bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rapid TGFβ1 effects on actin cytoskeleton of astrocytes: Comparison with other factors and implications for cell motility
Authors: Gagelin Claire , Pierre Michel , Gavaret Jean‐Michel , Toru‐Delbauffe Danièle 
Published: December 2004

AbstractWe have previously shown that long‐term treatment of primary cultured astrocytes with TGFβ1 induces morphological changes accompanied by increases in actin and GFAP synthesis, and a profound rearrangement of the cytoskeleton. The present report describes the short‐term reorganization of actin filaments induced by TGFβ1 in rat cerebellum cultured astrocytes and in an astrocytic cell line. TGFβ1 caused the appearance of new actin and vinculin organizations, without protein synthesis. This cytoskeletal rearrangement was followed by altered cell‐cell interactions. All these changes induced by TGFβ1 were different and slower than those induced by serum, PDGF, and endothelin. TGFβ1 induced the appearance of lamellipodia, organelles found at the cell front of motile cells in low‐density cultures of immortalized astrocytes. These results indicate that the changes in the astrocyte cytoskeleton induced by TGFβ1 are probably associated with cell movement. The events promoted by TGFβ1 might help to clarify its action in the brain during embryogenesis and in tissue repair. Copy 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rat retinal müller cells express Thy‐1 following neuronal cell death
Authors: Dabin Isabelle , Barnstable Colin J. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractIn the normal rat retina the Thy‐1 antigen is a specific marker of ganglion cells, but degeneration of ganglion cells in vivo does not remove completely the expression of Thy‐1 in the retina. To reconcile these differences we have postulated that ganglion cell death could induce a glial response including the expression of Thy‐1 in Müller cells, the main glial cell type in the retina. Using immunocytochemistry, we have shown that pure cultures of Müller cells were strongly labelled with antibodies against Thy‐1. PCR amplification of cDNA reverse transcribed from Müller cell RNA indicated the presence of Thy‐1 transcripts. Double labelling experiments with anti‐Thyl and anti‐glutamine synthetase, a marker of Müller cells, indicated the presence of both antigens in the same cells. Although Müller cells expressed Thy‐1 mRNA and protein when cultured in the absence of neuronal cells, when co‐cultured with retinal neurons they were not labelled with antibodies against Thy‐1. Our results suggest that Thy‐1 is expressed by Müller cells following loss of retinal neurons. Thy‐1 may have an important function during glial response to neuron death in retina. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Neuroactive steroids regulate astroglia morphology in hippocampal cultures from adult rats
Authors: Cerro Sonia Del , Garcia‐Estrada Joaquin , Garcia‐Segura Luis M. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractRecent evidence indicates that astroglia may be involved in the synthesis of endogenous neurosteroids. The extension of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)‐immunoreactive astroglial cell processes was assessed in hippocampal slice cultures from adult gonadectomized male rats under the influence of the neurosteroids dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, dehydroepiandrosterone estereate, pregnenolone, pregnenolone sulfate, and pregnenolone oleate. The effects of neurosteroids were compared to those induced by the gonadal steroids testosterone, 17ß‐estradiol and progesterone. Astrocytes in hippocampal slice cultures had a morphology that was indistinguishable from that observed in the hippocampus fixed in situ. Castration of adult male rats resulted in a significant decrease in the extension of GFAP‐immunoreactive processes, both in tissues fixed in situ and in slice cultures. In contrast, incubation of slice cultures from gonadectomized animals with pregnenolone, pregnenolone sulfate, 17ß‐estradiol, and testosterone enhanced the extension of GFAP‐immunoreactive processes. While other steroids tested did not affect this parameter, dehydroepiandrosterone and its sulfate and estereate derivatives induced the transformation of astroglial cells into hypertrophic and highly GFAP immunoreactive cells with the morphological characteristics of reactive astroglia. We conclude that neurosteroids regulate the morphology and/or GFAP distribution of astrocytes in hippocampal slice cultures from adult rats. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Na+‐Ca2+ exchange system in rat glial cells in culture: Activation by external monovalent cations
Authors: Holgado Andrea , Beaugé Luis 
Published: December 2004

