Besides CaMKII activity was otherwise reduced by 7-chlorokynurenate.”
“The contributions of hippocampal long-term depression (LTD) to explicit Bucladesine learning and memory are poorly understood. Electrophysiological and behavioral studies examined the effects of modulating NMDA receptor-dependent LTD on spatial learning in the Morris water maze (MWM). The NMDA receptor co-agonist D-serine substantially enhanced NR2B-dependent LTD, but not long-term potentiation (LTP) or depotentiation, in hippocampal slices from adult wild type mice. Exogenous D-serine did not alter
MWM acquisition, but substantially enhanced subsequent reversal learning of a novel target location and performance in a delayed-matching-to-place task. Caspase Inhibitor VI concentration Conversely, an NR2B antagonist disrupted reversal learning and promoted perseveration. Endogenous
synaptic D-serine likely saturates during LTP induction because exogenous D-serine rescued deficient LTP and MWM acquisition in GrinI(D481N) mutant mice having a lower D-serine affinity. Thus, D-serine may enhance a form of hippocampal NR2B-dependent LTD that contributes to spatial reversal learning. By enhancing this form of synaptic plasticity, D-serine could improve cognitive flexibility in psychiatric disorders characterized by perseveration of aberrant ideation or behaviors.”
“Objective: Previous reports indicate that the prevalence and severity of carotid stenoses is greater in peripheral artery disease (PAD) than in coronary artery disease (CAD). To date, no study has compared these two populations with respect to plaque echogenicity, which is an independent risk factor for cerebrovascular events.
Methods: In 43 PAD patients without CAD and in 43 CAD patients without PAD, carotid plaques were studied with high-resolution B-mode ultrasound and by computerized SPTBN5 measurement of the gray-scale median.
Results: At visual analysis, the prevalence of hypoechoic plaques
was 39.5% in PAD and 18.6% in CAD (P = .033). The corresponding values for gray-scale median analysis were 34.9% and 14.0% (P = .024). At multivariate analysis, PAD patients showed a greater risk of having hypoechoic plaques than CAD patients at visual (odds ratio [OR], 4.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.21-15.92, P = .025) and gray-scale median analysis (OF, 5.13; 95% CI, 1.27-20.67; P = .021). This association was no longer significant when neutrophil number was included among the covariates. In this model, only an increased neutrophil count was associated with hypoechoic plaques (P <.01 for both visual and gray-scale median analysis). Indeed, neutrophil count was greater in PAD than in CAD (4.4 +/- 1.0 vs 3.9 +/- 1.2 10(9)/L, P = .030). The concordance between visual typing of carotid plaques and gray-scale median measurement was good (p = 0.714, P < .01).