Muscimol is a GABA A -agonist that causes rapid and reversible suppression of neurophysiological activity. Interpretations of the effects of muscimol infusions into the brain have been limited because of uncertainty about spread of the drug around the injection site. To solve this problem, the present study explored the use of a fluorophore-conjugated muscimol molecule (FCM). Whole-cell recordings from horizontal brain slices demonstrated that bath-applied FCM acts like muscimol in reversibly suppressing excitatory synaptic transmission. Two types of in vivo experiments demonstrated that the behavioral effects of FCM infusion are similar to the behavioral effects of muscimol infusion. FCM infusion into the rat amygdala before fear conditioning impaired both cued and contextual freezing, which were tested 24 or 48 hr later. Normal fear conditioning occurred when these same rats were subsequently given phosphate buffered saline infusions. FCM infusion into the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex impaired accuracy during a delayed-response task. Histological analysis showed that the region of fluorescence was restricted to 0.5 to 1 mm from the injection site. Myelinated fiber tracts acted as diffusional barriers, thereby shaping the overall spread of fluorescence. The results suggest that FCM is indeed useful for exploring the function of small brain regions. KeywordsGABA A ; Agonist; lesions; fear conditioning; amygdala; prefrontal cortex IntroductionReversible inactivations of small volumes of brain tissue have been used to explore fundamental questions in behavioral and systems neuroscience (Majchrzak and Di Scala, Address correspondence to: Thomas H. Brown, Dept. of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Ave,. New Haven, CT 06520, email: thomas.brown@yale.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. 2000). Reversible inactivations are an important alternative to permanent brain lesions (Jarrard, 2002) in assessing structure-function relationships. The obvious advantage is that reversible brain inactivations allow within-subjects designs. One common disadvantage is that this method typically leaves considerable uncertainty about the size and shape of the volume of the drug-infused tissue. NIH Public AccessMuscimol, a GABA A -agonist (Beaumont et al., 1978), is commonly and productively used for reversible inactivations (Lomber, 1999;Martin and Ghez, 1999;Krupa and Thompson, 1997). However, the spatial extent of a muscimol infusion is indeterminate without the use a radioactive tracer ([ 3 H]muscimol;Martin, 1991;Edeline et al., 2002). Indirect estimates abou...

The short-term results of the current study suggest that LAG with D2 lymph node dissection is a safe and feasible procedure in treating patients with locally AGC in experienced centers.

Background Laparoscopically assisted gastric surgery has become an option for the treatment of early gastric cancer. However, the feasibility and safety of laparoscopically assisted gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer has rarely been studied. This study evaluated the short-and long-term outcomes of laparoscopically assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for advanced gastric cancer. Methods The study retrospectively analyzed the clinical and follow-up data for 346 cases after LADG and for 313 cases after conventional open distal gastrectomy (ODG) used to treat advanced gastric cancer from January 2004 to June 2009 at the authors' hospital. The surgical safety, postoperative complications, survival rate, and recurrence and metastasis of cancer were compared between the LADG and ODG groups. Results The average time for the LADG and ODG procedures did not differ significantly (211 ± 56 vs 204 ± 41 min), but bleeding during the operation and incision length in the LADG group were significantly less than in the ODG group. The proximal and distal margins of tumors were, respectively, 6.25 ± 2.04 and 5.68 ± 1.71 cm in the LADG group compared with 6.29 ± 2.11 and 5.62 ± 1.59 cm in the ODG group. Neither intergroup difference was significant. The number of lymph node dissections also was similar in the two groups: 33.2 ± 12.5 in the LADG group and 32.8 ± 15.6 in the ODG group. The incidence of postoperative complications in the LADG group (6.7%) was significantly lower than in the ODG group (13.1%). During the follow-up period of 6 to 72 months (average, 37 months), the survival rates were 87.2% at 1 year, 57.2% at 3 years, and 50.30% at 5 years in the LADG group compared with 87.1% at 1 year, 54.1% at 3 years, and 49.2% at 5 years in the ODG group (all similar between the groups). The differences in recurrence and metastasis between the two groups were not statistically significant. Conclusion Laparoscopically assisted gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer is safe and effective. In this study, it did not differ significantly from open surgery in terms of survival rate or recurrence after surgery based on long-term follow-up evaluation. It can achieve the same beneficial effects as open surgery, and it has the advantages of a small operation wound, less bleeding, good safety, rapid postoperative recovery, and fewer complications.Keywords Advanced gastric cancer Á Distal subtotal gastrectomy Á Laparoscopic surgery Á Lymph node dissection Laparoscopically assisted gastrectomy for early gastric cancer has gradually matured technically since its development more than 10 years ago. Many reports indicate that laparoscopic treatment for early gastric cancer can achieve the same benefit as open surgery with quite good short-and long-term efficacy [1][2][3]. Additionally, it has the advantages of rapid recovery and fewer complications [4][5][6]. It also has been accepted as one of the standard approaches for