Brain cholinergic dysfunction occurs in the cerebral cortex, especially in the medial occipital cortex. It begins in early Parkinson disease, and is more widespread and profound in both Parkinson disease with dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Root hydraulic conductivity (Lpr) and aquaporin amounts change diurnally. Previously, these changes were considered to be spontaneously driven by a circadian rhythm. Here, we evaluated the new hypothesis that diurnal changes could be triggered and enhanced by transpirational demand from shoots. When rice plants were grown under a 12 h light/12 h dark regime, Lpr was low in the dark and high in the light period. Root aquaporin mRNA levels also changed diurnally, but the amplitudes differed among aquaporin isoforms. Aquaporins, such as OsPIP2;1, showed moderate changes, whereas root-specific aquaporins, such as OsPIP2;5, showed temporal and dramatic induction around 2 h after light initiation. When darkness was extended for 12 h after the usual dark period, no such induction was observed. Furthermore, plants under 100% relative humidity (RH) showed no induction even in the presence of light. These results suggest that transpirational demand triggers a dramatic increase in gene expressions such as OsPIP2;5. Immunocytochemistry showed that OsPIP2;5 accumulated on the proximal end of the endodermis and of the cell surface around xylem. The strong induction by transpirational demand and the polar localization suggest that OsPIP2;5 contributes to fine adjustment of radial water transport in roots to sustain high Lpr during the day.

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Multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) acts as a defense mechanism by pumping xenobiotics and endogenous metabolites out of the brain. The currently available techniques for studying brain-to-blood efflux have significant limitations related to either their invasiveness or the qualitative assessment. Here, we describe an in vivo method, which overcomes these limitations for assessing MRP1 function, using positron emission tomography (PET) and a PET probe. 6-Bromo-7-[ 11 C]methylpurine was designed to readily enter the brain after intravenous administration and to be efficiently converted to its glutathione conjugate (MRP1 substrate) in situ. Dynamic PET scan provided the brain time-activity curve after injection of 6-bromo-7-[11 C]methylpurine into mice. The efflux rate of the substrate was kinetically estimated to be 1.4 h À1 with high precision. Moreover, knockout of Mrp1 gene caused approximately a 90% reduction of the efflux rate, compared with wildtype mice. In conclusion, our method allows noninvasive and quantitative assessment for MRP1 function in the living brain.

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