2013 - Strategic Project

Funder

Organizational Unit

Publications

Nitric Oxide Regulates Neurogenesis in the Hippocampus following Seizures

Publication . Carreira, Bruno P.; Santos, Daniela F.; Santos, Ana Isabel; Carvalho, Caetana M.; Araújo, Inês

Hippocampal neurogenesis is changed by brain injury. When neuroinflammation accompanies injury, activation of resident microglial cells promotes the release of inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species like nitric oxide (NO). In these conditions, NO promotes proliferation of neural stem cells (NSC) in the hippocampus. However, little is known about the role of NO in the survival and differentiation of newborn cells in the injured dentate gyrus. Here we investigated the role of NO following seizures in the regulation of proliferation, migration, differentiation, and survival of NSC in the hippocampus using the kainic acid (KA) induced seizuremouse model. We show that NO increased the proliferation of NSC and the number of neuroblasts following seizures but was detrimental to the survival of newborn neurons. NO was also required for the maintenance of long-term neuroinflammation. Taken together, our data show that NO positively contributes to the initial stages of neurogenesis following seizures but compromises survival of newborn neurons.

2015Journal article

Open access

Ligand size polydispersity effect on SSCP signal interpretation

Publication . Rocha, Luciana S.; Botero, Wander G.; Alves, Nuno G.; Moreira, José; Costa, Ana M. Rosa da; Pinheiro, J. P.

The present study aims to establish unambiguously the conditions required for the validity of the average diffusion (D) approximation in fully labile systems with significant ligand size polydispersity. The average diffusion coefficient is a key parameter in mass transfer that affects signal interpretation in dynamic electroanalytical techniques. To achieve this goal, the binding of Cd(II) and Pb(II) to binary and ternary mixtures containing chemically homogenous (PSS)n-COOH polymers (ligand excess conditions were required) of different sizes (4, 10 and 30 KDa) was evaluated. It was experimentally evidenced that the average diffusion coefficient (D), can indeed be computed as the weighted average of several metal-polymer complexes of diverse sizes.

2015Journal article

Restricted access