We have previously shown that administration of the endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) during lactation leads to overweight, increased body fat accumulation, and insulin resistance in adult mice. This study was designed to elucidate if these effects are due to increased food intake, stimulated by an augmented abundance and binding ability of the hypothalamic cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R). Wi...

Deoxynivalenol (DON), a trichothecene mycotoxin that commonly contaminates cereal grains, is a public health concern because of its adverse effects on the gastrointestinal and immune systems. The objective of this study was to compare effects of DON on anorectic responses in aged (22 mos) and adult (3 mos) mice. Aged mice showed increased feed refusal with both acute i.p. (1 mg/kg and 5 mg/kg) ...

1. Comparisons were made in vitro at 25 degrees C among soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles from young (2-3 months), adult (9-10 months), and aged (26-27 months) male mice. We tested the hypotheses that, compared with soleus and EDL muscles of young and adult mice, those from aged mice develop decreased maximum tetanic force (P0, mN) and specific P0 (N/cm2), and that no significa...

A dynamic partnership between follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and activin is required for normal Sertoli cell development and fertility. Disruptions to this partnership trigger Sertoli cells to deviate from their normal developmental pathway, as observed in inhibin α-knockout (Inha-KO) mice, which feature Sertoli cell tumours in adulthood. Here, we identified the developmental windows by whi...

Rotaviruses have been implicated as a possible viral trigger for exacerbations in islet autoimmunity, suggesting they might modulate type 1 diabetes development. In this study, the ability of rotavirus strain RRV to infect the pancreas and affect insulitis and diabetes was examined in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice, an experimental model of type 1 diabetes. Mice were inoculated either orally or i...

Studies using the Morris water maze to assess hippocampal function in animals, in which adult hippocampal neurogenesis had been suppressed, have yielded seemingly contradictory results. Cyclin D2 knockout (Ccnd2(-/-)) mice, for example, have constitutively suppressed adult hippocampal neurogenesis but had no overt phenotype in the water maze. In other paradigms, however, ablation of adult neuro...

In female mice, the experience of being shipped from the breeder facility or a single injection of the bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), during pubertal development alters the behavioral response to estradiol in adulthood as demonstrated by perturbations of estradiol's effects on sexual behavior, cognitive function, as well as its anxiolytic and anti-depressive properties. Microgli...

Endoglin is a TGF-beta superfamily receptor critical for endothelial cell function. Mutations in this gene are associated with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia type I (HHT1), and clinical signs of disease are generally more evident later in life. We previously showed that systemic vessels of adult Eng heterozygous (Eng(+/-)) mice exhibit increased vasorelaxation due to uncoupling of endoth...