and featured on the cover their early study found that mice that were fed these tomatoes in freeze-dried ground form had less inflammation
Scientists fed the tomatoes to mice that lacked the ability to remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL or bad cholesterol) from their blood and readily developed inflammation and atherosclerosis when consuming a high-fat diet.
The researchers found that mice that ate the peptide-enhanced tomatoes which accounted for 2. 2 percent of their Western-style high-fat diet had significantly lower levels of inflammation;
Several hours after the mice finished eating the intact peptide was found in the small intestine
Co-authors of the study are Mara Vitolins Dr. PH. Timothy Morgan Ph d. Caroline Blackwell B. S. Scott Isom M. S. Carolyn Pedley M d. of Wake
Recent research using mice confirms that genes from bird flu and human flu can combine to create dangerous new flu strains.
The research focused on two flu strains that studies in mice have shown can combine with lethal results:
what is available for the mouse brain and make it publicly available. But they don't want to stop with tool development.
Choline deficiency has been tied to cognitive deficits in the mouse and human and we're developing a pig model to study the direct effects choline deficiency has on brain structure
In experiments with a mouse model of human immune function the scientists vaccinated mice for listeria a common bacterium that causes food-borne illness
Mice in which the critical differentiation period was allowed to occur unimpeded remained healthy protected from a potentially lethal infection.
In mice in which T-cell differentiation was blocked said Krummel it was as if the mice had never been vaccinated at all.
Krummel said the work also opens up new paths of research in immunology which his laboratory is currently pursuing.
while the mouse model of human immune response is robust and very well-grounded research will ultimately have to take place in humans
#Bitter melon juice prevents pancreatic cancer in mouse modelsa University of Colorado Cancer study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that bitter melon juice restricts the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to metabolize glucose
After studies in cell cultures the group showed that mouse models of pancreatic cancer that were fed bitter melon juice were 60 percent less likely to develop the disease than controls.
The Agarwal Lab is now applying for grants that will allow them to move the study of bitter melon into further chemoprevention trials in mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
The authors examined the effect of GSSE processed from a grape cultivar('Carignan')of Vitis vinifera from northern Tunisia on rats.
Rats were fed a high-fat diet that induced a low-grade reno-lipotoxicity that is kidney damage associated with lipids.
and prevents copper depletion in rats is available Open Access in the journal Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism.
Higgins describes studies showing that rats fed resistant starch show decreased numbers and sizes of lesions due to colorectal cancer and an increased number of cells that express the protein IL-10 which acts to regulate the body's inflammatory response Resistant starch may also have implications for the prevention
For example if you let rats get obese get them to lose the weight and then feed half of the rats a diet high in resistant starch--these rats don't gain back the weight as fast as rats fed a regular digestible starch diet.
This effect on obesity may help to reduce breast cancer risk as well as having implications for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
Much of this information currently comes from rodent models and small clinical trials but the evidence is encouraging.
Lead author Kristen Beavers Ph d. and colleagues at Wake Forest Baptist said the findings suggest that prevention of age-related declines in walking speed isn't just about preserving muscle mass it's also about preventing fat gain.
Walking speed declines with age said Beavers and in older adults slower walking speed is a predictor of disability nursing home admission and even death.
Unfortunately said Beavers not much is known about what precedes this decline although change in body composition seemed like a reasonable place to start the research.
Importantly said Beavers older adults who gained the most thigh fat and lost the most thigh muscle were at greatest risk of experiencing a clinically meaningful decline in walking speed.
Beavers said this study is the first of its kind to address the independent association between changes in sophisticated measures of body composition and walking speed.
As the burden of disability becomes increasingly common and expensive identification of modifiable contributors to functional decline in older adults is emerging as a significant priority of public health research Beavers said.
Daniel P. Beavers Ph d. Denise K. Houston Ph d. Barbara J. Nicklas and Stephen Kritchevsky all of Wake Forest Baptist;
which are those bearing live young including bats rodents whales and humans. Appearing February 7 in the journal Science the study details how researchers used both genetic and physical traits to reconstruct the common ancestor of placental mammals the creature that gave rise to many mammals alive today.
