Second, while use of a crossover design may have been preferable

Second, while use of a crossover design may have been preferable, with 4 intervention groups, we felt that use of this design would negatively impact on feasibility and increase the risk of participant dropout. We are satisfied that participants’ characteristics appear well balanced across the groups in our study. Thirdly, no catheter dislodgement events were recorded in our trial.

It is possible that features attributable to our model had a protective effect against catheter dislodgement, although this Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was indeed possible and occurred during pilot testing. In this context, it is notable that only 1/57 subjects in the clinical trial Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical performed by Stoner et al. experienced a catheter failure [9]. Finally, our trial protocol did not strictly adhere to ACCM guideline insofar as “patient” reassessments between each 20 mL/kg bolus are recommended [4]. In our experience, these reassessments often do not slow HCPs from administering fluid where ongoing resuscitation in required Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and such assessments are often done concurrently. Although our study was conducted in the non-clinical

setting, we had typical health care providers perform rapid fluid administration as they would under resuscitative conditions. The model incorporated an IV catheter and so resistance to fluid flow was as it would be in the clinical setting. Further, check details infants and children with decompensated shock, as in our clinical vignette are typically lethargic and so patient movement may not be all that dissimilar to

our model. We therefore believe that our findings can likely Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical be cautiously extrapolated to the clinical setting. Our conclusions, and any other optimizations to be made in rapid fluid resuscitation relate to statistically significant differences in the order of seconds to minutes. Therefore, ultimately demonstrating whether Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical improvements in pediatric fluid resuscitation performance have an impact on patient important outcomes like morbidity and mortality may be difficult. Nonetheless, observational studies have provided the basis for current goal-directed ACCM benchmarks, [16,17] and subsequent prospective CYTH4 studies have shown morbidity and mortality benefit with adherence to these [18,19]. Morbidity and mortality related to pediatric septic shock has dropped significantly in recent decades – owing in part to improved recognition and aggressive management, of which fluid resuscitation is currently considered a critical component [20,21]. While studies such as the FEAST trial [22] have begun to raise questions regarding the role and extent of fluid resuscitation in the treatment of septic shock, the purpose of our study was not to challenge current ACCM guidelines, for which support has recently been reaffirmed [23].

Mean doses were as follows: olanzapine 13 5 mg/d, risperidone 5 4

Mean doses were as follows: olanzapine 13.5 mg/d, risperidone 5.4 mg/d, and haloperidol 12.4 mg/d. After 6 months of treatment, improvement in EuroQol-VAS scores was significantly greater in olanzapine and risperidone-treated patients than in those receiving haloperidol. Gureje et al25 conducted a find more multicenter, 30-week, doubleblind study comparing the efficacy, safety, use of health care resources, level of functioning, and quality of life between olanzapine and risperidone. Sixty-five patients, either inpatients or outpatients, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizophreniform

disorder (DSM-IV criteria42) and scores on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) greater than 36 were randomized to receive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical olanzapine 10 to 20 mg/day (n=32) or risperidone 4 to 8 mg/day (n=33). Quality of life was assessed using the QLS35 and

the SF-36.45 A total of 29 patients (17 in the olanzapine group and 12 in the risperidone group) completed the study At the end of the 30 weeks, olanzapinetreated patients had statistically significant greater Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical improvement compared with the risperidone-treated patients in the QLS intrapsychic foundation subscale and in the SF-36 Role Emotional subscale. The olanzapinetreated group reported statistically significant improvement from baseline to end point in QLS total score, in all QLS subscales except the instrumental role, and in all SF36 scales but the role physical. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical For the risperidone-treated group statistically significant improvement was only achieved for the SF-36 bodily pain scale. Ritchie et al26 compared the impact on quality of life of a switch from conventional antipsychotics to risperidone or olanzapine in 66 elderly patients with schizophrenia Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (mean age 69.6 years). Quality of life was measured using the World Health Organization Quality of Life [Brief] scale (WHOQOL-BREF).49 Olanzapine-treated patients significantly improved from baseline in the WHOQOL-BREF physical, psychological, and health satisfaction domains, whereas Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical risperidone-treated patients did not

