TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given a passage which has a question and the context. You have to generate an answer to the question based on the information present in the context.
PROBLEM: Context: Psychostimulants are often used in close temporal proximity to nicotine and have been reported to enhance acutely nicotine's desirability in humans.", 'To investigate the acute associations between amphetamine and nicotine, we examined the potentiative interactions between clinically relevant, low doses of these drugs on locomotor activity, and dopamine overflow in the rat.', 'Locomotor activity was measured by telemetry in the home cage environment, and dopamine overflow was evaluated in striatal slice preparations from female Holtzman rats.', 'When administered simultaneously, nicotine and amphetamine produced a predominantly additive effect on locomotor behavior. However amphetamine, when given 2-4 h before nicotine, strongly potentiated nicotine-induced locomotor activity. Correspondingly, nicotine given 1-4 h before amphetamine robustly enhanced amphetamine-stimulated locomotor activity even when the effects of the nicotine pretreatment dissipated. Acute nicotine pretreatment similarly potentiated the effects of dopamine transporter ligands, cocaine, nomifensine, and methamphetamine but not a direct dopamine receptor agonist. Consistent with the behavioral studies, in vivo nicotine pretreatment exaggerated amphetamine-induced dopamine efflux from rat striatal slices. Likewise, in vivo pretreatment of rats with amphetamine potentiated nicotine-induced dopamine efflux from striatal slices. Direct pretreatment of striatal tissue by nicotine also potentiated subsequent amphetamine-stimulated dopamine overflow, further suggesting that the nicotine-amphetamine interaction occurs at the level of the dopamine terminal.\Question: Do nicotine and amphetamine acutely cross-potentiate their behavioral and neurochemical responses in female Holtzman rats?

SOLUTION: Overall, the present data demonstrate that acute interactions of nicotine and other psychomotor stimulants produce potentiative effects and that these transient interactions may play a role in the frequent co-use and abuse of nicotine and other stimulants.

PROBLEM: Context: The effect of inhalational anesthetics on sensory-evoked unit activity in the cerebral cortex has been controversial. Desflurane has desirable properties for in vivo neurophysiologic studies, but its effect on cortical neuronal activity and neuronal responsiveness is not known. The authors studied the effect of desflurane on resting and visual evoked unit activity in rat visual cortex in vivo.', 'Desflurane was administered to adult albino rats at steady-state concentrations at 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8%. Flashes from a light emitting diode were delivered to the left eye at 5-s intervals. Extracellular unit activity within the right visual cortex was recorded using a 49-electrode array. Individual units were identified using principal components analysis.', 'At 2% desflurane, 578 active units were found. Of these, 75% increased their firing rate in response to flash. Most responses contained early (0-100 ms) and late (150-1000 ms) components. With increasing desflurane concentration, the number of units active at baseline decreased (-13%), the number of early-responding units increased (+31%), and number of late-responding units decreased (-15%). Simultaneously, baseline firing rate decreased (-77%), the early response was unchanged, and the late response decreased (-60%).\Question: Does desflurane selectively suppress long-latency cortical neuronal response to flash in the rat?

SOLUTION: The results indicate that visual cortex neurons remain responsive to flash stimulation under desflurane anesthesia, but the long-latency component of their response is attenuated in a concentration-dependent manner. Suppression of the long-latency response may be related to a loss of corticocortical feedback and loss of consciousness.

PROBLEM: Context: Heart type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) is a small protein and released into the circulation when myocardial damage has occurred. Previous studies have demonstrated that H-FABP is closely associated with cardiac and some endocrinologic disorders including prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, and acromegaly. Hyperthyroism is a well-known disorder associated with cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to investigate the effect of hyperthyrodism on H-FABP levels.', 'Forty six patients with hyperthyroidism with no known history of coronary artery disease and 40 healthy controls are involved in the study. Serum H-FABP levels are measured using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.', 'There was no significant difference between serum H-FABP levels of patients with hyperthyroidism and controls (871±66 pg/mL, and 816±66 pg/mL, respectively P=0.56). There was no significant correlation between H-FABP, free triiodothyronine (fT3), free thyroxine (fT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in patients and controls.\Question: Are serum heart type fatty acid binding protein levels changed in hyperthyroidism?

SOLUTION:
Serum H-FABP levels are not altered in patients with hyperthyroidism.