Recent research using post-mortem brains showed that the superior occipitofrontal fasciculus (SOFF) fibers extended to the thalamus. We postulated that the SOFF has some relationship with the anatomical structural components

of the thalamo-prefrontal circuitry. We quantitatively assessed the diffusion abnormalities of the SOFF using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) in schizophrenia. Nineteen male patients with schizophrenia and 20 age-matched selleck compound normal controls were studied. DTT of the SOFF (DTT-SOFF) was visualized using free software (dTV II/VOLUME-ONE), and we performed tract-specific measurement of the fractional anisotropy (FA), then calculated the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the DTT-SOFF Tractography and tract-specific analysis of the SOFF were successfully performed in all subjects. All tracts appeared to be connecting the prefrontal area to the thalamus. The mean FA value of patients with schizophrenia [0.376 (S.D. 0.030)] was significantly lower than that of PF-6463922 controls [0.432 (S.D. 0.032)], and the ADC value of patients with schizophrenia [0.771 (x 10(-3) mm(2)/S) (S.D.

0.041)] was significantly higher than that of controls [0.726 (x 10(-3) mm(2)/s) (S.D. 0.027)]. Our results suggest that the so-called SOFF may be a structural component connecting the prefrontal area to the thalamus and that it is deteriorated in schizophrenia. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All fights reserved.”
“Borna disease virus (BDV), a nonsegmented, negative- strand RNA virus, infects a wide variety of mammalian species and readily establishes a long- lasting, persistent infection in brain cells. Therefore, this virus could be a promising candidate as a novel RNA virus vector enabling stable gene expression in the central nervous system (CNS). Previous studies demonstrated that the 5′ untranslated region of the genome is the only site for insertion and expression of a foreign gene. In this study, we established a novel BDV vector in which an additional

transcription cassette has been inserted into an intercistronic noncoding region between www.selleck.co.jp/products/s-gsk1349572.html the viral phosphoprotein (P) and matrix (M) genes. The recombinant BDV (rBDV) carrying green fluorescent protein (GFP) between the P and M genes, rBDV P/ M- GFP, expressed GFP efficiently in cultured cells and rodent brains for a long period of time without attenuation. Furthermore, we generated a nonpropagating rBDV, Delta GLLP/M, which lacks the envelope glycoprotein (G) and a splicing intron within the polymerase gene (L), by the transcomplementation system with either transient or stable expression of the G gene. Interestingly, rBDV Delta GLLP/M established a persistent infection in cultured cells with stable expression of GFP in the absence of the expression of G.