show significant improvements in any quality of life domain. Treatment with olanzapine was associated with a better response over risperidone on the psychological domain of the WHOQOL-BREF. The impact of switching from conventional to novel antipsychotic drugs on quality of life was also studied by Voruganti et al.27 One hundred and fifty schizophrenic Liothyronine Sodium or schizoaffective patients (DSM-IV42) considered suitable for a switch, based on inadequate control of symptoms, subjective reports of side effects, or clinicians’ concerns about the risk for adverse effects, were consecutively switched to risperidone (50 patients), olanzapine (50), and quetiapine (50). Patients were followed up for a period between 2 and 6 years. Quality of life was assessed by means of the QLS35 and the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP)modified version.

Moreover, clinical factors can be problematic, as they include th

Moreover, clinical factors can be problematic, as they include the confounding variable of placebo response, the issue of inadequate sample sizes, the study of different drug-response phenotypes and patient populations, as well as the use of continual versus categorical outcome measures. Two key elements are

needed to perform valid pharmacogenomic studies: explicit and consistent definition of drug-response phenotype and knowledge of polymorphic candidate genes with relevance to the mechanism of drug action. Nevertheless, the field of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics is expanding Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical rapidly, the development of new, fast, and cost-effective methods for the investigation of the individual genetic/genomic profile is under way, and the incorporation of novel research areas, such as pharmacoproteomics, will lead to better insights into LY2835219 cell line disease and treatment processes. The Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical identification of novel drug targets and the determination of patient subpopulations are ambitious methods that may help individualize pharmacological therapy in psychiatry. Selected abbreviations and acronyms ACE angiotensin-converting enzyme AD antidepressant BDNF

brain-derived neurotrophic factor cAMP cyclic adenosine monophosphate CYP cytochrome P-450 HPA hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (axis) 5-HTT serotonin transporter PM poor metabolizer Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical SNP single nucleotide polymorphism SSRI selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor Notes Some of the work reviewed in this article was supported by the German Federal Research Ministry within the promotional emphasis “Competence Nets in Medicine.
When speaking of mood disturbance or disorders, In the broad sense of chronic changes In emotions, one should recognize that all Intimate and relational events are bathed in emotions, such as sadness, happiness, or anger. Our perception of the world is not Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical emotionally neutral: it may taste bitter, it may be colored black, It may weigh a ton, or, on the contrary, it may have a rosy summery hue. These perceptual “tastes” can be broken down Into biological, behavioral,

and subjective components In which subjects express verbally how they experience their lives. Ethology―the science of behavior from a biological and psychological point of view―approaches mood disturbance along phylogenetlc lines and is based on observing the evolution of species. It then analyzes the ontogenesis of a given for mood disturbance In the growth of an Individual member of that species. Finally, it evaluates how the language competence of humans, by constructing a world of verbal representations, can lead to feelings of a lighter or, on the contrary, heavier “taste” of the world. Animal ontogenesis Mice with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome Interpret all Information as aggression, to which they respond by defensive aggression.

Moreover, participants’ ability to generate reports of patient hi

Moreover, participants’ ability to generate reports of patient www.selleckchem.com/products/Ispinesib-mesilate(SB-715992).html history and clinical data in an average of 42.9 and 54.8 seconds, respectively, represents an even more dramatic improvement over existing records systems. Staff members indicated that generating a comprehensive report of the clinical activities over the course of a Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical month or more using the existing paper registers could take up to 15 hours. Interestingly, although the average time needed to locate the appointment using DataPall was very similar in absolute terms between trained and untrained users, the difference in distribution between the two groups is statistically