AbstractCultured rat glial cells display a Na+‐Ca2+ exchange system located at the plasma membrane levels. This was evidenced by the Na+ (i)‐dependency of a Na+ (o)‐inhibitable influx of Ca2+, or reversal exchange mode. This antiporter has an external site where monovalent cations (K+, Li+, and Na+ were investigated) stimulate the exchange by a chemical action. The monovalent cation is not transported during the exchange cycle. The mechanism of that stimulation agrees with an increase in the apparent affinity of the carrier for Ca2+ (o) without effect on the maximal translocation rate. Two models can equally well account for the data: i) the formation of ECa(o) is essential for the binding of the monovalent cation, or ii) the activating cation can bind even when the carrier is free of Ca2+(o). The cations K+ and Li+ produced only stimulation, although that of K+ seem to require actions other than the chemical effect. The response to Na+ was biphasic; this can be fully explained considering that at low concentrations, Na+(o) binds preferentially to the activating monovalent site while at high concentrations it displaces Ca2+ from its external transporting site. Pure type I astrocytes displayed the same Na+‐Ca2+ exchange mechanism. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan staining in astrocyte‐schwann cell co‐cultures
Authors: Ghirnikar Roopa S. , Eng Lawrence F. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractTransplantation of Schwann cells (SCs) in the central nervous system (CNS) for remyelination in pathological situations has been considered a promising approach. However, numerous studies have indicated that astrocytes have a restrictive effect on SC migration within the CNS. We have previously established an in vitro model which demonstrates the restrictive effect of astrocytes on SCs (Ghirnikar and Eng, Glia 4:367–377, 1994). Using this culture model, in the present study, we have characterized the molecular basis underlying astrocyte‐SC interaction and demonstrated chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSP) staining in the co‐cultures. Following 1–2 weeks of incubation, CSP staining was specifically associated with SCs co‐cultured with astrocytes. Staining with antibodies specific for the different chondroitin sulfate isomers revealed the presence of both, chondroitin‐4‐ and 6‐sulfates in SCs. In contrast, SCs when cultured alone, or in the presence of astrocyte conditioned medium did not show CSP staining. These data suggest that CSP staining is associated with SCs following co‐culture with astrocytes and mediated by cell to cell contact. We hypothesize that the CSP, alone or in combination with other molecules expressed by astrocytes and/or SCs, may be involved in the restrictive effects of astrocytes on SCs. Identification of molecules involved in the unfavorable interaction between astrocytes and SCs will have an important bearing on efforts to remyelinate demyelinated axons by SC transplantation within the damaged CNS. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Glutamine cycle enzymes in the crayfish giant nerve fiber: Implications for axon‐to‐glia signaling
Authors: McKinnon Elizabeth , Hargittai Pál T. , Grossfeld Robert M. , Lieberman Edward M. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractTwo of the key enzymes involved in glutamate metabolism, glutaminase and glutamine synthetase, were quantitatively localized to axons and glia of the crayfish giant nerve fiber by immunocytochemistry and electron microscopy of antibody‐linked gold microspheres. In Western blots, rabbit antisera for glutamine synthetase and glutaminase specifically recognized crayfish polypeptides corresponding approximately in size to subunits of purified mammalian brain enzymes. Glutamine synthetase immunoreactivity was found to be 11 times greater in the adaxonal glial cells than in the axon. Glutaminase immunoreactivity was found in somewhat greater concentration (2.5:1) in glia as compared to axoplasm. Glutamate immunoreactivity also was evaluated and found to be present in high concentration in both glia and axons, as might be expected for an important substrate of cellular metabolism. Using radiolabeled substrates it was demonstrated that glutamine and glutamate were interconverted by the native enzymes in the intact crayfish giant nerve fiber and that the formation of glutamine from glutamate occurred in the axoplasm‐free nerve fiber, the cellular component of which is primarily periaxonal glia.The results of this investigation provide immunocytochemical and metabolic evidence consistent with an intercellular glutamine cycle that modulates the concentration of periaxonal glutamate and glutamine in a manner similar to that described for perisynaptic regions of the vertebrate central nervous system. These findings further corroborate previous electrophysiological evidence that glutamate serves as the axon‐to‐glial cell neurochemical signal that activates glial cell mechanisms responsible for periaxonal ion homeostasis. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Alcohol abuse and dementia
Authors: King Michael B. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractElderly outpatients on the register of the Alzheimer's Disease clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, were screened for alcohol abuse, the aim being to assess the rôle of alcohol in their dementia.Twenty one percent were found to be heavy drinkers or alcohol abusers, at some time in the past. Sixty‐four percent of these had been actively drinking at the time of onset of first symptoms of the dementia. Clinicians need to be alert to the possibility that alcohol may be an aetiological factor in their elderly patients presenting with dementia.
Ability of internists to recognize and manage depression in the elderly
Authors: Barsa John , Toner John , Gurland Barry , Lantigua Rafael 
Published: December 2004

