OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of the guinea pig as a model for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection by comparing the effectiveness of detecting the virus by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in blood, urine, and saliva. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Academic research. SUBJECTS Eleven pregnant Hartley guinea pigs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Blood, urine, and saliva sampl...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of perinatal protein malnutrition on brain derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentration in brain tissue and spatial learning and memory performance in young rats. Nine pregnant Wistar rats were assigned into three groups. Rats in one group were fed with a control diet containing 20% protein. Rats in remaining two groups were fed with a diet contai...

The aim of this study was to assess whether in utero tobacco smoke exposure alone affects early-life lung growth and development. Pregnant BALB/c mice were exposed to cigarette smoke from six cigarettes per day, or air, from day 8 to 20 of gestation. At 2 weeks of age, pups were weighed and had their lung volumes and lung mechanics measured. Pups born from mothers exposed to cigarette smoke (CS...

Although the existence of a close relationship between the early maternal developmental environment, fetal size at birth and the risk of developing disease in adulthood has been suggested, most studies, however, employed experimentally induced intrauterine growth restriction as a model to link this with later adult disease. Because embryonic size variation also occurs under normal growth and di...

In this paper, the mouse pup-in-a-cup model was improved for younger mouse pups, and the effect of artificial rearing on gut microbiota development was evaluated. Intragastric cannulas were placed through the esophagus into 3-day-old C57BL/6J mice (n=48), and the mice were artificially reared (AR) with mouse milk substitute (MMS). Littermate pups (n=20) were maternally reared (MR) as controls. ...

The ontogeny of hyperphagic behavior in the Zucker fatty ( fa/ fa) rat was examined. Wild-type, +/ fa, and fa/ fapups aged postnatal day 5( P5), P9, P12, P15, and P18 were evaluated using a test that measured ingestive behavior independent of the dam. The independent ingestive test consisted of giving pups access to a test solution [half-and-half (cream and milk)] on a tissue on the floor of a ...

The ability to express a behavior during the postnatal period may be related to developmental changes in the recruitment of particular neural systems. Here, we show that developmental changes in the functional interactions involving three cortical regions (the medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex) are associated with maturation of extinction behavior in ...

Communication consists of social interaction, recognition, and information transmission. Communication ability is the most affected component in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recently, we reported that the CD157/BST1 gene is associated with ASD, and that CD157 knockout (Cd157-/-) mice display severe impairments in social behavior that are improved by oxytocin (OXT) treatment. He...

20 Early-life adversity can affect health, survival and fitness later in life, and recent evidence 21 suggests that telomere attrition may link early conditions with their delayed consequences. 22 Here, we investigate the link between early-life competition and telomere length in wild 23 meerkats. Our results show that, when multiple females breed concurrently, increases in the 24 number of pup...

Norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT) are important modulators of early odor preference learning. NE can act as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), whereas 5-HT facilitates noradrenergic actions. In this study, we examined the phosphorylation of an important transcription factor, cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), which has been implicated in long-term-memory formation (McLean et al....