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Query: UMLS:C0030193 (pain)
 261,466 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The synthesis of neurotransmitters in mammalian brain responds rapidly to changes in precursor availability. Serotonin synthesis depends largely on the brain concentrations of L-tryptophan, its precursor amino aicd. This relationship appears to be physiologic: when brain tryptophan levels vary because of insulin secretion or meal ingestion, corresponding alterations occur in the rate of serotonin formation. The ability of any food to modify brain tryptophan (and serotonin) depends on how its ingestion changes the serum concentration of not only tryptophan, but also several other large neutral amino acids that compete with tryptophan for uptake into the brain. Such precursor-induced changes in brain serotonin appear to be functionally important: animals having a reduced level of brain serotonin (caused by the chronic ingestion of a naturally tryptophan-poor diet, such as corn) demonstrate a heightened sensitivity to painful stimuli; this pain sensitivity can be acutely restored to normal values by a single injection of L-tryptophan, which rapidly elevates brain serotonin. The synthesis of catecholamines (e.g., dopamine, norepinephrine) in the brain also varies with the availability of the precursor amino acid L-tyrosine. Single injections of this amino acid increase brain tyrosine levels and accelerate brain catechol synthesis, while injections of a competing neutral amino acid (e.g., leucine, tryptophan) reduce brain tyrosine and its rate of conversion to dopa. The rate of catecholamine synthesis, however, appears to be influenced less by precursor levels than is serotonin formation: tyrosine hydroxylase, whcih catalyzes the rate-limiting step in catecholamine synthesis, responds strongly to end-product inhibition and to other controls that reflect variations in neuronal activity. The synthesis of acetylcholine in brain responds to substrate (choline) availability much like serotonin synthesis. Short-term alterations in brain choline levels are mirrored by similar changes in brain acetylcholine concentration. Variations in the daily dietary intake of choline also modify brain choline and acetylcholine. The relationship between choline availability and acetylchyoline synthesis has already foudn a cletween choline availability and acetylchyoline synthesis has already found a clinical application: choline has been used successfully in the treatment of tardive dyskinesia, a disorder of the central nervous system thought to reflect a deficiency in cholinergic transmission. These relationships between precursor availability from the periphery and brain neurotransmitter synthesis may ultimately provide the brain with information about peripheral metabolic state.
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PMID:Effects on the diet on brain neurotransmitters. 1 61

In the rat, oxotremorine increases the threshold for vocalisation after-discharge (affective component of pain reactions) dose dependently at subtremor doses (30-67 mug/kg s.c.). Doses of 225-506 mug/kg were needed to elevate the thresholds for vocalisation and motor response. 1-Tryptophan, PCPA, alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine, 1-Dopa, pimozide and LSD-25 did not affect the antinociceptive activity of oxotremorine, while phenocybenzamine slightly increased the threshold for vocalisation. Oxotremorine did not change the endogenous brain concentrations of noradrenaline and dopamine or 5-HT but decreased that of 5-HIAA in all brain regions at the time of maximal analgesia. The decrease of 5-HIAA was still present after pretreatment with probenecid. After inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase, oxotremorine accelerated the depletion of dopamine in telencephalic cortex during maximal antinociceptive activity and of noradrenaline in all brain regions at a time when this activity had vanished. Atropine significantly antagonized the analgesic activity of oxotremorine. It is concluded that oxotremorine antinociceptive activity in the rat is related to a cholinergic compoent, while a monoaminergic component is not directly involved.
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PMID:Antinociceptive action of oxotremorine and regional turnover of rat brain noradrenaline, dopamine and 5-HT. 23 55

We sought to identify characteristics of peptidergic innervation that altered in patients with chronic pancreatitis. Pancreatic tissue removed from patients with chronic pancreatitis was analyzed by immunohistochemistry using antisera against neuropeptide Y, tyrosine hydroxylase, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, peptide histidine isoleucine, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and substance P, respectively. In accordance with recent findings, the number and diameter of intralobular and interlobular nerve bundles were found to be increased as compared with control pancreas from organ donors. The striking change in the peptidergic innervation pattern in chronic pancreatitis concerned these altered nerves. It consisted of an intensification of the immunostaining for calcitonin gene-related peptide and substance P in numerous fibers contained in these nerves. Adjacent sections showed that immunoreactive substance P and immunoreactive calcitonin gene-related peptide coexisted in these fibers. Because both of these peptides are generally regarded as pain transmitter candidates, our findings provide further evidence that changes in pancreatic nerves themselves might be responsible for the long-lasting pain syndrome in chronic pancreatitis.
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PMID:Changes in peptidergic innervation in chronic pancreatitis. 137 38

