Surprisingly, we found that p38 is most active under darkness and, besides its circadian activation, additionally gets inactivated by light. Moreover, locomotor activity recordings revealed that p38 is essential for a wild-type timing of evening activity and for maintaining similar to 24 h behavioral rhythms under constant darkness: flies with reduced p38 activity in clock neurons, delayed evening activity and lengthened the period of their free-running rhythms. Furthermore, nuclear translocation of the clock protein Period was significantly delayed on the expression of a dominant-negative form of p38b find more in Drosophila’s most important clock neurons. Western

Blots revealed that p38 affects

the phosphorylation degree of Period, what is likely the Selleckchem AS1842856 reason for its effects on nuclear entry of Period. In vitro kinase assays confirmed our Western Blot results and point to p38 as a potential “clock kinase” phosphorylating Period. Taken together, our findings indicate that the p38 MAP Kinase is an integral component of the core circadian clock of Drosophila in addition to playing a role in stress-input pathways.”
“Individuals born preterm can demonstrate reductions in brain volume, cortical surface area and thickness. However, the extent of these neuroanatomical deficits and the relation among these measures in middle childhood, a critical developmental period,

have not been determined. We assessed differences in brain structure by acquiring high-resolution T-1-weighted scans in 25 children born very preterm (< 32 weeks gestational age) without significant post-natal neurological sequelae and 32 age-matched term-born children (7-10 years). Children born very preterm had decreased brain volume, surface area and cortical thickness compared to term-born children. Furthermore, children born preterm did not display the robust relation between total brain volume and basal ganglia and thalamic volume apparent in the term-born children. Cortical XMU-MP-1 molecular weight thickness analyses revealed that the cortex was thinner for children born preterm than term-born children in the anterior cingulate cortex/supplementary motor area, isthmus of the cingulate gyrus, right superior temporal sulcus, right anterior insula, postcentral gyrus and precuneus. Follow-up analyses revealed that right precuneus thickness was correlated with gestational age. Thus, even without significant postnatal medical sequelae, very preterm-born children showed atypical brain structure and developmental patterns in areas related to higher cognitive function. Disruptions of the typical neurodevelopmental trajectory in the third trimester of pregnancy likely underlie these differences persisting into middle childhood.