AbstractSeventy‐seven randomly selected elderly patients in a primary care internal medicine practice were assessed and rated by their internists for the presence and severity of depression. Management recommendations were recorded by internists in each case. On the same day, the patients were interviewed and scored using the SHORT‐CARE Instrument, which includes a scale of depression. A chart review a year and a half later was made to demonstrate compliance with the internists' recommendations. Results showed that internists were quite skilled at recognizing depression and responded with specific management plans, but did not follow through with their own plans for counselling of patients or referral of patients to mental health practitioners.
Dementia, depression and life satisfaction in nursing homes
Authors: Snowdon John 
Published: December 2004

AbstractOf 320 elderly residents in Sydney nursing homes admitted in the previous two years, 268 (84%) were able to be tested with the Mental Status Questionnaire. 73.5% of them were found to have moderate or severe cognitive impairment. Most of the demented patients (including 57% of the severely cognitively impaired) were able to respond satisfactorily to the depression questionnaire used by Gilleard et al. (1981). Twenty‐two per cent of the 217 patients tested scored in the depressed range. It is important that staff recognize potentially treatable depressive illnesses among those aged living in institutions, even if they are also demented. This questionnaire may aid such recognition.
The effects of meclofenoxate on cognitive performance in elderly individuals with memory impairment: A placebo‐controlled study
Authors: Harris S. J. , Dowson J. H. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractTwenty residents with mild to moderate memory impairment probably due to senile dementia of Alzheimer type entered a placebo‐controlled, double‐blind, crossover trial of meclofenoxate 600 mg administered twice daily for 12 weeks. Nine subjects completed the trial during which various tests of cognitive function, including a paired‐associate learning test and a word list recall test, were applied.There was a trend towards improvement on paired‐associate learning performance suggesting a beneficial effect of meclofenoxate but none of the cognitive tests showed statistically significant improvements for meclofenoxate when compared with placebo.The difficulties in mounting a drug trial of this nature in patients who have early dementia are discussed.
Staging of mental impairment by means of discriminant analysis
Authors: Bracco L. , Tiezzi A. , Lippi A. , Amaducci L. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractBy the use of discriminant analysis it was possible to obtain from a wide neuropsychological battery a few psychometric tests able to stage five levels of mental impairment in 70 healthy and demented elderly subjects, according to two canonical variables. The tests maximally discriminant among the groups were: Personal Memory items of Blessed Dementia Scale, Five Words Recall after 24 h, Paired Words Acquisition, Information/Orientation and Mental Ability items of Clifton Assessment Schedule. The accuracy of the prediction rule was evaluated on a validation set of patients. The short battery made it possible to classify correctly 90% of subjects and to follow easily the course of mental decline. The agreement between observed and predicted groups was 0.93 as calculated by the weighted kappa.We emphasize the role of discriminant analysis in the evaluation of neuropsychological batteries for diagnostic purposes.
The influence of age on guilt expression in major depression