significant at the p<0.01 level, indicating that training played a marginal but negative role on performance. We attribute this unexpected Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical result to the increased caution with which trained users approached the task; their increased knowledge of the program caused them to take additional precautions while using it. The mean SUS of 77.5 lies significantly above the widely accepted threshold of 70 for

a passable product [21]. Moreover, there was not a statistically significant difference between the ratings of trained and untrained users, indicating that training and/or experience with the system has little or no impact on usability assessments. The SUS did present some unique challenges for some Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical participants. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical While all participants spoke English, their native language, Chichewa, lacks grammatical qualifiers which limits the cultural relevancy of a Likert scale. Some participants questioned the difference between “agree” and “strongly agree” (and vice versa for disagree). However, the consistency of survey responses Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical indicates that the confusion did not significantly affect the results of the SUS. The absence of integration of palliative care with existing

health care systems in the majority of sub-Saharan African countries impels palliative care facilities to seek funding independently from donors and granters. However, lack of reliable quantitative statistics documenting the care provided severely curtails the competitiveness of such applications. Moreover, the difficulty associated with maintaining ADAMTS5 comprehensive records of care given by palliative care providers underlies the difficulty in developing an evidence base of clinical data for palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, extant paper records tend to be cumbersome to back-up. DataPall addresses these issues by allowing providers to track the care that they provide for patients and providing a straightforward way to back-up patient data to a computer and to a flash drive. The comprehensive reports generated about the activities of a unit can also assist researchers as they seek to build a stronger evidence base for palliative care in the region.

Such compounds have

been detected in the blood of rodents

Such compounds have

been detected in the blood of rodents exposed to the vapours of essentials oils. Jirovetz and colleagues demonstrated that serum levels of linalool and linalyl acetate in rats following lavender exposure were related to observed sedation [Jirovetz et al. 1990]. Kovar and colleagues assayed serum levels of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 1,8-cineole, and recorded PD173074 locomotor activity when rosemary oil was administered by inhalation or orally [Kovar et al. 1987]. The data showed that both the inhalation and oral administration of rosemary oil stimulated locomotor activity and that this was related to serum 1,8-cineole concentration. These findings cannot be explained by expectancy theory and suggest that more than simple stimulation of the olfactory organ is involved, with a direct pharmacological action on the central nervous system being implicated. In vitro neuropharmacological Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical research has also provided some interesting data that are pertinent here. Orhan

and colleagues reported that extracts of rosemary displayed significant inhibitory effects on both acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase enzymes [Orhan et al. 2008]. The authors go on to identify that the major active component of the essential oil is 1,8-cineole, a terpene Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that has previously been identified as possessing anti- AChE activity [Perry et al. 2000, 2003; Savelev et al. 2003]. Such activity is suggestive of potential cognitive impact and indeed underpins the pharmacological activity of a number of dementia treatments [Orhan et al. 2008]. However, it should be stressed that any activity might be a consequence of the synergistic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical combinations

of components present rather than a single compound. The possibility of such a pharmacological mechanism Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for rosemary aroma would provide supporting evidence to the concept that each individual aroma of an essential oil has its own unique pattern of influence on both cognition and mood as a result of the unique composition of volatile aromatic compounds. To investigate this further, the current study assayed else serum for 1,8-cineole and correlated this with cognitive performance under conditions of rosemary aroma exposure. Method Design The study used a correlational design to investigate a possible relationship between the plasma 1,8-cineole levels and cognitive performance and mood. Treatment was by way of exposure to the aroma of rosemary essential oil. Participants were randomly assigned to be exposed to the aroma in the cubicle for 4, 6, 8 or 10 min prior to completing the cognitive tests. This period was not kept constant so as to facilitate a range of levels of absorption of compounds to take place across the participant group.

