During development, network-constitutive neurons undergo dramatic rearrangements, involving their intrinsic properties, such as the blend of ion channels see more governing their firing activity,

and their synaptic interactions. The spinal cord is no exception to this rule; in fact, in the ventral horn the maturation of motor networks into functional circuits is a complex process where several mechanisms cooperate to achieve the development of motor control. Elucidating such a process is crucial in identifying neurons more vulnerable to degenerative or traumatic diseases or in developing new strategies aimed at rebuilding damaged tissue.

The focus of this review is on recent advances in understanding the spatio-temporal expression of the glycinergic/GABAergic system and on the contribution of this system to early network function and to motor pattern transformation along with spinal buy GSK923295 maturation. During antenatal development, the operation of mammalian spinal networks strongly depends on the activity of glycinergic/GABAergic neurons, whose action is often excitatory until shortly before birth

when locomotor networks acquire the ability to generate alternating motor commands between flexor and extensor motor neurons. At this late stage of prenatal development, GABA-mediated excitation is replaced by synaptic inhibition mediated by glycine and/or GABA. At this stage of spinal maturation, the large majority of GABAergic neurons are located https://www.selleck.cn/products/epz-5676.html in the dorsal horn. We propose that elucidating the role of inhibitory

systems in development will improve our knowledge on the processes regulating spinal cord maturation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Endocrine disruption, the guiding theme of the 27th International Neurotoxicology Conference, merged into the neurotoxicology agenda largely because hormones help steer the process of brain development. Although the disruption motif first attracted public health attention because of reproductive anomalies in both wildlife and humans, the neurobehavioral implications had been planted decades earlier. They stemmed from the principle that sex differences in behavior are primarily the outcomes of differences in how the brain is sexually differentiated during early development by gonadal hormones (the Organizational Hypothesis). We also now understand that environmental chemicals are capable of altering these underlying events and processes. Among those chemicals, the group labeled as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) offers the clearest evidence of such selectivity, a consequence of their actions on the endogenous sex steroids, androgens and estrogens. Two EDCs in particular offer useful and intriguing examples. One is phthalate esters. The other is bisphenol A. Both agents are used extensively in plastics manufacture, and are pervasive in the environment. Both are produced in immense quantities. Both are found in almost all humans.