The present study shows that during the time course of the action of single doses, L-dopa induces multiphasic opposing effects on pain, recorded as vocalization during the presentation of electrical stimulation applied to the tail of normal rats. This indicates that two or more functional systems contribute to produce the net response. A small dose (15 mg/kg) of L-dopa facilitates pain slightly, whereas larger doses (100-200 mg/kg) can produce an antinociceptive effect following an initial hyperalgesia. Moreover, profound hyperalgesia is revealed by either dopamine (DA) D1 and D2 receptor blockade by means of SCH 23390 [R-(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetra-hydro-1H- 3-benzazepine hydrochloride] or (-)-sulpiride, respectively, as well as after a reduction of the presynaptic synthesis of catecholamines after pretreatment of the animals with the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor alpha-methyl-DL-p-tyrosine (alpha-MPT). The enhancement of L-dopa's hyperalgesic effect after SCH 23390 treatment is maximal already at the onset of the effects, whereas (-)-sulpiride or alpha-methyl-DL-p-tyrosine precipitates the hyperalgesia after a certain temporal delay during defined phases of the time course of the effects of large L-dopa doses. The D1 receptor agonist (+)-SKF 38393 potentiates both the hyperalgesic and antinociceptive effects of 100 mg/kg of L-dopa. It is suggested that L-dopa's net effect on pain is modulated from concentration-dependent, opposing effector systems involving both DA stimulatory and inhibitory receptor mechanisms. At high dosing, activation of D2 receptors enhancing DA functional activity produces an antinociceptive response that normally outweighs the hyperalgesia, but this effect becomes dissociable with inhibition of central DA activity.
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PMID:L-dopa induces opposing effects on pain in intact rats: (-)-sulpiride, SCH 23390 or alpha-methyl-DL-p-tyrosine methylester hydrochloride reveals profound hyperalgesia in large antinociceptive doses. 143 83

Light microscopic immunohistochemistry was employed to elucidate and compare the presence, distribution, and coexistence of various peptides, neuroendocrine markers and enzymes of the catecholamine pathway in nerves supplying lymphoid tissues in a variety of mammalian species. All lymphoid organs and tissues receive innervation by fibers containing dopamine-beta-hydroxylase and/or tyrosine hydroxylase, neural markers like protein gene product 9.5, synaptophysin and neurofilament and a varied spectrum of peptides. The prominent peptides were tachykinins (substance P, neurokinin A), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide/peptide histidine isoleucine (VIP/PHI). Opioid innervation was variable. Double immunofluorescence revealed coexistence of tachykinins and CGRP and of tyrosine hydroxylase and NPY. A minor proportion of fibers showed coexistence of NPY and tachykinins and of VIP/PHI and tachykinins. The possible importance of the complex peptidergic innervation of lymphoid tissues in inflammation, allergy, inflammatory pain and psycho-neuro-immuno-endocrine network function is discussed. A special immunomodulatory role of the sensory neurons is suggested.
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PMID:Molecular anatomy of the neuro-immune connection. 177 30

In the present study, a significant increase in pain threshold (current to elicit vocalization to tail shock) was found 15 and 60 min after injection of dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db cAMP) (30 micrograms) into the lateral ventricle in rats bearing a transplant of fetal adrenal medulla (AM). By contrast, no effect on pain threshold was observed in rats bearing an AM transplant but receiving no db cAMP, or in rats receiving db cAMP but not bearing an AM transplant. In primary cultures of rat fetal chromaffin cells, db cAMP increased the number of neuron-like cells that showed both vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)- and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-like immunoreactivity. These findings indicate that db cAMP exerts a pharmacological modulation of the functional activity (i.e. elevation in pain thresholds) of fetal adrenal AM transplants, and induces phenotypic changes in cultured chromaffin cells with expression of a peptide that elevates pain threshold.
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PMID:Dibutyryl cAMP stimulates analgesia in rats bearing a ventricular adrenal medulla transplant. 196 2