Results: Analysis of covariance controlling for the effects of tr

Results: Analysis of covariance controlling for the effects of tricyclic antidepressant treatment (≥100 mg) and smoking habit showed that PSDEP had an increased concentration of plasma NE. The previously found correlation between plasma NE and AVP was still present after correcting for the effects of confounding variables. Conclusions: The results suggest an increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system in PSDEP that may act as a specific

mechanism for increased vasopressinergic activation. This supports the view of PSDEP as a distinct Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical subcategory of major depression. Keywords: norepinephrine, psychotic depression, smoking, tricyclic antidepressant, vasopressin Introduction This study on norepinephrine (NE) in psychotic depression (PSDEP) is part of a series of investigations within the same Selleck Caspase inhibitor patient sample that aimed to develop an improved differentiation of subcategories of depression, and to detect neurobiological markers of these subcategories and of depression at large. The neurobiological focus of these studies is on vasopressinergic mechanisms Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in depression [Goekoop et al. 2010] and its subcategories [Goekoop and Wiegant, 2009; Goekoop

et al. 2011]. The present study tests if PSDEP is characterized by a specifically high Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical noradrenergic activation next to the increased noradrenergic–vasopressinergic coupling, evidence of which has been found previously in a comparison with non-PSDEP [Goekoop et al. 2011]. We hypothesized the plasma concentration of NE to be increased as a mechanism associated with the positively correlating plasma vasopressin (AVP) and NE concentrations

in PSDEP [Goekoop et al. 2011]. The potential role of increased release of NE next to the increased NE–AVP correlation in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PSDEP may be seen Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in the context of the vasopressinergic mechanisms in animal models of depression [Aguilera et al. 2008; Landgraf, 2006] and noradrenergic mechanisms involved in the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. The role of NE in stimulating the HPA axis has been studied extensively [Al-Damluji, 1993]. In human subjects noradrenergic agents stimulate the release of adrenocorticotroph hormone (ACTH) via an α-1 receptor in the brain at the level of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl of the hypothalamus, and not at the peripheral level of the pituitary [Al-Damluji, 1993]. Though such noradrenergic stimulation of the PVN in rats and mice involves the synthesis of both corticotropin-releasing hormone [Day et al. 1999] and AVP in the parvocellular neurons [Vacher et al. 2002], the resulting release of ACTH depends particularly on the release of AVP [Al-Damluji, 1993]. We hypothesize that the increased noradrenergic activation suggested by the correlating plasma NE and AVP concentrations in PSDEP involves a centrally increased release of plasma NE. The correlation between central and plasma NE [Esler et al. 1995; Kelly and Cooper, 1997; Ziegler et al.

From the perspective of stress modeling, three important conseque

From the perspective of stress modeling, three important consequences of the temporal dimension should be taken into consideration: the time point of assessment of indicators of the stress, the duration of the stressful challenge, and the phenomenon of habituation. Systems involved in the organism’s response to stress have different activation latencies; accordingly, measurable end point changes occur at different intervals upon the challenge. Further, these systems act within physiological limits (described by, eg, synthetic and secretory

capacity, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical feedback regulation within the system, consistency with key vital functions, etc) and cannot indefinitely maintain a maximal

level of performance. Thus, changes in measurable end points vary depending Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical on the duration of the stimulus, its perceived homeostatic threat, and the efficacy of the individually selected coping strategy (see below), but also due to output readjustment or exhaustion of the involved system. Finally, repeated exposure to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical homotypic stressors has been shown to produce gradual decline in the magnitude of several, but not all, commonly used indices of physiological response to stress. The omnipresence of this phenomenon is debatable, though there may be controversy Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical based on species and paradigm differences. Habituation to repeated homotypic stress has a plausible teleological explanation: it is supposed to ensure the

ability of a system involved in stress response to discriminate and adequately meet novel incoming challenges. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Here, another important feature of the stress response, referred to as cross sensitization, should be mentioned. It has been recognized that, despite habituation to repeated homotypic challenge, stress responsive systems retain and, more importantly, even augment, their ability to react to challenges Casein kinase 1 of a different modality. Several substrates of this phenomenon have been identified,5 and its importance in the pathogenesis of stress related disorders is generally recognized.1,2,4 Experimental modeling of stress requires clear BIX 01294 clinical trial definition of the research objectives, and consideration of numerous factors that may modify individual aspects of the stress response. Investigation of the magnitude and temporal course of a particular stress responsive parameter to a single challenge of limited duration has substantial diagnostic value in several medical disciplines.

