Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), also known as CCN-2, is a cysteine-rich secreted protein that is involved in a range of biological processes, including regulation of cell growth and differentiation. Our previous in vitro studies have shown that CCN-2 inhibits adipocyte differentiation, although whether CCN-2 is regulated in vivo in adipogenesis is undetermined and was investigated in th...

Metabolically intact NMRI mice and genetically obese NZO mice were fed ad lib. either a high-carbohydrate diet (standard) or a high-fat diet for a period of about 11 (NMRI mice) or 38 (NZO mice) wk. In both strains of mice, body weight increased more in the groups fed the high-fat diet. However, caloric intake by NMRI mice fed the high-fat diet was less than that of the controls. In NMRI mice f...

Cryopreservation of epididymal sperm is an effective technique to preserve genetic materials of domestic cats and wild felids when they unexpectedly die. However, this technique inevitably causes detrimental changes of cryopreserved-thawed spermatozoa, for example, by physical damage and excessive oxidative stress. L-carnitine is an antioxidant that has been used to improve sperm motility in hu...

After a serious injury or sudden death, epididymis cauda sperm recovery and cryopreservation may present as the last opportunity to obtain genetic material from a valuable stallion. This study evaluated the viability of cooled equine sperm collected by three different methods: sperm of ejaculated (G1), sperm recovered from the epididymal cauda immediately after orchiectomy (G2) and sperm recove...

Thermotolerance, transient resistance to heat induced by heat itself, is generally thought to be linked to the accumulation of heat-shock proteins in eukaryotic cells. The induction of thermotolerance and the synthesis of heat-shock proteins in primary and passage cultures of bovine aortic endothelium, passage cultures of bovine brain capillaries, and passage cultures of rat epididymal capillar...

OBJECTIVE To identify whether the cause, site of ductal obstruction, and characteristics of fluid aspirates are associated with the cryosurvival and fertility after thawing of sperm obtained during reconstruction of the excurrent ducts with microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration, vasal sperm aspiration, or both. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Andrology center at a tertiary care instit...

Observations of the external morphology of wild-caught and captive male brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) revealed a marked seasonal pattern of spermatogenesis, similar to that established by histological examination of other temperate-zone vespertilionids, with a peak in testes size in August and a lag between testicular growth and epididymal distension. This was followed by complete ce...

Sperm adsorbed with retrovirus particles were recovered from the epididymis of apparently normal male mice. Epididymal semen from all four mouse strains examined was positive for retrovirus (10(5) to 10(8) particles per microgram of protein) indicating that epididymal fluids and sperm may be important vehicles for murine retrovirus spread. Immunoblot analyses revealed that the banding patterns ...

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful technique for creating pig strains that model human diseases. However, production of numerous cloned disease model pigs by SCNT for large-scale experiments is impractical due to its complexity and inefficiency. In the present study, we aimed to establish an efficient procedure for proliferating the diabetes model pig carrying the mutant human hep...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of different seasons on the morphometric testicular parameters and the respective epididymal sperm parameters. Total numbers of 104 scrota of pubertal buffalo bull (24-48 months) include their contents were provided from the local slaughterhouse. Scrotal circumference was measured on its place before dissection. Morphological parameters o...