PURPOSE In Lewis rats, S-antigen-induced intraocular inflammation, which occurs initially in the retina, is mediated by T cells requiring major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted antigen presentation. In such organ-specific inflammation, antigen presentation may take place at the site of the initial inflammatory response. In the present study an attempt was made to determine the presen...

The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is the most widely used animal model of essential hypertension and associated metabolic disturbances. Multiple quantitative trait loci associated with hemodynamic and metabolic parameters have been mapped in the SHR. Recently, it has become possible to identify some of the specific quantitative trait gene (QTG) variants that underlie quantitative trait l...

Ship rats (Rattus rattus) were removed from sites on Pearl Island, southern Stewart Island, in 2004 and 2005, to test whether they excluded Pacific rats (R. exulans) or Norway rats (R. norvegicus) or both from podocarp-broadleaf forest. As predators can influence habitat use in rodents, Pearl Island was selected because no mammalian predators of rodents are present. Rats were trapped in two oth...

Methods Brown Norway rats were either dosed orally by gavage each day for 42 days with finely ground whole peanut products (blanched or roasted peanuts or peanut butter) mixed with water [~2 mg Ara h 1/rat/day] or immunised i.p. three times with 200 μg of native, heated or heat glycated Ara h 1. Sera obtained at sacrifice were analysed for specific IgG and IgE by ELISA and for biological functi...

In this study we examine the size of primary sensory areas in the neocortex and the cellular composition of area 17/V1 in three rodent groups: laboratory nocturnal Norway rats (Long-Evans; Rattus norvegicus), wild-caught nocturnal Norway rats (R. norvegicus), and laboratory diurnal Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus). Specifically, we used areal measures of myeloarchitecture of the primary ...

In this study, age-dependent histological changes in the kidneys of Brown Norway rat, a strain useful for conducting aging research, were evaluated. Examination was performed at 3, 12, 18, 24 and 30 months of age. Sclerotic and hypertrophic changes of the glomeruli were observed, and quantitative scores of these changes persistently increased with age. A marginal increase in scores was observed...

T HE POLLOWING STUDIES are concerned with the questions of a) how much salt can be put in a rat’s food before it stops eating; b) how much salt can a rat ingest before toxic symptoms set in; and c) the extent to which salt toxicity depends on the amounts of water that a rat drinks in relation to the salt content of its diet. These studies were originally undertaken because of observations made ...

New Zealand has four rodent species, the ship rat (Rattus rattus L.), Norway rat (R. norvegicus Berkenhout), kiore (or Polynesian rat, R. exulans Peale) and the house mouse (Mus musculus L.), all of which have been introduced. Their presence has implications for conservation management as they prey on native bird (Bell, 1978; King, 1984), reptile (Whitaker, 1978) and invertebrate (Ramsey, 1978;...