Several laboratories focusing on the superior temporal gyrus hav

Several laboratories focusing on the superior temporal gyrus have

reported volume decreases in schizophrenia and a correlation between the volume changes and clinical characteristics of the illness.61,62 The medial temporal cortex, including parahippocampal, entorhinal, and hippocampal cortex, is also reduced in size in schizophrenia. This size reduction is only of the order of 5%, but is consistent across laboratories and subject populations. Csernansky has gone on to identify hippocampal shape Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical irregularities in schizophrenia.63 Some laboratories note middle frontal cortical volume reductions in negative-symptom schizophrenia64 and volume alterations in the pulvinar Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical region of the posterior thalamus in persons with the illness.65 These alterations are thought to be in vivo reflections of regional cellular pathology in the illness. Brain function When functional techniques for studying human brain became available, they were quickly applied to schizophrenia. Ingvar66 was the first to note reduced prefrontal cortical blood flow Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in schizophrenia. Subsequent early studies8,64,67,68 served to focus scientific interest on the frontal

cortex; this was a great advantage to the scientists who later followed up these ideas. Subsequent functional imaging studies have noted an antipsychotic drug effect in prefrontal regions (reduced neuronal activity)69,70 and an influence of negative symptoms in prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex.8,71 Current imaging approaches in schizophrenia utilize both structural scanning and neurochemical (see Lamelle72 in this issue) and functional methodologies. The functional Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical approaches are based on advances

in the understanding of normal cognition also derived from functional imaging data. Since the introduction of functional imaging techniques over 20 years Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical ago, using either glucose metabolism or blood flow as the functional end points, several technical methodological principles have developed. Functional “stimulation” using either a psychological task or a centrally active drug adds an important parameter to such an examination. Drug effects, especially antipsychotic TCL compounds, are recognized as potentially informative in deciding on disease-related (compared with drug-related) differences between schizophrenia and normal test populations. Studies with this focus, in addition to functional increases in the basal ganglia, also noted alterations in delimited cerebral areas, especially reductions in metabolism or regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the frontal mTOR inhibitor cortex (anterior cingulate and middle frontal gyrus).73 Since the effect of psychological tasks on rCBF has been particularly informative in exploring normal brain function, hierarchical subtraction techniques are now being applied to schizophrenia.

Approximately 100 μg of peptide in complete Freund’s adjuvant (D

Approximately 100 μg of R406 in vivo peptide in complete Freund’s adjuvant (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, MI) was subcutaneously inoculated into two New Zealand white rabbits. The rabbits were boosted every two weeks and bled five to seven days after each boost. For affinity-purification of the collected antisera, the peptide (1 mg) was coupled to Affi-Gel 10 (1 mL; Bio-Rad Laboratories) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Antiserum (5–10 mL) was incubated with the peptide-resin overnight at 4°C. After washing with 0.5 M Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical MgCl2, bound antibodies were eluted with 4 M MgCl2 and dialyzed against PBS (pH 7.4). Antibody concentration was determined by absorbance at 280 nm using 1.38 as the extinction

coefficient. Construction Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of an expression plasmid for rat Gpnmb pCRNMB was digested with HindIII and EcoRV and treated with the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I. The resulting 1.9-kb fragment containing the entire protein-coding sequence of rat Gpnmb was ligated to XbaI-cleaved pEF-BOS (a generous gift

from Professor Nagata, Kyoto University, Japan; Mizushima and Nagata 1990) after treatment with the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I to yield an Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical expression plasmid, pEF-RNMB. Transfection and immunofluorescence staining COS-7 cells cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (Gibco-BRL, Grand Island, NY) containing 10% fetal calf serum in a 5% CO2 atmosphere were transfected with pEF-RNMB or pEF-BOS by the DEAE-dextran Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical method (Golub et al. 1989) and grown on poly-d-ornithine-coated glass coverslips. After two days, cells were washed with ice-cold PBS and sequentially incubated in (1) 2% paraformaldehyde (PFA) in 0.1 M phosphate buffer

