The manufacturing processes of royal demolition explosive (RDX), or hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine, have resulted in serious water contamination. As a potential carcinogen, RDX can cause a broad range of harmful effects to humans and animals. The ovine rumen is capable of rapid degradation of nitroaromatic compounds, including RDX. While ruminal RDX-degrading bacteria have been identif...

OBJECTIVES The cytokines interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-6 are modulators of the neuroimmune axis and have been implicated in neuronal cell death cascades after ischemia or infection. Previous work has shown that some cross-species conservation exists between human and rodent blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport systems. To further assess cross-species conservation of cytokine transport across the...

the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of follicle stimulating hormone (fsh) on survival, activation and growth of ovine primordial follicles using histological studies. pieces of ovine ovarian cortex were obtained and cultured for 6 days in minimum essential medium supplemented with or without fsh (50 ng/ml). these fragments were then process to be used for histology compar...

Background: Different culture media are used for in vitro maturation of ovine oocyte. The Weymouth medium are used for in vitro maturation of rat and mice oocytes with very low levels of supplementation (Just FBS, while to acquire the good results in TCM hormone, and serum supplementation and in some cases growth factor are necessary to gain the optimized results. The aim of the present study w...

As large animal models continue to play an important role in translating lung-directed therapeutic strategies from laboratory animals to humans, there is an increasing interest in the analysis of endogenous regulators of inflammation at both a genomic and a therapeutic level. To this end, we have sought to characterize the ovine ortholog of elafin, an important regulator of inflammation in huma...

The cellular slime mold, Dictyostelium mucoroides-7 (Dm7) exhibits clear dimorphism; macrocyst formation as a sexual process and sorocap formation as an asexual process. These two life cycles are regulated by two regulators, ethylene and cyclic AMP (cAMP). This is the first report demonstrating a novel function of ethylene at the cellular level. That is, ethylene induces a zygote formed by cell...

A novel photoactivatable analog of ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (ovine photoCRF) has been synthesized and characterized. A diazirine group, the 4-(1-azi-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)benzoyl residue, was covalently bound to the amino terminus of ovine CRF (oCRF), which was N-terminally extended by a tyrosyl residue for radioactive labeling with 125I. Under mild conditions, photolysis yielded hig...

This paper presents the design and microfabrication of a vacuum-based cell holding device for single-cell immobilization and the use of the device in mouse zygote microinjection. The device contains many through-holes, constructed via two-sided glass wet etching and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass bonding. Experimental results of mouse zygote immobilization and microinjection demonstrate that...