Authors: Small Gary W. , Komanduri Ramanujam , Gitlin Michael , Jarvik Lissy F. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractTo test the hypothesis, based on clinical observation, that older depressed patients express less guilt than younger ones, the authors evaluated 39 patients with major depression aged 55 years or older (mean = 67.0) and compared them to 38 depressed patients under age 55 (mean = 35.4). The results were generally in accord with the hypothesis. On observer ratings (Hamilton Depression Scale), however, it was primarily older men who expressed guilt less frequently than younger men (p = 0.01). On self‐ratings (Beck Depression Inventory), the significant differences were among women; older women employed milder expressions of guilt (p = 0.02) and fewer expressions of feelings of failure than younger women (p = 0.025). These findings suggest that age may influence the expression of guilt in patients with major depressive disorder, and that the age effect may differ in the two sexes.
The measurement of psychological problems in the elderly in general practice
Authors: Vetter Norman J. , Jones Dee A. , Victor Christina R. , Philip Alistair E. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractInterviews were performed on 1288 people aged 70 and over in an urban and a rural general practice. Information was obtained on standardized measures of anxiety, depression and memory loss. The people in the urban practice had higher (i.e. suggesting abnormal) scores for both anxiety and depression. Memory scores were higher in the rural area. These differences were basically constant for age, sex and social class groups. The urban environment appears to be associated with the excess of neurosis in the elderly at home but not to the organic changes associated with memory loss. There was a close association between physical disability and high scores on the psychological indices. Special attention must be paid to the elderly with physical disabilities for coexisting psychological problems.
A review of the contribution of housing to policies for the frail elderly
Authors: Tinker Anthea 
Published: December 2004

AbstractThe expected growth in numbers of very elderly people, some of whom will be frail, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere may lead to a reappraisal of policies. It is argued that housing has a crucial role to play. Research evidence is presented that most elderly people wish to remain in homes of their own and ways in which this can be achieved are discussed. For those who wish, or have, to move, a number of options are outlined. These include ordinary small housing, living with a family, granny annexes, sheltered housing, extra care housing, continuing care communities and residential care. If elderly people are to live in an appropriate setting all professional groups need to cooperate.
The use of electroconvulsive therapy in old age psychiatry
Authors: Benbow Susan Mary 
Published: December 2004

AbstractAll patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) under the care of the Old Age Psychiatry service at the University Hospital of South Manchester between 1976 and 1982 were studied. Data on 193 courses were collected. Eighty per cent of patients were well or considerably improved at discharge. When relapses occurred they usually responded well to antidepressant treatment and did not indicate a poor outcome in the long term. The results confirm that ECT is a safe and effective treatment for elderly patients with severe depressive illnesses, despite the fact that many of them suffer from concurrent physical problems and that some have evidence of intellectual impairment.
Preliminary experience with the SELFCARE (D): A self‐rating depression questionnaire for use in elderly, non‐institutionalized subjects
Authors: Bird Anne S. , Macdonald Alastair J. D. , Mann Anthony H. , Philpot Michael P. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractA new self‐rating depression scale for use with elderly subjects in general practice—the SELFCARE (D)—was compared with independent psychiatric assessment in 75 patients attending general practitioners at two London practices. The sensitivity was 77%, specificity 98% and positive predictive value 96%; kappa was 0·77. This preliminary experience suggests that the SELFCARE (D) is an acceptable and economic tool for the study of depression in elderly patients in a primary care setting.
Reversible dementia
Authors: Byrne E. Jane 
Published: December 2004

