• Archives of Pharmacal Research
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.23-29
• /
• 1996

Changes in dopaminergic activities were investigated after the intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of ethylcholine aziridium (AF64A) in rats. The levels of dopamine (DA) and metabolites, the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and monoamine oxidase (MAO), and the specific binding sites of dopamine receptros in striata, hippocampus, and frontal cortex were assessed 6 days after the AF64A treatment with 3 nmol/each ventrcle. In frontal cortex, the levels of DA and metabolities were significantly decreased without changes in metabolites/DA ratios in the AF64A-treated groups. In contrast, the ratios of metabolites/DA were significantly decreased in striatum and hippocampus in the AF64A treatment. The activity of TH in frontal cortex was significantly decreased. However, that in other areas was not changed. Also the activity of MAO-A was not changed in the studied brain regions. However, the activity of MAO-B in striatum was significantly increased with no change in other areas. The specific binding sites of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors were increased in AF64A-treated frontal cortex. However, those were not changed in striatum and hippocampus except the small decreased specific binding sites of dopamine D-1 receptors in striatum after AF64A treatment. These results indicate that the dopaminergic activity was altered in AF64A treatment. Furthermore, it suggest that the decreased dopaminergic activities in each brain regions might be differently affected by AF64A treatment.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.273-289
• /
• 1994

Reversible brain ischemia was produced by occluding both common carotid arteries for 5 min, and the effects of aminoguanidine (AG), $DL-{\alpha}-difluoromethylornithine$ (DFMO), MK-801, and nimodipine (NM) on the ischemia induced changes of the polyamine, glutamate and acetylcholine levels in the hippocampus CA1 subfield and the specific $[^3H]\;MK-801$ binding to the hippocampus synaptosomal membranes were studied with a histological reference of the cresyl violet stained hippocampus. The basal putrescine level $(PT:\;74.4{\pm}8.8\;nM)$ showed a rapid increase (up to 1.7 fold) for 5 min of ischemia, remained significantly increased for 6 h, and then resumed the further increase to amount gradually up to about 3 fold 96 h after recirculation. However, the level of spermidine was little changed, and the spermine level showed a transient increase during ischemia followed by a sustained decrease to about 40% of the preischemic level after recirculation. The increase of PT level induced by brain ischemia was enhanced with AG or MK-801, but it was reduced by DFMO or NM. The basal glutamate level $(GT:\;0.90{\pm}0.l4\;{\mu}M)$ rapidly increased to a peak level of $8.19{\pm}1.14\;{\mu}M$ within 5 min after onset of the ischemia and then decreased to the preischemic level in about 25 min after recirculation. And NM reduced the ischemia induced increase of GT level by about 25%, but AG, DFMO and MK-801 did not affect the GT increase. The basal acetylcholine level $(ACh:\;118.0{\pm}10.5\;{\mu}M)$ did little change during/after brain ischemia and was little affected by AG or NM. But DFMO and MK-801, respectively, produced the moderate decrease of ACh level. The specific $[^3H]\;MK-801$ binding to the hippocampus synaptosomal membrane was little affected by brain ischemia for 5 min. The control value (78.9 fmole/mg protein) was moderately decreased by AG and MK-801, respectively but was little changed by DFMO or NM. The microscopic findings of the brains extirpated on day 7 after ischemia showed severe neuronal damage of the hippocampus, particularly CA1 subfield. NM and AG moderately attenuated the delayed neuronal damage, and DFMO, on the contrary, aggravated the ischemia induced damage. However, MK-801 did not protect the hippocampus from ischemic damage. These results suggest that unlike to the mode of anti-ischemic action of NM, AG might protect the hippocampus from ischemic injury as being negatively regulatory on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor function in the hippocampus.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2008

