The mouse bioassay (MBA) for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins has been widely used in many countries of the world. In the Japanese and EU methods, male mice are designated to be used for MBA. Female mice were described to be less susceptible than male mice. To the best of our knowledge, however, there have been no reports on the details of sex differences in susceptibility to DSP tox...

This study investigated the effectiveness of the liver micronucleus (MN) assay using juvenile mice. Therefore, we analyzed various hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP)- mediated activities of ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation, pentoxyresorufin O-dealkylation, tolbutamide hydroxylation, bufuralol 1'-hydroxylation, aniline hydroxylation and midazolam 4-hydroxylation by CYP1A, CYP2B, CYP2C, CYP2D, CYP2E and...

Enniatins are so-called “emerging mycotoxins” that commonly occur in milligrams per kilogram levels grains and their derived products, as well fish, dried fruits, nuts, spices, cocoa, coffee. The present study investigated the 28-day repeated oral dose toxicity of enniatin complex CD1(ICR) mice. Enniatin B, B1, A1 at a ratio 4:4:1 were administered to male female mice doses 0 (vehicle controls)...

Chlorella, a type of unicellular fresh water algae, has been a popular foodstuff in Japan and Taiwan. Chlorella has been shown to produce hypoglycemic effects in alloxan-induced diabetic animals. However, there are no other reports of the effects of this substance in other diabetic animal models. Here we have used streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice to study the thypoglycemic effects of Ch...

Abnormal methylation at the maternally inherited H19 imprinted control region (H19 ICR) is one of the causative alterations leading to pathogenesis of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS). Recently, it was shown in human BWS patients, as well as mouse cell culture experiments, that Sox-Oct motifs (SOM) in the H19 ICR might play a role in protecting the maternal ICR from de novo DNA methylation. By...

A bioassay of Selsun(R) for possible carcinogenicity was conducted by applying this substance dermally to ICR Swiss mice. Selsun(R), an antidandruff shampoo, contains 2.5% selenium sulfide. Groups of 50 mice of each sex were exposed to 0.05 ml of 25% or 50% Selsun(R) in distilled water three times a week on a 2-x 3-cm clipped dorsal surface. Vehicle controls consisted of 50 mice of each sex tha...

The genetic background of mice has various influences on the efficacy of physical exercise, as well as adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus. In this study, we investigated the basal level of hippocampal neurogenesis, as well as the effects of treadmill exercise on adult hippocampal neurogenesis in 9 mouse strains: 8 very commonly used laboratory inbred mouse strains (C57BL/6, BALB/c, A/J, C3H/...

Renal fibrotic change, extreme accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) components in glomeruli and tubulointerstitum, is one of the characteristic features of ICR-derived glomerulonephritis (ICGN) mice. Decreased degradation of ECMs by matrixmetalloproteinases was demonstrated in kidneys of ICGN mice. To determine the balance between production and degradation of ECMs in kidneys of ICGN mice...

background: interleukin 18 (il-18) exerts pleiotropic roles in many inflammatory-related diseases including parasitic infection. previous studies have demonstrated the promising therapeutic potential of modulating il-18 bioactivity in various pathologi­cal conditions. however, its involvement during malaria infection has yet to be established. in this study, we demonstrated the effect of modula...

To determine whether functional T- and B-cells can affect differentiation and/or proliferation of uterine natural killer (uNK) cells, their numbers in SCID mice (genotype, C.B.-17/Icr-scid/scid) were compared with those of control mice (genotype, C.B.-17/Icr-+/+) on days 8, 12 and 16 of pregnancy. Using biotinylated-Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) lectin staining, uNK cells can be readily cl...