Countering aerosolized filovirus infection is a major priority of biodefense research. Aerosol models of filovirus infection have been developed in knock-out mice, guinea pigs and non-human primates; however, filovirus infection of immunocompetent mice by the aerosol route has not been reported. A murine model of aerosolized filovirus infection in mice should be useful for screening vaccine can...

PURPOSE To quantify the extent and pattern of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in the DBA2/NNia glaucomatous mouse strain as a function of age and compare it with ganglion cell loss in a nonglaucomatous strain. METHODS All the ganglion cells in retinas of DBA/2NNia and C57/BL6 mice of various ages (five eyes per age group in 3-month intervals from 3 to 18 months of age) were counted. A novel ...

Herein we characterized various genetic markers and the biological behavior of a natural recombinant strain of Toxoplasma gondii (P-Br). From nine genetic markers analyzed, three (B1, ROP1, and SAG1) and three (cS10-A6, GRA6, and SAG3) markers belong to parasites from the type I and type III lineages, respectively. The SAG2 and L363 loci were shown to be type I-III chimera alleles. The cB2l-4 m...

The study of genetic variance in opioid receptor antagonism of sucrose and other forms of sweet intake has been limited to reductions in sweet intake in mice that are opioid receptor-deficient or lacking either pre-pro-enkephalin or beta-endorphin. Marked genetic variance in inbred mouse strains has been observed for sucrose intake across a wide array of concentrations in terms of sensitivity, ...

Proliferative lesions in the livers of mice treated 18 months previously with cisplatin Sir-Cis-diammine-dichloroplatinum II ('cisplatin') is a widely used cytotoxic agent that is known to cause long-term renal insufficiency. Bulger and Dobyan (1984) and Dobyan (1985) have reported hyperplastic lesions in the kidneys of rats treated 6 and 15 months previously with a single intraperitoneal dose ...

It was our objective to obtain an insight into the details and dynamics of the cell proliferative changes following minor barrier disruption, the mechanisms of recovery, and their regulation. Hair of the dorsal area of DBA2-mice was removed and the epidermis was tape stripped. Tritiated thymidine was injected into groups of mice at daily intervals thereafter. Labelling and nuclear densities wer...

PURPOSE Autophagy is a critical process, compromised in neurodegenerative disease, by which terminally differentiated cells like neurons manage cytoskeletal and organelle turnover. How autophagy relates to associated neurodegenerative pathologies remain unclear. We examined autophagy in optic neuropathy by investigating cytoskeletal degradation, mitochondria, and autophagic vesicles in the DBA2...

Raltitrexed (RTX) is an antifolate thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibitor used for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. RTX induces proliferating tissue toxicities that are largely confined to the intestine, with diarrhea being a severe side effect in a small but significant minority of patients. Similarly, weight loss and diarrhea were observed in BALB/c mice, and a maximum tolerated dose...

Chronic morphine administration may alter the expression of hundreds to thousands of genes. However, only a subset of these genes is likely involved in analgesic tolerance. In this report, we used a behavior genetics strategy to identify candidate genes specifically linked to the development of morphine tolerance. Two inbred genotypes [C57BL/6J (B6), DBA2/J (D2)] and two reciprocal congenic gen...