Objectives : Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san) has been used for many years as a treatment for cerebrovascular diseases in Oriental medicine. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san) on cognition and motor function recovery after ischemic brain injury, and also the expression of BDNF in hippocampus. Methods : This study was designed with 4 subgroups to evaluate the effects of Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san). As control groups, group I has no treatment during 1 week after ischemic brain injury and group II has no treatment during 2 weeks after ischemic brain injury. As experimental groups, group III has been treated with Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san) during 1 week after ischemic brain injury and group IV have treated with Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san) during 2 week after ischemic brain injury. Each group has been examined by tests as follows, neurological motor behavioral tests, cognitive motor behavior test and histological test. Neurological motor behavior tests consisted of limb placement test, beam-walking test and horizontal wire test. Cognitive motor behavior test was performed by using Morris water maze. In the histological test, TTC(2,3,5-triphenylteterazolium chloride) staining, hematoxylin & eosin staining, and immunohistochemical staining were used. Results : 1. The tests for motor function recovery change had significantly good result in the experimental groups as compared with control groups(p<.05). 2. The Morris water maze test on cognition also had significantly good result in the experimental groups as compared with control groups(p<.05). 3. In the immunohistochemical staining for the expression of BDNF in hippocampus, more immune reaction was investigated in the experimental groups as compared with control groups. Especially group IV has the greatest immune reaction. Conclusions : Ohyaksungi-san(Wuyaoshunqi-san) has good effects on cognition and motor function recovery after ischemic brain injury, and also the expression of BDNF in hippocampus.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.164-171
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Brain atrophy in this disease spectrum begins in the medial temporal lobe structure, which can be recognized by magnetic resonance imaging. To overcome the unsatisfactory inter-observer reliability of visual evaluation, quantitative brain volumetry has been developed and widely investigated for the diagnosis of MCI and AD. The aim of this study was to assess the prediction accuracy of quantitative brain volumetry using a fully automated segmentation software package, NeuroQuant^®, for the diagnosis of MCI. Materials and Methods: A total of 418 subjects from the Korean Brain Aging Study for Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease cohort were included in our study. Each participant was allocated to either a cognitively normal old group (n = 285) or an MCI group (n = 133). Brain volumetric data were obtained from T1-weighted images using the NeuroQuant software package. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed to investigate relevant brain regions and their prediction accuracies. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that normative percentiles of the hippocampus (P < 0.001), amygdala (P = 0.003), frontal lobe (P = 0.049), medial parietal lobe (P = 0.023), and third ventricle (P = 0.012) were independent predictive factors for MCI. In ROC analysis, normative percentiles of the hippocampus and amygdala showed fair accuracies in the diagnosis of MCI (area under the curve: 0.739 and 0.727, respectively). Conclusion: Normative percentiles of the hippocampus and amygdala provided by the fully automated segmentation software could be used for screening MCI with a reasonable post-processing time. This information might help us interpret structural MRI in patients with cognitive impairment.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.789-794
• /
• 2013

Hemorrhage is a devastating type of stroke, accounts for 15-20% of all strokes. This disease can cause cognitive dysfunction with a very high mortality rate. Cupping therapy of Traditional Korean medicine has frequently been used to relieve a variety of diseases or clinical conditions, although not in the memory loss after hemorrhage. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of cupping therapy on learning and memory with Y-maze test, as well as its effects on different molecular changes in hippocampus following the induction of hemorrhage in rats. Cupping, using vacuum cupping machine, was applied at target area for 5 min daily for 7 consecutive days, commencing 1 day after brain impairment. As a result, induction of hemorrhage enhanced memory deficit, suppressed brain-derived neurotrophin factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus. Cupping treatment effectively reversed collagenase-induced cognitive impairment in SD rats which was represented by improvement of spontaneous alterations in Y-maze test. In addition, BDNF expression was enhanced after cupping therapy. The present results suggest that the therapeutic effects of cupping treatment after hemorrhage is involved in expression of BDNF.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.377-383
• /
• 2023

Purpose: There is increasing attention to the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for enhancing cognitive functions in subjects to aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite varying treatment outcomes in tDCS which depend on the amount of current reaching the brain, there is no general information on the impacts of anatomical features associated with AD on tDCS-induced electric field. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine how AD-related anatomical variation affects the tDCS-induced electric field using computational modeling. Methods: We collected 180 magnetic resonance images (MRI) of AD patients and healthy controls from a publicly available database (Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; ADNI), and MRIs were divided into female-AD, male-AD, female-normal, and male-normal groups. For each group, segmented brain volumes (cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter, ventricle, rostral middle frontal (RMF), and hippocampus/amygdala complex) using MRI were measured, and tDCS-induced electric fields were simulated, targeting RMF. Results: For segmented brain volumes, significant sex differences were observed in the gray matter and RMF, and considerable disease differences were found in cerebrospinal fluid, ventricle, and hippocampus/amygdala complex. There were no differences in the tDCS-induced electric field among AD and normal groups; however, higher peak values of electric field were observed in the female group than the male group. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated the presence of sex and disease differences in segmented brain volumes; however, this pattern differed in tDCS-induced electric field, resulting in significant sex differences only. Further studies, we will adjust the brain stimulation conditions to target the deep brain and examine the effects, because of significant differences in the ventricles and deep brain regions between AD and normal groups.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.147-157
• /
• 2018

