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Ionotropic glutamate receptors of amacrine cells of the mouse retina
- OLIVIA N. DUMITRESCU, DARIO A. PROTTI, SRIPARNA MAJUMDAR, HANNS ULRICH ZEILHOFER, HEINZ WÄSSLE
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- Journal:
- Visual Neuroscience / Volume 23 / Issue 1 / January 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 March 2006, pp. 79-90
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- Article
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The mammalian retina contains approximately 30 different morphological types of amacrine cells, receiving glutamatergic input from bipolar cells. In this study, we combined electrophysiological and pharmacological techniques in order to study the glutamate receptors expressed by different types of amacrine cells. Whole-cell currents were recorded from amacrine cells in vertical slices of the mouse retina. During the recordings the cells were filled with Lucifer Yellow/Neurobiotin allowing classification as wide-field or narrow-field amacrine cells. Amacrine cell recordings were also carried out in a transgenic mouse line whose glycinergic amacrine cells express enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Agonist-induced currents were elicited by exogenous application of NMDA, AMPA, and kainate (KA) while holding cells at −75 mV. Using a variety of specific agonists and antagonists (NBQX, AP5, cyclothiazide, GYKI 52466, GYKI 53655, SYM 2081) responses mediated by AMPA, KA, and NMDA receptors could be dissected. All cells (n = 300) showed prominent responses to non-NMDA agonists. Some cells expressed AMPA receptors exclusively and some cells expressed KA receptors exclusively. In the majority of cells both receptor types could be identified. NMDA receptors were observed in about 75% of the wide-field amacrine cells and in less than half of the narrow-field amacrine cells. Our results confirm that different amacrine cell types express distinct sets of ionotropic glutamate receptors, which may be critical in conferring their unique temporal responses to this diverse neuronal class.
10 - Nonopioid analgesics
- from SECTION III - PHARMACOLOGICAL TREATMENT
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- By Burkhard Hinz, Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer, Kay Brune, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
- Edited by Eduardo D. Bruera, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Russell K. Portenoy
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- Book:
- Cancer Pain
- Published online:
- 08 October 2009
- Print publication:
- 23 June 2003, pp 171-187
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- Chapter
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Summary
History of antipyretic analgesics
Fever was the cardinal symptom of disease in the hippocratic medicine. It was assumed to result from an imbalance of body fluids. Therefore, it was the aim of Hippocratic medicine to correct the balances of fluids by either bloodletting, purgation, sweating, or, above all, administering drugs that normalized body temperature. The leading compound in the 18th and 19th centuries for that purpose was quinine, which became scarce in continental Europe during and after the Napoleonic wars as a result of the continental blockade. The emerging synthetic chemistry and drug industry concentrated on producing chemical analogs of quinine and its derivative quinoline as substitutes of the natural products. Moreover, pharmaceutical chemists attempted to isolate substances with similar antipyretic activity from other plants. The results of these efforts were the three prototypes of antipyretic non-opioid analgesic drugs still in use. On the basis of the work of Piria in Italy, Kolbe synthesized salicylic acid as an antipyretic agent in 1859. In 1897, salicylic acid was acetylated by Hoffmann to form aspirin. In 1882, Knorr and Filehne in Erlangen synthesized and tested the non-acidic agent phenazone (antipyrine), which proved to be effective in the clinic. Phenazone was the first pure synthetic drug worldwide. Its introduction as an antipyretic and later as an analgesic led to the discovery of various phenazone derivatives that are still used every year in ton quantities. Almost at the same time, Cahn and Hepp in Strasbourg found that acetanilide may also reduce fever. Acetanilide was introduced as antifebrin, but was later replaced by phenacetin and finally by paracetamol (acetaminophen), which is believed to be safer.