Parasitic invasions are recognized as one of the primary factors responsible for decreasing populations of European eel. The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of infestation with the nematode Anguillicoloides crassus on the innate immunity in European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Anguillicoloides crassus parasitizes the swim bladder of this fish. Levels of the following immuno...

An often overlooked problem in the use of radiotracers is the possibility of isotopic contamination. Commercially available silver 110mAg was used to study silver uptake and depuration in rainbow trout and European eel. Quality control by means of comparative gamma and beta counting brought our attention to a contamination of the 110mAg stock with 109Cd, which could be seen only because the 109...

Gene expressions of cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A), aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and vitellogenin (Vg) by endocrine disruptors, benzo[α]pyrene (B[a]P) and tributyltin (TBT) were examined in cultured eel hepatocytes which were isolated from eels treated previously with B[a]P (10 mg/kg) or estradiol-17β (20 mg/kg) in vivo, and the relationship between CYP1A, AhR and Vg genes were studied. When the ...

A truncated apolipoprotein (apo) A-I with a molecular weight (M(r)) of 26 kDa was first isolated from the plasma high density lipoproteins of an atypical Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica). Interestingly, this eel contained a very small amount of intact apoA-I (M(r)28 kDa) in the plasma, although serine protease inhibitors were present throughout the plasma preparation. The N-terminal sequence of...

Two unconventional sperm models (all motile) have been studied. The first one has only the outer arm on the doublets (the gall midge, Diplolaboncus); the second one, has only a well-developed inner arm (the eel, Anguilla). Both are devoid of central tubules and radial spokes. The gall midge sperm yields a single electrophoretic band migrating similarly to the sea urchin dynein band A; a major h...

Contraction due to light in excised eel irises appears to follow a simple first order law. The action spectrum for contraction has a maximum which agrees with the eel rhodopsin absorption maximum. Inasmuch as rhodopsin is the rod pigment-opsin complex and the iris sphincter pupillae evolves from the pigment epithelium of the retina in the region of the iris, the muscle pigment might be the same...

Food availability and quality in desert habitats are spatially and temporally unpredictable, and animals face periods of food shortage. The golden spiny mouse (Acomys russatus) is an omnivorous desert rodent that does not hoard food, requiring it to withstand such periods by physiological means alone. In response to food restriction, plasma leptin concentrations, core body temperature, and ener...

The desert-adapted spiny mouse has a significantly lower glomerular number, increased glomerular size, and a more densely packed renal papillae compared with the similar-sized laboratory-adapted C57BL/6 mouse. In the present study we examined the functional consequences of these structural differences in young adult male spiny and C57BL/6 mice and detailed the impact of 1 wk of a high-salt (10%...

Spiny neurons in neostriatum are vulnerable to cerebral ischemia. To reveal the mechanisms underlying the postischemic neuronal damage, the spontaneous activities, evoked postsynaptic potentials and membrane properties of spiny neurons in rat neostriatum were compared before and after transient forebrain ischemia using intracellular recording and staining techniques in vivo. In control animals ...