Recent advances in neuronal culturing techniques have supplied a new set of tools for studying neural tissue, providing effective means to study molecular aspects of regulatory elements in the supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SON). To combine molecular biology techniques with electrophysiological recording, we modified an organotypic culture protocol to permit transfection and whole cell...

Neural progenitors/stem cells (NSCs) exist in neonatal mouse subventricular zone (SVZ). To explore the differentiation of the NSCs in neonatal mouse SVZ and the distribution of the progeny cells derived from these NSCs in early adulthood, the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) plasmid was transferred into the NSCs in the lateral ventricle of newborn mice (P0) by in-vivo electroporation t...

The neonatal mouse retina remains viable as an explant in serum-supplemented growth media for more than 4 weeks. Interpretation of drug effects on this tissue is compromised by the enigmatic composition of the serum. We sought to remove this ambiguity by culturing neonatal as well as late postnatal mouse retina in serum-free nutrient medium. In this study three important observations were made,...

UNLABELLED Bone resorption, in vitro, is often measured as the release of prelabelled 45Ca from neonatal mouse calvarial bones, or from fetal rat long bones. In this report we describe a technique to measure the breakdown of bone-matrix, in vitro. We also describe a new way to dissect neonatal mouse calvarial bones, in order to obtain large amounts of bone samples. Twelve bone fragments were di...

We have investigated the gross, microscopic and molecular effects of carnitine deficiency in the neonatal gut using a mouse model with a loss-of-function mutation in the OCTN2 (SLC22A5) carnitine transporter. The tissue carnitine content of neonatal homozygous (OCTN2(-/-)) mouse small intestine was markedly reduced; the intestine displayed signs of stunted villous growth, early signs of inflamm...

Damage-activated stem/progenitor cells play important roles in regenerating lost cells and in tissue repair. Previous studies reported that the mouse utricle has limited hair cell regeneration ability after hair cell ablation. However, the potential progenitor cell population regenerating new hair cells remains undiscovered. In this study, we first found that Lgr5, a Wnt target gene that is not...

The spiny mouse is relatively mature at birth. We hypothesized that like other organs, the kidney may be more developed in the spiny mouse at birth, than in other rodents. If nephrogenesis is complete before birth, the spiny mouse may provide an excellent model with which to study the effects of an altered intrauterine environment on renal development. Due to its desert adaptation, the spiny mo...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to model Cryptosporidiosis in laboratory animals. The parasites were inoculated into animalsand thenmultiplied. The process of proliferation was compared to controlCryptosporidiosis in humans. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five laboratory mice (4-7 days of age) and twenty-five laboratory rats (5 days of age) were assigned to the category I while the cat...

Fibroblasts are the main cell type in dermis and major contributors to wound healing process. During skin development, papillary fibroblasts from upper uniquely give rise specialized hair follicle-supporting like dermal papillae, which controls development cycling, as well arrector pili muscles that grant its contractile functions. Neonatal also only supportive of follicle regeneration, we have...