Sex-specific spatial memory deficits associated with region-specific neuroinflammatory changes in the dorsal hippocampus of rats exposed to neonatal repeated maternal separation.

The hippocampus is an essential brain structure for memory and emotional regulation and is particularly vulnerable to early life stress, which disrupts its development and increases the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. Using the neonatal maternal separation model of early life stress, we explored sex-specific behavioral and molecular alterations, focusing on hippocampal function, neuroinflammation, and associated signaling pathways. Our results show that neonatal maternal separation induces mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity, as well as anxiety-like behaviors in both male and female rats, but spatial memory deficits were observed exclusively in males.

Physical activity stimulates clock neurons of the day-active rodent .

Our biological clock, located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), controls behavioral activity rhythms by producing circadian rhythms in SCN electrical activity. Behavioral studies in humans suggest that the clock is sensitive not only to light but also to physical activity. Here, we examined the effect of physical activity on the brain's clock in the diurnal rodent, .

Stat3 Silencing Affects Circadian Clock Gene Expression and Lipopolysaccharide Response in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Cortex, and Glioblastoma Cell Cultures.

In mammals, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) serves as the central circadian pacemaker, regulating rhythms essential for physiological processes. STAT3, a transcription factor primarily involved in immune signaling, exhibits circadian rhythmicity in SCN astrocytes. This study examined the role of STAT3 in circadian regulation across several cell types, including primary cultures of rat SCN and cortex, SCN cells and organotypic SCN slices from PER2::LUC mice, and C6 glioblastoma cells.

Daily rhythm of rumination in the goat (Capra hircus) is not driven by feeding.

Rumination shows a nocturnal rhythmic pattern in day-active ruminants. Although feeding has been shown to quantitatively modulate rumination, it is not clear yet if feeding rhythm plays a causal role in rumination rhythm. The present study was carried out to determine whether the daily rhythm of rumination in goats under natural environmental conditions is food-dependent or not, and whether it is modulated by the season.

Interconnection between adolescents' and family members' sleep.

Deficient sleep has been linked to a broad range of physical, cognitive and mental health impacts, in particular during adolescence. It is thus essential to understand its underlying mechanisms, including family factors. The goal of our study was to assess through combined subjective and objective assessments, how family members' daily variations in sleep are interconnected, between parents and siblings of adolescents.

Sleep in the dromedary camel: features of the 'first night effect'.

The 'first night effect' (FNE) is a well-known phenomenon in polysomnographic (PSG) sleep studies, resulting in significant variations in the macrostructure of wakefulness and sleep states, particularly between the initial and subsequent sleep recording sessions. The FNE phenomenon during sleep has been studied in various species, revealing complex variations between several sessions of sleep recording. The present study used a non-invasive PSG method to examine differences between various vigilance states in four adult female dromedary camels during 4 consecutive nights and days of sleep recording.

Prefrontal cortex molecular clock modulates development of depression-like phenotype and rapid antidepressant response in mice.

Depression is associated with dysregulated circadian rhythms, but the role of intrinsic clocks in mood-controlling brain regions remains poorly understood. We found increased circadian negative loop and decreased positive clock regulators expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of a mouse model of depression, and a subsequent clock countermodulation by the rapid antidepressant ketamine. Selective Bmal1KO in CaMK2a excitatory neurons revealed that the functional mPFC clock is an essential factor for the development of a depression-like phenotype and ketamine effects.

Melatonin in energy control: Circadian time-giver and homeostatic monitor.

Melatonin is a neurohormone synthesized from dietary tryptophan in various organs, including the pineal gland and the retina. In the pineal gland, melatonin is produced at night under the control of the master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus. Under physiological conditions, the pineal gland seems to constitute the unique source of circulating melatonin.

Deletion of the Clock Gene Leads to Alterations in Hypothalamic Clocks, Circadian Regulation of Feeding, and Energy Balance.

BMAL2 (ARNTL2) is a paralog of BMAL1 that can form heterodimers with the other circadian factors CLOCK and NPAS2 to activate transcription of clock and clock-controlled genes. To assess a possible role of in the circadian regulation of metabolism, we investigated daily variations of energy metabolism, feeding behavior, and locomotor behavior, as well as ability to anticipate restricted food access in male mice knock-out for (B2KO). While their amount of food intake and locomotor activity were normal compared with wild-type mice, B2KO mice displayed increased adiposity (1.

Hypothalamic tanycytes as mediators of maternally programmed seasonal plasticity.

In mammals, maternal photoperiodic programming (MPP) provides a means whereby juvenile development can be matched to forthcoming seasonal environmental conditions. This phenomenon is driven by in utero effects of maternal melatonin on the production of thyrotropin (TSH) in the fetal pars tuberalis (PT) and consequent TSH receptor-mediated effects on tanycytes lining the 3 ventricle of the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH). Here we use LASER capture microdissection and transcriptomic profiling to show that TSH-dependent MPP controls the attributes of the ependymal region of the MBH in juvenile animals.

July 14th 2016 Nice Terrorist Attack Court Trial: A Protocol on Sleep Quality and Somatic Symptoms as Markers of Risk for Traumatic Reactivation in Adolescents Exposed to This Attack.

The court trial of the 14th of July 2016 terrorist attack in Nice (France) opened in September 2022 and ended in December 2022. Engaging in court proceedings, whether as a victim or a witness, can lead to a significant risk of traumatic reactivation (i.e.

CaMK1D signalling in AgRP neurons promotes ghrelin-mediated food intake.