AbstractThe term reversible dementia is often a misnomer for other syndromes which globally impair cognitive function such as acute and subacute confusional state and subcortical dementia. Evidence from studies on the investigation of dementia and case reports of conditions traditionally held to cause reversible dementia (normal pressure hydrocephalus, vitamin B12 deficiency, subdural haematoma) suggest that cortical dementia is not often a treatable syndrome. Acute or subacute confusional states and subcortical dementia are more typically associated with treatable or reversible causes of brain dysfunction. Diagnosis of these syndromes may identify those patients (especially those of advanced years) who should be extensively investigated.
Late paraphrenia: Neuropsychological impairment and structural brain abnormalities on computed tomography
Authors: Naguib Mohsen , Levy Raymond 
Published: December 2004

AbstractForty‐three patients with ‘late paraphrenia’ were subjected to detailed clinical and psychological assessment and computed tomography (CT). The paraphrenics had significantly larger lateral cerebral ventricles and greater cognitive deficits than a group of 40 age‐matched normal volunteers. Group comparisons within the patients, between those with particularly large ventricular brain ratio (VBR) (equal or more than two standard deviations above the control mean) and the rest of the group, showed that the extent of ventricular enlargement had no direct bearing on the clinical presentation of the paraphrenic syndrome. The results suggest that ventricular enlargement may have preceded the onset of overt symptoms by a period of years and probably served as a non‐specific risk factor for the development of the disorder. The unimodal distribution of VBR values suggests that paraphrenia, at least at a brain structural level, is a unitary condition. It also indicates the presence of subcortical pathology which might be in part responsible for the cognitive dysfunction elicited.
A memory clinic for the early diagnosis of dementia
Authors: Philpot Michael P. , Levy Raymond 
Published: December 2004

AbstractThe aims and experience of work in a specialist memory assessment clinic are described with reference to the first 100 patients attending the service. Fifty‐one patients were found to suffer from dementia and a further 26 from mild but significant memory disorder. The open referral system proved a relatively efficient way of identifying patients with mild or early dementia of Alzheimer type.
Mental health and contact with primary care services in old age
Authors: Morgan Kevin , Dallosso Helen , Ebrahim Shah , Arie Tom , Fentem Peter 
Published: December 2004

AbstractProfiles of mental and physical health status and reports of contact with primary care and personal social services were obtained from 979 individuals aged 65 years and over randomly selected from the Nottinghamshire Family Practitioner Committee's records. On the basis of personal disturbance scores derived from the Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression scale (SAD) administered at the time of interview, respondents were classified as psychiatrically ‘normal’, ‘borderline’ or ‘ill’. Those classified as psychiatrically ‘ill’ were significantly more likely to report recent contact with both general practitioners and certain personal social services than were those classified as psychiatrically ‘normal’. Intermediate levels of contact were found among those classified as borderline (between normal and ill). The prescription and use of psychotropic drugs showed a similar mental health gradient. While SAD scores were positively and significantly related to the number of reported physical health problems, the overall correlation between mental and physical health scales was modest (rho = 0.41, p < 0.001). These results indicate that while mental health problems are clearly influential in determining family doctor consultations among the elderly, a substantial number of emotionally disturbed elderly people do not consult their general practitioners during the currency of their symptoms.
Liaison referrals to a department of psychiatry for the elderly 1984–5
Authors: Benbow Susan Mary 
Published: December 2004

AbstractPatients referred for liaison consultation to a Department of Psychiatry for the Elderly were studied over 12 months. One hundred and twelve patients were referred by hospital doctors and most of these were seen on consultations within the hospital. These patients had more physical problems than those referred from the community over that period. The absence of a formal psychiatric diagnosis does not mean that psychiatric skills cannot be useful in managing a patient. Many elderly physically ill people present complex problems and the old age psychiatry service can play a valuable role in providing liaison consultations to other departments within the general hospital.