The studies in this thesis are directed towards defining the signaling mechanisms that regulate astrogliosis after SCI and towards developing potential therapeutic techniques for modifying this process. The central hypothesis is that alteration of the extracellular milieu after SCI can limit the deleterious effects of glial scar formation and enhance...
A comprehensive understanding of human memory requires both cognitive and neural descriptions of memory processes along with a conception of how memory processing drives behavioral responses and subjective experiences. Noninvasive neuroimaging techniques have greatly extended our understanding of the functional characteristics of human memory, and how neural events give rise...
The primary function of the human urinary bladder is to store urine, while maintaining a permeability barrier that protects underlying tissues from noxious urinary components. Inflammatory diseases of the bladder, including urinary tract infection (UTI) and interstitial cystitis (IC), afflict millions of patients in the US annually and cause significant...
CD4-positive T cells express ligands for E- and P-selectins, carbohydrate-binding adhesion molecules that are induced on inflamed endothelium. The interaction between selectins and the selectin ligands facilitates the migration of T cells to sites of inflammation. The fucosyltransferase FucT-VII is essential for selectin ligand formation but the signaling and transcriptional...
The formation of neuronal inclusions is one of the hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases. These structures are composed of aggregated proteins, molecular chaperones, and components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Co-localization of aggregated proteins with cell-homeostasis maintaining machinery indicates that the cell may be failing in an attempt to clear these...
The goal of this study was to investigate the properties of the retinal ganglion cell receptive field at low light levels. There has been considerable interest in whether the surround of a ganglion cell receptive field disappears and the center expands in size under scotopic conditions. The previous data from...
In the process of development of a multicellular organism, cells must make stable, binary fate decisions in response to intercellular signaling. A critical question is how weak or transient activation of signaling pathways achieves a robust and long-term switch in gene expression, and thus determines cell fate. I report that...
Short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are both processed from longer, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) presursors by a member of the Dicer (Dcr) family of proteins. siRNAs generally arise from perfectly base-paired dsRNAs, whereas miRNAs are excised from 60-70 nt pre-miRNA hairpins containing multiple bulges and mismatches within the duplexed...
Pain normally subserves a vital role in the survival of the organism by prompting the avoidance of situations associated with tissue damage. However, the sensation of pain can become dissociated from its normal physiological role when the pain-sensing nervous system becomes hypersensitive, a condition known as neuropathic pain. Currently available...
Previous research has shown that creative insight problem-solving is distinct from systematic analytical problem-solving. Behaviorally, a positive mood has shown to facilitate insights but without knowing the processes that are fundamental to insight, the mechanisms as to how a positive mood facilitates insights have remained unspecified. Here, we investigate the...