Hypothalamic AgRP/NPY neurons are key players in the control of feeding behaviour. Ghrelin, a major orexigenic hormone, activates AgRP/NPY neurons to stimulate food intake and adiposity. However, cell-autonomous ghrelin-dependent signalling mechanisms in AgRP/NPY neurons remain poorly defined.

Reciprocal Interactions between Circadian Clocks, Food Intake, and Energy Metabolism.

Like other biological functions, food intake and energy metabolism display daily rhythms controlled by the circadian timing system that comprises a main circadian clock and numerous secondary clocks in the brain and peripheral tissues. Each secondary circadian clock delivers local temporal cues based on intracellular transcriptional and translational feedback loops that are tightly interconnected to intracellular nutrient-sensing pathways. Genetic impairment of molecular clocks and alteration in the rhythmic synchronizing cues, such as ambient light at night or mistimed meals, lead to circadian disruption that, in turn, negatively impacts metabolic health.

The Niemann-Pick type diseases - A synopsis of inborn errors in sphingolipid and cholesterol metabolism.

Disturbances of lipid homeostasis in cells provoke human diseases. The elucidation of the underlying mechanisms and the development of efficient therapies represent formidable challenges for biomedical research. Exemplary cases are two rare, autosomal recessive, and ultimately fatal lysosomal diseases historically named "Niemann-Pick" honoring the physicians, whose pioneering observations led to their discovery.

Circadian functioning of Locus Cœruleus of the nocturnal rat and diurnal rodent Arvicanthis.

The noradrenergic Locus Cœruleus is one of the major arousal structures involved in inducing wakefulness. While brain noradrenaline (NA) amounts display 24-h variations, the origin of NA rhythm is currently unknown. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that NA rhythm could result from its rhythmic synthesis.

Early skin-to-skin contact and risk of late-onset-sepsis in very and extremely preterm infants.

Background: To evaluate the association between exposure to early skin-to-skin contact (SSC) and incidence of late-onset sepsis (LOS) in extremely and very preterm infants.

Methods: Observational study using the national population-based EPIPAGE-2 cohort in 2011. A propensity score for SSC exposure was used to match infants with and without exposure to SSC before day 4 of life and binomial log regression used to estimate risk ratios and CIs in the matched cohort.

Melatonin Treatment for Pediatric Patients with Insomnia: Is There a Place for It?

Sleep is a vital physiological function that is impaired in ranges from 10% in the typically developing pediatric population to over 80% in populations of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and/or psychiatric comorbidities. Pediatric insomnia disorder is an increasing public health concern given its negative impact on synaptic plasticity involved in learning and memory consolidation but also on mood regulation, hormonal development and growth, and its significant impact on quality of life of the child, the adolescent and the family. While first-line treatment of pediatric insomnia should include parental education on sleep as well as sleep hygiene measures and behavioural treatment approaches, pharmacological interventions may be necessary if these strategies fail.

French Sleepiness Scale for Adolescents-8 items: A discriminant and diagnostic validation.

Unlabelled: The objective of the present study was to validate the Short Version of French Sleepiness Scale for Adolescents (FSSA) with eight items (FSSA8).

Methods: A total of 384 adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years, completed the FSSA8. These included 269 nonclinical adolescents and 115 adolescents admitted for overnight polysomnography and Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) because of suspected hypersomnia (85 patients with narcolepsy and 30 with other sleep disorders).

Conservative significance testing of tripartite statistical relations in multivariate neural data.

An important goal in systems neuroscience is to understand the structure of neuronal interactions, frequently approached by studying functional relations between recorded neuronal signals. Commonly used pairwise measures (e.g.

Beta-Galactosidase as a Transgenic Reporter for the Mapping and Phenotyping of MT and MT Melatonin Receptor-Expressing Cells.

Genetic technology allows inserting transgenic reporters such as beta-galactosidase (LacZ) into the loci of the Mtnr1a (MT) and Mtnr1b (MT) receptor genes to track MT and MT melatonin receptor expression. Given the limited sensitivity of nonradioactive in situ hybridization and the problematic specificity of existing melatonin receptor antibodies for immunohistochemistry, this new technology is a key tool to study the localization and the phenotypes of cells expressing melatonin receptors. Here we describe two protocols to detect transgenic LacZ expression driven by the MT or MT promoters either by the enzymatic activity of the transgenic LacZ enzyme or by using specific antibodies against LacZ with immunohistochemistry.

Nonradioactive In Situ Hybridization of MT1 Melatonin Receptor for the Identification of Melatonin Target Cells.

Identifying and phenotyping the target cells of a neuroendocrine messenger is one of the key steps to understand neuroendocrine networks and the physiological action of such messengers. In the absence of reliable antibodies directed against the receptor of a neuroendocrine messenger, detecting the expression of the messenger RNA of this receptor is an important tool to identify the target cells of a neuroendocrine messenger such as melatonin. While radioactive in situ hybridization has a higher sensitivity, nonradioactive in situ hybridization has a much better cellular resolution than radioactive in situ hybridization and is therefore better suited for phenotyping the target cells of melatonin.

Modulation of GABAergic Synaptic Transmission by NMDA Receptors in the Dorsal Horn of the Spinal Cord.

The dorsal horn (DH) of the spinal cord is an important structure involved in the integration of nociceptive messages. Plastic changes in the properties of neuronal networks in the DH underlie the development of analgesia as well as of hyperalgesia and allodynia in acute and chronic pain states. Two key mechanisms are involved in these chronic pain states: increased electrical activities and glutamate release leading to the recruitment of NMDAr and plastic changes in the synaptic inhibition.