep learning curve, and challenges in standardiz ...