Neuroscience letters
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Neuroscience letters · Dec 2000
Reduced production of lactate during hypoxia and reoxygenation in astrocytes isolated from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.
Lactate production and expressions of monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) mRNA after hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R) were examined by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using astrocytes in culture isolated from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) and Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). The basal production of lactate in SHRSP was the same as that observed in WKY. ⋯ In addition LDH and MCT1 mRNA expressions in SHRSP were significantly less strong compared with those in WKY during H/R. These findings indicate that decreased production and slow transport of lactate in SHRSP astrocytes are involved in neuronal energy depletion and possibly encourage neuronal damage, although hereditary weakness of cortical neurons is also related to cell death during H/R.
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Neuroscience letters · Dec 2000
The N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonistic and opioid components of d-methadone antinociception in the rat spinal cord.
The d-enantiomer of the opioid methadone is a weak opioid with low micromolar affinity to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. We have investigated the antinociception and in vivo NMDA antagonism after systemic administration of d-methadone in the rat spinal cord. d-Methadone caused antinociception in the Randall-Selitto model of inflammatory pain and inhibited the responses of hindlimb single motor units to noxious electrical and mechanical stimulation (ED(50) 6.6, 6.8 and 7.2 mg/kg intravenous (i.v.), respectively); the wind-up of these responses was only inhibited at the dose almost completely abolishing the baseline responses. d-Methadone inhibited the activity of spinal dorsal horn neurones evoked by both iontophoretic NMDA and (R, S)-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA, ED(50) 5.7 and 8.2 mg/kg i.v., respectively). After pre-treatment with naloxone, d-methadone was unable to inhibit nociception in the Randall-Selitto model, the NMDA- or AMPA-evoked neuronal activity or the motoneurone wind-up. Thus, in the antinociceptive dose range, the NMDA antagonism does not appear to contribute to the mechanism of d-methadone antinociception.