Sandwich organization of non-ionic surfactant liquid crystalline phases as induced by large inorganic K4Nb6O17 nanosheets.

While retaining its lamellar liquid crystal phase, K4Nb6O17 nanosheets were used as a template to sandwich and stabilize an alkylpoly(ethylene oxide) nonionic surfactant-water system showing monodomain (lamella) formation within the inorganic niobate sheets that appears to be not dependent on the surfactant liquid crystalline state in solution but more its concentration.

[Propofol-fentanyl anesthesia for a 13-year-old patient with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome].

We report anesthetic management of a 13-year-old boy with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome for urethral fistulectomy using propofol-fentanyl anesthesia. The syndrome has three major symptoms; exomphalos, macroglossia and gigantism. Other complications including neonatal hypoglycemia, visceromegaly, metabolic disorders, malignant tumors, and cardiovascular abnormalities may also be seen. This patient was complicated with gigantism, exomphalos, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, hepatoblastoma, accessory mammae, and left axis deviation with left anterior fascicular block. A comprehensive preoperative examination should include assessment of the airway, cardiovascular conditions, endocrine status, blood glucose, and electrolytes. In this patient, airway management was easy by laryngeal mask airway and the anesthetic course was uneventful.

Enhancement of dopamine release from striatal slices of rats that were subchronically treated with methamphetamine.

The effect of dopamine (DA) uptake inhibitors (methamphetamine, nomifensine, and phenylethylamine) on the release of endogenous DA from striatal slices of rats pretreated with methamphetamine (6 mg/kg/day for 9 days) was investigated. The exposure of methamphetamine-pretreated rat striatal slices to a low concentration (10(-7) M, 5 X 10(-7) M) of methamphetamine caused a greater increase in DA efflux than that of saline-treated rat striatal slices. The drug-treated rats displayed an enhanced stereotyped behavioral response to a small dose of methamphetamine (1 mg/kg). Removal of Ca2+ from the superfusion medium did not affect the difference in the rates of methamphetamine (10(-7) M) induced DA release between methamphetamine-treated and saline-treated rat striatal slices. Nomifensine- and phenylethylamine-induced DA release from striatal slices was also enhanced by repeated administration of methamphetamine. On the other hand, there was no difference in K+-induced DA release between the two groups. Moreover, repeated administration of methamphetamine caused a significant increase in 3H-dopamine uptake in rat striatal synaptosomes. These results suggest that the behavioral sensitization produced by the repeated administration of methamphetamine is accompanied by an enhancement in the release of DA induced by methamphetamine, nomifensine, and phenylethylamine in vitro and is also accompanied by increased DA uptake into striatal synaptosomes.

The short- and long-term effects of haloperidol on rat central dopamine turnover.

We carried out a quantitative fluorescent histochemical analysis in rats in order to clarify the effects of chronic treatment with haloperidol on the central dopamine turnover. Long-term treatment with haloperidol showed no significant reduction of dopamine fluorescence intensities in the n. caudatus putamen, the n. accumbens, and the tuberculum olfactorium. This suggests that tolerance is established after long-term treatment with haloperidol in both mesolimbic and nigrostriatal dopamine systems, whereas tolerance is not observed in the tuberoinfundibular dopamine system.