Search results for "rodent"

Reducing Mortality of Shrews in Rodent Live Trapping — a Method Increasing Live-Trap Selectivity with Shrew Exits

2013

Shrews have very high metabolic rates and are often unintentionally starved in rodent live-traps during capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies. Here, we suggest a shrew exit as a modification to rodent traps. To test whether this modification is (1) saving shrews and (2) not jeopardizing results of rodent captures, we compared captures in Ugglan traps with and without shrew exits, studying bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in a spruce forest in central Finland. Numbers of captured bank voles and body size of smallest juvenile bank voles were not affected by the shrew exit, while the number of captured common shrews (Sorex araneus) was reduced from 31 to 0 individuals per 100 trap nights. However,…

Rodent Animal Research in UTx

2019

The rodents, mouse, and rat represent well-characterized animal sources for basic research in any field of biological sciences. The animals are cheap compared to other type of animals, easy to husbandry, and are extremely well characterized from genetic and physiology point of views, especially when it comes to immunological and reproductive aspects. Availability of gene-modified strains, easy embryo transfer, and the accessibility of specific recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies are further advantages. Hence, the first experiments done in the modern era of uterus transplantation used mouse and rat as the main animal models. In this chapter, we describe important key steps of the …

Vitamin E supplements in standard rodent diets do not affect antioxidant intervention trials in apo-/-mice: failure of vitamin E to inhibit atherogen…

2001

Parental experience of a risky environment leads to improved offspring growth rate.

2014

Abstract Parasites (or diseases) are major selective force for the evolution of life history traits and parasite-host evolution. Mothers can show a variety of responses to parasites during pregnancy with different consequences for them or their offspring. However, whether information in the maternal environment before pregnancy can cause a change in the phenotype of the offspring is unknown. To avoid the confounding effect of pathogens and to reduce the risk of direct effect of mother's immune activation, we injected female laboratory mice with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) before mating. In order to provide a constant information on the potential infectious risk of the environment, females wer…

Immunoaffinity purification and characterization of mitochondrial membrane-bound D-3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase from Jaculus orientalis.

2008

Abstract Background The interconversion of two important energy metabolites, 3-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate (the major ketone bodies), is catalyzed by D-3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (BDH1: EC 1.1.1.30), a NAD+-dependent enzyme. The eukaryotic enzyme is bound to the mitochondrial inner membrane and harbors a unique lecithin-dependent activity. Here, we report an advanced purification method of the mammalian BDH applied to the liver enzyme from jerboa (Jaculus orientalis), a hibernating rodent adapted to extreme diet and environmental conditions. Results Purifying BDH from jerboa liver overcomes its low specific activity in mitochondria for further biochemical characterization of the e…

Population cycles and outbreaks of small rodents: ten essential questions we still need to solve

2021

AbstractMost small rodent populations in the world have fascinating population dynamics. In the northern hemisphere, voles and lemmings tend to show population cycles with regular fluctuations in numbers. In the southern hemisphere, small rodents tend to have large amplitude outbreaks with less regular intervals. In the light of vast research and debate over almost a century, we here discuss the driving forces of these different rodent population dynamics. We highlight ten questions directly related to the various characteristics of relevant populations and ecosystems that still need to be answered. This overview is not intended as a complete list of questions but rather focuses on the most…

Maintenance of genetic diversity in cyclic populations - a longitudinal analysis in Myodes glareolus

2012

Conspicuous cyclic changes in population density characterize many populations of small northern rodents. The extreme crashes in individual number are expected to reduce the amount of genetic variation within a population during the crash phases of the population cycle. By long-term monitoring of a bank vole (Myodes glareolus) population we show that despite the substantial and repetitive crashes in the population size, high heterozygosity is maintained throughout the population cycle. The striking population density fluctuation in fact only slightly reduced the allelic richness of the population during the crash phases. Effective population sizes of vole populations remained also relativel…

The rodents of the Pirro Nord fauna (Foggia, Southern Italy)

2013

The rodent fauna of various fissure fillings of the Pirro Nord karstic complex are examined here. They have been collected during several field caingns starting from the 70’s until 2006 and are here examined in a comprehensive matter. Hundreds of specimens of arvicolids, murids and, in much lower amount, Glirids have been recovered from several of these fissures. They belong to the species Allophaiomys ex gr. ruffoi, Myodes sp. Apodemus flavicollis and Muscardinus sp.

Compromised Neurotrophic and Angiogenic Regenerative Capability during Tendon Healing in a Rat Model of Type-II Diabetes

2017

Metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus type-II (DM-II) may increase the risk of suffering painful connective tissue disorders and tendon ruptures. The pathomechanisms, however, by which diabetes adversely affects connective tissue matrix metabolism and regeneration, still need better definition. Our aim was to study the effect of DM-II on expressional changes of neuro- and angiotrophic mediators and receptors in intact and healing Achilles tendon. The right Achilles tendon was transected in 5 male DM-II Goto-Kakizaki (GK) and 4 age-matched Wistar control rats. The left Achilles tendons were left intact. At week 2 post-injury, NGF, BDNF, TSP, and receptors TrkA, TrkB and Nk1 gene expre…

Evidence for characteristic vascular patterns in solid tumours: quantitative studies using corrosion casts

1999

The vascular architecture of four different tumour cell lines (CaX, CaNT, SaS, HEC-1B) transplanted subcutaneously in mice was examined by means of microvascular corrosion casting in order to determine whether there is a characteristic vascular pattern for different tumour types and whether it differs significantly from two normal tissues, muscle and gut. Three-dimensional reconstructed scanning electron microscope images were used for quantitative measurements. Vessel diameters, intervessel and interbranch distances showed large differences between tumour types, whereas the branching angles were similar. In all tumours, the variability of the vessel diameters was significantly higher than …