OBJECTIVE To establish a stable PrP(Sc) panel from brain tissues of experimental hamsters infected with scrapie agent 263K for evaluating diagnostic techniques of human and animals' prion diseases. METHODS Thirty brain tissue samples from hamsters intracerebrally infected with scrapie strain 263K and another 30 samples from normal hamsters were selected to prepare 10%, 1%, and 0.5% brain homo...

Sleep is regulated by independent yet interacting circadian and homeostatic processes. The present study used a novel approach to study sleep homeostasis in the absence of circadian influences by exposing Siberian hamsters to a simple phase delay of the photocycle to make them arrhythmic. Because these hamsters lacked any circadian organization, their sleep homeostasis could be studied in the a...

In order to reproduce successfully, animals must integrate multiple environmental cues to synchronize breeding with favorable conditions. In temperate, seasonally breeding rodents, photoperiod acts as the primary seasonal cue. Long days are associated with reproductive development and maturation of the gonads whereas short days induce gonadal regression. The neuropeptide kisspeptin has potent s...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effect of heart cell transplantation into the dilated cardiomyopathic myocardium. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of heart cell transplantation into dilated cardiomyopathic hamsters. METHODS AND RESULTS Ventricular heart cells were isolated from 4-week-old BIO 53. 58 hamsters and cultured for 2 weeks before transplantation. The cells were la...

Behavioral responses to social odors in Syrian hamsters are regulated by brain structures including the medial amygdala (Me) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). The role of these areas in regulating social behaviors has been previously studied in detail. However, the chemical phenotypes of neurons in these areas have not been well defined. Based on previous literature, we hypothesiz...

The purpose of this study was to determine trypsin inhibitor (TI) activity in sweetpotato and soy flour diets and their effects on the growth and lipid metabolism of hamsters. Male Golden Syrian hamsters were fed different types of dietary protein containing casein, soyprotein, transgenic sweetpotato plus soy flour (TSPF+SF), nontransgenic sweetpotato (NTSPF) plus soy flour (NTSPF+SF), transgen...

The BIO 14.6 cardiomyopathic Syrian hamster is a well-known animal model of congestive cardiomyopathy. To evaluate the role of free radicals and antioxidant protection in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy in this animal, we studied the concentration of heart mitochondrial free radicals, the activities of glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the effect of alpha-toc...

The golden Syrian hamster is the model of choice or the only rodent model for studying many human diseases. However, the lack of gene targeting tools in hamsters severely limits their use in biomedical research. Here, we report the first successful application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to efficiently conduct gene targeting in hamsters. We designed five synthetic single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs)--thre...

The variation in spontaneous meal patterning was studied in three genotypes (tau +/+, tau +/- and tau -/-) of the Syrian hamster with an altered circadian period. Feeding activity was monitored continuously in 13 individuals from each genotype in constant dim light conditions. All three genotypes had on average six feeding episodes during the circadian cycle (about 20h in homozygous tau mutants...

Chronic exposure to light at night (LAN) is a circadian disruptor and may be linked to various health risks, including mood disorders. We recently demonstrated that chronic exposure to dim (5 lux) LAN provokes depressive-like behaviors and reduced hippocampal CA1 dendritic spine density in female hamsters. Whether this model is responsive to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors remains unspe...