Neuroscience research
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Neuroscience research · Oct 2008
Decreased EEG synchronization and its correlation with symptom severity in Alzheimer's disease.
Global field synchronization (GFS) has recently been introduced to measure functional synchronization in frequency-domain EEG data. This study explored GFS values and its clinical significance in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). ⋯ GFS values were significantly lower in AD patients than in healthy controls, and they were positively correlated with MMSE and CDR scores. Our results suggest that GFS values are a useful biological correlate of cognitive decline in AD patients.
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Neuroscience research · Oct 2008
The protection of Bcl-2 overexpression on rat cortical neuronal injury caused by analogous ischemia/reperfusion in vitro.
Recent studies have suggested that neuronal apoptosis in cerebral ischemia could arise from dysfunction of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2 gene (Bcl-2) has been described as an inhibitor both in programmed cell death (PCD) and ER dysfunction during apoptosis, and the Bcl-2 family play a key role in regulating the PCD, both locally at the ER and from a distance at the mitochondrial membrane. However, its signal pathways and concrete mechanisms in endoplasmic reticulum-initiated apoptosis remain incompletely understood. ⋯ Bcl-2 overexpression inhibits the release of cyt C and the activation of caspase-9/-8/-3 but not caspase-12 based on the results of Western blot. These suggest that cross-talk between ER and mitochondria participate in neuronal damage after ischemia/reperfusion. Bcl-2 overexpression could suppress I/R-induced neuronal apoptosis via influencing mitochondrial integrity.