Search results for "Models"
showing 10 items of 8211 documents
Low-energy extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) improves metaphyseal fracture healing in an osteoporotic rat model.
2017
Purpose As result of the current demographic changes, osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures are becoming an increasing social and economic burden. In this experimental study, extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), was evaluated as a treatment option for the improvement of osteoporotic fracture healing. Methods A well-established fracture model in the metaphyseal tibia in the osteoporotic rat was used. 132 animals were divided into 11 groups, with 12 animals each, consisting of one sham-operated group and 10 ovariectomized (osteoporotic) groups, of which 9 received ESWT treatment. Different energy flux intensities (0.15 mJ/mm2, 0.35 mJ/mm2, or 0.55 mJ/mm2) as well as different numbers o…
Non-primate lentiviral vectors and their applications in gene therapy for ocular disorders
2018
Lentiviruses have a number of molecular features in common, starting with the ability to integrate their genetic material into the genome of non-dividing infected cells. A peculiar property of non-primate lentiviruses consists in their incapability to infect and induce diseases in humans, thus providing the main rationale for deriving biologically safe lentiviral vectors for gene therapy applications. In this review, we first give an overview of non-primate lentiviruses, highlighting their common and distinctive molecular characteristics together with key concepts in the molecular biology of lentiviruses. We next examine the bioengineering strategies leading to the conversion of lentiviruse…
Integrative analysis of structural variations using short-reads and linked-reads yields highly specific and sensitive predictions.
2020
Genetic diseases are driven by aberrations of the human genome. Identification of such aberrations including structural variations (SVs) is key to our understanding. Conventional short-reads whole genome sequencing (cWGS) can identify SVs to base-pair resolution, but utilizes only short-range information and suffers from high false discovery rate (FDR). Linked-reads sequencing (10XWGS) utilizes long-range information by linkage of short-reads originating from the same large DNA molecule. This can mitigate alignment-based artefacts especially in repetitive regions and should enable better prediction of SVs. However, an unbiased evaluation of this technology is not available. In this study, w…
Shikonin Prevents Early Phase Inflammation Associated with Azoxymethane/Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colon Cancer and Induces Apoptosis in Human Co…
2018
Shikonin is the main active principle in the root of Lithospermum erythrorhizon, widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for its anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties. Recent research highlights shikonin's antitumor properties and capacity to prevent acute ulcerative colitis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the ability of shikonin to prevent, in vivo, the early phases of colorectal cancer development, with special focus on its cytotoxic mechanism in vitro. We employed the azoxymethane/dextran sulfate sodium model of colitis in Balb/C mice. Body weight and drinking were monitored throughout the experiment, and length of colon and lesions of the colon were recorded o…
Higher physiopathogenicity byFasciola giganticathan by the genetically closeF. hepatica: experimental long-term follow-up of biochemical markers
2016
Background: Fascioliasis is caused by Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. The latter, always considered secondary in human infection, nowadays appears increasingly involved in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, little is known about its pathogenicity, mainly due to difficulties in assessing the moment a patient first becomes infected and the differential diagnosis with F. hepatica. Methods: A long-term, 24-week, experimental study comparing F. hepatica and F. giganticawas made for the first time in the same animal model host, Guirra sheep. Serum biochemical parameters of liver damage, serum electrolytes, protein metabolism, plasma proteins, carbohydrate metabolism, hepatic lipid metabolism and…
A specific prelimbic-nucleus accumbens pathway controls resilience versus vulnerability to food addiction
2019
Food addiction is linked to obesity and eating disorders and is characterized by a loss of behavioral control and compulsive food intake. Here, using a food addiction mouse model, we report that the lack of cannabinoid type-1 receptor in dorsal telencephalic glutamatergic neurons prevents the development of food addiction-like behavior, which is associated with enhanced synaptic excitatory transmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). In contrast, chemogenetic inhibition of neuronal activity in the mPFC-NAc pathway induces compulsive food seeking. Transcriptomic analysis and genetic manipulation identified that increased dopamine D2 receptor express…
ESC-Derived BDNF-Overexpressing Neural Progenitors Differentially Promote Recovery in Huntington's Disease Models by Enhanced Striatal Differentiation
2016
Summary Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by fatal motoric failures induced by loss of striatal medium spiny neurons. Neuronal cell death has been linked to impaired expression and axonal transport of the neurotrophin BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). By transplanting embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitors overexpressing BDNF, we combined cell replacement and BDNF supply as a potential HD therapy approach. Transplantation of purified neural progenitors was analyzed in a quinolinic acid (QA) chemical and two genetic HD mouse models (R6/2 and N171-82Q) on the basis of distinct behavioral parameters, including CatWalk gait analysis. Explicit rescue of motor function by…
Reconstructing the deep population history of Central and South America
2018
We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by ∼4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary sou…
Genetics and Gene Therapy of Anderson-Fabry Disease.
2018
Fabry's disease is a genetic disorder of X-linked inheritance caused by mutations in the alpha galactosidase A gene resulting in deficiency of this lysosomal enzyme. The progressive accumulation of glycosphingolipids, caused by the inadequate enzymatic activity, is responsible of organ dysfunction and thus of clinical manifestations. In the presence of a high clinical suspicion, a careful physical examination and specific laboratory tests are required, finally diagnosis of Fabry's disease is confirmed by the demonstration of absence or reduced alpha-galactosidase A enzyme activity in hemizygous men and gene typing in heterozygous females; in fact the performance of enzymatic activity assay …
Molecular disturbance underlies to arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy induced by transgene content, age and exercise in a truncated PKP2 mouse model
2016
13 páginas, 9 tablas, 2 figuras. Contiene material suplementario.