(PB; pH 7.4) for 30 min on ice; (2) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PBS containing 0.3% Triton X-100 (PBS-T), three changes, 5 min each; (3) blocking solution (PBS-T containing 1% BSA and 1.5% normal goat serum) for 1 h at room temperature (RT); (4) affinity-purified anti-Gpnmb primary antibodies (0.3 μg/mL in the blocking solution) overnight at 4°C; (5) PBS-T, six changes, 5 min each; (6) fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (1:1000 in the blocking solution; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA) for 1 h at RT; and (7) PBS-T, six changes, 5 min each. Next, coverslips Dipeptidyl peptidase were mounted on glass slides with Vectashield (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA), sealed with nail polish and viewed under a epifluorescence microscope (IX71; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) using U-MNIBA3 (excitation, 470–495 nm; emission, 515–550 nm) and U-MWU2 (excitation, 330–385 nm; emission, 420 nm) filter cubes for visualization of FITC and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), respectively. Digital images were acquired using a computer-linked camera (DP71; Olympus). The obtained images were processed using Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA).

The 5-HT7 receptor is positively coupled to adenylyl cyclase, and

The 5-HT7 receptor is positively coupled to adenylyl cyclase, and thus the activation of cAMP In vivo, both handling and increased maternal LG result in an increased level of hippocampal cAMP concentrations

and the activation of PKA over the first week of postnatal life.76 Activation of PKA results in the tissue-specific induction of a number of transcription factors. The day6 AG-1478 cost offspring of high-LG mothers or pups of the same age exposed to handling show increased hippocampal expression of NGFIA (nerve growth factor-induced clone A, also known as zif-268, krox-24, egr-1, and zenk) (Weaver IGC et al, unpublished results).79 In vitro, 5-HT increases NGFIA expression in cultured hippocampal neurons and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the effect of 5-HT on GR expression in hippocampal cultures is completely Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical blocked by concurrent treatment with an oligonucleotide antisense directed at the NGFIA mRNA.80 The antisense is a synthetic strand of nucleotides that hybridizes with the native mRNA and prevents transcription of the NGFIA protein. These studies serve to identify a relevant Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical transcription factor and to link the activation of the transcription factor NGFIA to the activation of GR expression in response

to 5-HT. Maternal LG results in an increased expression of NGFIA, which in turn might then regulate GR expression. Other rodent models examining environmental regulation of hippocampal GR expression also suggest a correspondence between NGFIA levels and GR expression.81,82 In each case, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increased levels of NGFIA are associated with enhanced GR expression. However, the critical site for GR regulation remains to be defined. These findings provide a platform for the study of direct gene-environment interactions. However, the important missing piece is the identification of the relevant DNA target. We assumed that a potential target for regulation is the regulatory region of the GR gene. Regulatory regions contains

sequences that alter the activity Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the gene, such as promoters or suppressors, and are commonly found in front (or upstream) of the coding region of why the gene that actually produces the protein. We identified and characterized several new GR mRNAs cloned from rat hippocampus (Figure 2).83 All mRNAs encode a common protein, but differ in their 5 ‘-leader sequences presumably as a consequence of alternative splicing of, potentially, several different sequences from the 5′ noncoding exon 1 region of the GR gene. In this case, the variation in the mRNAs reflects the different promoters that are spliced onto the coding region during transcription to create diverse GR mRNAs. The promoter, while spliced onto the mRNA, does not alter the translational phase by which mRNA is “translated” into the amino acid sequence that defines the protein product.