Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry
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Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry · Jan 2012
Meta Analysis Comparative StudyVoxelwise meta-analysis of gray matter reduction in major depressive disorder.
Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has been widely used in studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and has provided cumulative evidence of gray matter abnormalities in patients relative to controls. Thus we performed a meta-analysis to integrate the reported studies to determine the consistent gray matter alterations in MDD. ⋯ Meta-analysis of all primary VBM studies indicates that significant gray matter reductions in MDD are localized in a distributed neural network which includes frontal, limbic and thalamic regions. Future studies will benefit from the use of a longitudinal approach to examine anatomical and functional abnormalities within this network and their relationship to clinical profile, particularly in first-episode and drug-naive MDD patients.
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Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyBlockade of microglial activation reduces mechanical allodynia in rats with compression of the trigeminal ganglion.
The present study investigated the role of microglia and p38 MAPK in the development of mechanical allodynia in rats with compression of the trigeminal ganglion. Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 250-260 g were used. Under pentobarbital sodium anesthesia, the animals were mounted onto a stereotaxic frame and given injections of 4% agar solution (10 μL) to compress the trigeminal ganglion. ⋯ Intracisternal administration of 100 μg of minocycline significantly inhibited both mechanical allodynia and activation of microglia produced by compression of the trigeminal ganglion. Intracisternal administration of 0.1, 1, or 10 μg of SB203580, a p38 MAPK inhibitor, also significantly decreased mechanical allodynia and p38 MAPK activation in the trigeminal ganglion-compressed group. These results suggest that activation of p38 MAPK in the microglia is an important step in the development of mechanical allodynia in rats with compression of the trigeminal ganglion and that the targeted blockade of microglial p38 MAPK pathway is a potentially important new treatment strategy for trigeminal neuralgia-like nociception.