We have localized neurotensin (NT) with immunocytochemical methods in the normal human cerebral cortex. Extensive areas of the frontal cortex, the hippocampal formation, and selected areas of the parietal, temporal and occipital lobes, were examined using post-mortem brain tissue. The peptidergic innervation was characteristically restricted to the limbic belt and to the dorsally contiguous regions. NT-labeled perikarya were found throughout the subiculum, including its dorsal supra-callosal continuation. NT terminal plexuses were particularly abundant in layers I-VI of the anterior cingulate cortex, in layer I of area 32 and of medical areas 9, 8, 6 and in layers II-III of area 29, of the presubiculum and entorhinal cortex. Elsewhere, NT fibers were scarce being more frequent in layer I. This regional and laminar pattern differed significantly from that of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), which was used to label catecholaminergic axons, and preferentially the dopaminergic ones. Even in zones where TH and NT innervations were abundant, such as the anterior cingulate cortex or area 32, double-labeling procedures disclosed no colocalized fibers. The lack of NT-TH colocalization in human, contrasts with previous findings in the rodent cortex, where a contingent of the DA cortical afferents contains NT. The DA mesocortical neuronal population, labeled by TH antisera, thus seems to change its chemical phenotype, by losing the expression of an associated peptidergic neurotransmitter; this could be related to the predominant extension in the ascent of the phylogenetic scale of the non-colocalized, type of cortical DA innervation which is also found in rodents. The possible origins of the cortical, non-dopaminergic NT innervation in human are discussed: thalamo-cortical, subiculo-cortical or intrinsic. Such cortical NT innervation could be very important in limbic circuitry as a regulatory peptide in affective processes and could be involved in the physiology of pain and memory.
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PMID:Neurotensin innervation of the human cerebral cortex: lack of colocalization with catecholamines. 226 53

The effect of the local anesthetics, tetracaine and bupivacaine, on monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity of rat brain and on the major steps of catecholamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) turnover was examined. The IC50 of tetracaine for MAO-A and MAO-B inhibition was 1.2 microM and 19.5 microM, respectively. Up to 2.5 mM bupivacaine was without effect on either form of MAO. None of the following activities in rat brain or adrenal medulla were inhibited by 5-2500 microM of tetracaine or bupivacaine: catecholamine-O-methyltransferase, tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine-beta-hydroxylase. Tetracaine caused only a moderately potent inhibition of synaptosomal uptake of norepinephrine (NE) (IC50 14 microM), dopamine (IC50 37 microM) and 5-HT (IC50 45 microM). The potent and specific MAO inhibition by tetracaine, in association with an impaired uptake of synaptosomal amines, may lead to an increase in the synaptosomal content of neurotransmitter amines, such as 5-HT and NE, with possible antinociceptive consequences.
Pain 1987 May
PMID:Differential effect of tetracaine and bupivacaine on catecholamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine turnover. 361 61

The behavioural and physiological consequences of social status and reciprocal fighting in resident-intruder dyads of Long Evans male rats were evaluated. Before a chronic cohabitation of 10 days, residents and intruders were individually housed for one month to increase their aggressiveness. Control animals included isolates, i.e., animals kept individually housed throughout the experiment and pair-housed rats, i.e., pairs of rats housed together from their rats in the laboratory. In 19 out of 20 dyads, a clear dominance relationship developed with an advantage to the resident in 68% of the cases. Dominants showed more exploratory activity than subordinates in a open-field test at the end of the cohabitation period; subordinates groomed longer than animals from other experimental groups. Dominants had lower pain thresholds than individually and pair-housed animals. Both dominants and subordinates had higher tyrosine hydroxylase enzymatic activities in the left adrenal than isolated and pair-housed rats. Subordinates lost body weight and had higher plasma corticosteroid concentrations than animals from the other experimental groups. In addition, they had smaller thymus glands and reduced spleen lymphocyte responses to mitogenic stimulation in vitro, in comparison to dominant animals. These results show that subordination in the dyadic resident-intruder paradigm leads to a complex syndrome of behavioural and physiological changes, some of which may be modulated by the intensity of aggressive interactions.
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PMID:Behavioural, physiological and immunological consequences of social status and aggression in chronically coexisting resident-intruder dyads of male rats. 396 Sep 94

Under systemic administration tuftsin produces a marked influence on behavior and emotional reactivity in rats: enhances motor (vertical) activity, perception of pain stimulation and related aggressiveness and residual excitation. Activating effect is accompanied by an aggravation of the acquisition of passive avoidance reaction during single reinforcement. In vitro experiments revealed a direct inhibitory effect of tuftsin on the reaction rate of brain tyrosine hydroxylase activity. In vivo there was shown an increase in hypothalamic and especially striatal tyrosine hydroxylase activity. The data obtained indicate direct relationships between tuftsin central effects and the changes in brain catecholaminergic processes participating in the regulation of emotional-motivational and motor reactions.
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PMID:[Central effects of the tetrapeptide tuftsin]. 611 37


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