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Pontine and Cerebellar Norepinephrine Content in Adult Rats Recovering from Focal Cortical Injury

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Abstract

Norepinephrine (NE) plays an important role in motor recovery after brain damage. Most studies concerning NE activity have been performed in the cerebellum, while the role of the pons, the site where the norepinephrinergic locus coeruleus is located, has not yet been elucidated. For this work, we studied the changes in cerebellar and pontine NE content in sham-operated (n = 17), motor cortex injured (n = 6) and recovered rats (n = 12). Motor effects were assessed by means of footprint analysis and sensorimotor evaluation. It was found that after cortical brain damage, the stride length decreases while the stride angle increases after 6 h post-surgery, while the sensorimotor evaluation showed an increase in the motor deficit. Recovery was observed after 24 h. NE content increased in the pons after 6 h and returned to normal levels in recovered rats, with no significant changes observed in the cerebellum. Based on the functional remote inhibition, it is possible that NE exerts an autoinhibitory effect in the pons after motor cortical ablation. On the other hand, the absence of an effect in the cerebellum suggests that cerebellar NE activity related to damage and/or recovery is limited to discrete areas of the structure.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Camilo Ríos for his support in the neurochemical analysis, and Jesús Espinoza-Villanueva, who helped us in the histological preparation of tissues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Neuroplasticidad, Torre de Investigación, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitacion, Calz. Mexico-Xochimilco 289 Col. Arenal de Guadalupe, Del. Tlalpan, C.P. 14389, Mexico City, Mexico

    Rigoberto Gonzalez-Pina & Antonio Bueno-Nava

  2. Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia M.V.S. SSA, Mexico City, Mexico

    Sergio Montes

  3. Laboratorio de Neuroquimica, INR SSA, Mexico City, Mexico

    Alfonso Alfaro-Rodriguez

  4. Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, SSA, Mexico City, Mexico

    Angelica Gonzalez-Maciel & Rafael Reynoso-Robles

  5. Facultad de Psicologia, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

    Fructuoso Ayala-Guerrero

Authors
  1. Rigoberto Gonzalez-Pina
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  2. Antonio Bueno-Nava
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  3. Sergio Montes
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  4. Alfonso Alfaro-Rodriguez
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  5. Angelica Gonzalez-Maciel
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  6. Rafael Reynoso-Robles
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  7. Fructuoso Ayala-Guerrero
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Correspondence to Rigoberto Gonzalez-Pina.

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Gonzalez-Pina, R., Bueno-Nava, A., Montes, S. et al. Pontine and Cerebellar Norepinephrine Content in Adult Rats Recovering from Focal Cortical Injury. Neurochem Res 31, 1443–1449 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-006-9196-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-006-9196-6

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