Octodon degus (O. degus) is a diurnal rodent that spontaneously develops several physiopathological conditions, analogous in many cases to those experienced by humans. In light of this, O. degus has recently been identified as a very valuable animal model for research in several medical fields, especially those concerned with neurodegenerative diseases in which risk is associated with ageing. O...

1. Water requirements, water balance components and dependence on exogenous water were estimated in four species of sympatric rodents inhabiting a Chilean semi-arid region. 2. A significant increase in free water drinking was observed in all rodents when the diet composition was changed from 14 to 20% protein. 3. Under water balance conditions the cricetid species (Phyllotis darwini, Oryzomys l...

Reentrainment following phase shifts of the light-dark (LD) cycle is accelerated in Octodon degus in the presence of olfactory social cues (i.e., odors) produced by conspecifics. However, not all odors from conspecifics were effective in facilitating reentrainment after a phase advance. In the current experiments, we examined whether nonanimal odors, odors from another species, or conspecific o...

To examine if a feature of episodic-like memory reported in rats is shared with other species, we investigated whether degus would form an integrated memory of object (what), place (where), and context (which). We used two E-shaped mazes with different contexts regarding the wall and the floor. Degus were entered into the middle arm and first explored the maze with two trial-unique objects plac...

Octodon degus is said to be one of the most human-like rodents because its improved cognitive function. Focusing on high sociality, we cloned and characterized some sociality-related genes degus, in order establish as a highly socialized animal model molecular biology. We Neurexin Neuroligin genes, which are genetically related autism spectrum disorder human. According our results, amino acid s...

the most popular animal models of alzheimer’s disease (ad) are transgenic mice expressing human genes with known mutations which do not represent the most abundant sporadic form of the disease. an increasing number of genetic, vascular and psychosocial data strongly support that the octodon degus, a moderate-sized and diurnal precocial rodent, provides a naturalistic model for the study of the ...

Small laboratory animals have provided significant information about melatonin regulation, yet most of these organisms are nocturnal and regulate melatonin synthesis by mechanisms that diverge from those of humans. For example, in all rodents examined, melatonin secretion occurs with a time lag of several hours after the onset of darkness; in addition, arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT)...