Alzheimer's disease has the significant factors for the both specific and characteristic features according to the disease progressing that are the volumetry and surface area by the brain hippocampus shrinking and thinning. However, we have suggested a shape analysis to calculate the variance by the roughness, coarseness or uneven surface on 3D MR images. For the reasons we have presented two methods: the first method is the distance calculation from major axis to edge points and the second method is the distance calculation from centroidal point to edge points on a coronal plane. Then we selected the shortest distance and the longest distance in each slice and analyzed the ANOVA and average distances. Consequently we obtained the available and great results by the longest distance of the axial and centroidal point. The results of average distances were 44.85(AD), 45.04(MCI) and 49.31(NC) from the axial points and 39.30(AD), 39.58(MCI) and 44.78(NC) from centroidal points respectively. Finally the distance variations for the easily recognized visualization were shown by the color mapping. This research could be provided an indicator of biomarkers that make diagnosis and prognosis the Alzheimer's diseases in the future.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.151-157
• /
• 2015

The increasing use of mobile phones has raised public concern about the possible biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure on the human brain. To investigate the potential effect of RF-EMF exposure on the brain, we examined the behaviors and hippocampal morphology of C57BL/6 mice after sub-chronic exposure to RF-EMFs with a relatively high SAR level (5.0 W/kg). We applied a 2-hour daily exposure of WCDMA 1,950 MHz using a reverberation chamber that was designed for whole-body exposure for 60 days. In the behavioral tests, RF-EMF did not alter the physical activity or long-term memory of mice. Moreover, no alteration was found in the neuronal and glial cells in the hippocampus by RF-EMFs. In this study, we showed that sub-chronic whole body RF exposure did not produce memory impairment and hippocampal morphological alteration in C57BL/6 mice.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2010

Objective: The focus of this study is brain plasticity associated with semantic aspects of language function in patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) Methods: Using longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), patterns of brain activation were observed in twelve left and seven right unilateral mTLE patients during a word-generation task relative to a pseudo-word reading task before and after anterior temporal section surgery. Results: No differences were observed in precentral activations in patients relative to normal controls (n = 12), and surgery did not alter the phonological-associated activations. The two mTLE patient groups showed left inferior prefrontal activations associated with semantic processing (word-generation>pseudo-word reading), as did control subjects. The amount of semantic-associated activation in the left inferior prefrontal region was negatively correlated with epilepsy duration in both patient groups. Following temporal resection, semantic-specific activations in inferior prefrontal region became more bilateral in left mTLE patients, but more left-lateralized in right mTLE patients. The longer the duration of epilepsy in the patients, the larger the increase in the left inferior prefrontal semantic-associated activation after surgery in both patient groups. Semantic activation of the intact hippocampus, which had been negatively correlated with seizure frequency, normalized after the epileptic side was removed. Conclusion: These results indicate alternation of semantic language network related to recruitment of left inferior prefrontal cortex and functional recovery of the hippocampus contralateral to the epileptogenic side, suggesting an intra- and inter-hemispheric reorganization following surgery.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.190-197
• /
• 2012

Depression is one of the most prevalent diseases of alcohol abuse. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a critical role in cell survival in the hippocampus. Phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (p-ERK1/2) is induced by BDNF, and it regulates cell proliferation and differentiation in the brain. We investigated the effects of alcohol intake on depression-like behavior, cell proliferation, expressions of BDNF and its downstream molecules in the hippocampus using Mongolian gerbils. The gerbils were divided into four groups: control group, 0.5 g/kg alcohol-treated group, 1 g/kg alcohol-treated group, 2 g/kg alcohol-treated group. Each dose of alcohol was orally administered for 3 weeks. The present results demonstrated that alcohol intake induced depression-like behavior. Both 5-hydroxytryptamine synthesis and its synthesizing enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase expression in the dorsal raphe and cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus were decreased by alcohol intake. Alcohol intake suppressed BDNF expression, and resulted in the decrease of its downstream molecules, pERK1/2 and Bcl-2, in the hippocampus. We showed that alcohol intake may lead to a depressed-like state with reduced hippocampal cell proliferation through inhibition of the BDNF-ERK signaling pathway.