RUI: Brain Mast Cells During Reproduction

RUI：繁殖过程中的脑肥大细胞

• 批准号: 9417557
• 负责人: Rae Silver
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Barnard College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-09-01 至 1996-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9417557&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Brain; Mast; Cells; During

The Small Grants for Exploratory Research is a mechanism at the National Science Foundation to provide support for small-scale, exploratory, high-risk research in all fields of science. Dr. Silver has found the appearance of non-neuronal cell types in the brain following specific behaviors associated with reproduction. She has presented evidence to suggest that this new population of cells are mast cells of the immune system. Dr. Silver and her students will now examine the appearance of putative mast cells by determining whether they are migrating into the brain in response to appropriate environmental and behavioral stimuli, or whether these cells preexist in the CNS but remain undetectable. She will also examine the influence of behavioral and endocrine state on this population of non-neuronal cells. To accomplish this aim, Dr. Silver and her students will determine whether there is a sexual dimorphism in the distribution and number of putative mast cells and define the role played by gonadal and pituitary hormones in this phenomenon. Finally, she will use state-of-the art anatomical techniques to characterize this population of cells as mast cells and determine whether they possess receptors for steroid and peptide hormones. This research is appropriate for the SGER competition since it will provide strong preliminary work on a novel and exciting idea which opens a completely new direction in the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology. The results could provide a new mechanism for peptide-hormone release in the brain as well as to establish an interrelationship between the immune and neural systems during normally occurring behaviors.

探索性研究小额资助是美国国家科学基金会的一项机制，旨在为所有科学领域的小规模、探索性、高风险研究提供支持。 西尔弗博士发现，在与生殖相关的特定行为之后，大脑中会出现非神经元细胞类型。她提出的证据表明，这种新的细胞群是免疫系统的肥大细胞。 西尔弗博士和她的学生现在将通过确定肥大细胞是否响应适当的环境和行为刺激而迁移到大脑中，或者这些细胞是否预先存在于中枢神经系统中但仍然无法检测到，来检查假定的肥大细胞的外观。她还将研究行为和内分泌状态对这群非神经元细胞的影响。 为了实现这一目标，西尔弗博士和她的学生将确定假定的肥大细胞的分布和数量是否存在性别二态性，并确定性腺和垂体激素在这种现象中所扮演的角色。 最后，她将使用最先进的解剖技术将这群细胞描述为肥大细胞，并确定它们是否拥有类固醇和肽激素的受体。 这项研究适合 SGER 竞赛，因为它将为一个新颖而令人兴奋的想法提供强有力的初步工作，从而在行为神经内分泌学领域开辟一个全新的方向。 这些结果可以为大脑中肽激素的释放提供一种新机制，并在正常发生的行为过程中建立免疫系统和神经系统之间的相互关系。