Knoell's lab previously showed that zinc-deficient mice developed overwhelming inflammation in response to sepsis compared to mice on a normal diet.
Zinc supplementation improved outcomes in the zinc-deficient mice. Until now the beneficial effects of zinc in combating infection have not been understood fully at the molecular level.
In this work Knoell and colleagues sought to zero in on zinc's role in preventing the inflammation that had led to such poor outcomes in the zinc-deficient mice.
When researchers allowed this protein to function unchecked in mice with zinc deficiency the animals developed excessive inflammation in response to sepsis--confirmation that IKKB was zinc's target to turn off the inflammatory pathway.
In addition albatross are threatened by invasive species such as rats and wild cats which prey on chicks nesting adults and eggs.
which purified beta carotene and gamma tocopherol will be fed to lab mice. This may show whether those substances themselves are critical to preventing
Voles know which acorns have insect larvaeresearchers at the UPM have observed as voles are able to distinguish the acorns containing insect larvae from those that have not.
This is the place where researchers at the School of Forestry from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid have carried out a research on scattering patterns of acorns for voles
and are reachable for the rest of animals that seek this fruit during the autumn days (wild boar deer and mice among others).
Voles are the main consumers of acorns and they hide this fruit during autumns in order to consume them in winter time.
or stolen by another vole and achieving so a dispersal distance up to hundreds meters with respect to its mother tree
But what do voles do attacked with the acorns by beetle larvae? There is not just an answer
Acorns whose larvae had emerged out were rejected rapidly by voles barely touching moving or storing them.
and stored by voles. The study reveals that voles liked these larvae (rich in proteins) and feed on them decreasing the harm produced by these worms over the acorns.
Therefore voles scattered and buried these acorns that finally contributed to generate new plants. The fact that the larva was resulted still inside definitive for the near future of the acorn and therefore the future of oak forests.
The nature maintains its compensation mechanisms and an apparent harmful beetle can be attractive to voles that at the same time releases acorns from this enemy
and help them to thrive thanks to its rich substance what allows them to survive winter
and maintain this favorable relationship between vole and acorn. These results reveal that we do not know ye the behavior of those ecosystems that we aim to preserve.
and the sibling vole (Microtus levis) and one shared consumer the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). The community's population fluctuations were driven mainly by rain-on-snow events the researchers found.
and sibling vole populations causing extensive simultaneous population crashes in all three species in the winter and spring after the extreme weather.
Docampo and his colleagues tested their hypothesis by watching genetically modified versions of the parasitic cell both in laboratory cultures and in mice.
and mice in the experimental group remained disease free. We knew that these organelles were rich in acidic calcium
and found they made mice in the laboratory less sick than viruses containing the NSS gene.
#Research revisiting the safety of GM weevil-resistant peas in mice contradicts previous risk assessment findingsresearchers at the Medical University of Vienna have conducted feeding trials with mice to investigate the allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) weevil-resistant peas.
and Australian National University showed negative reactions in mice to the peas (Prescott et al 2005).
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
The mice showed similar levels of immune response no matter which food they consumed. Dr. Michelle Epstein the lead researcher said We observed that the immune response in mice was the same no matter
whether the inhibitor came from beans where it naturally occurs or from peas genetically modified to express the inhibitor and even in non-transgenic peas.
These results demonstrate that Î AI transgenic peas are no more allergenic than beans or non-transgenic peas in mice Dr. Epstein added.
Rodent studies for genetically modified organism (GMO) safety have recently been in the news. Seralini et al. showed untoward effects in rats fed GM corn
and add to the controversy of using rodents to study GMO safety (see EFSA report). The study is important
Dr. Epstein questions the utility of rodents for evaluating biotech crops and points out that the MUV results highlight the importance of a careful case-by-case evaluation of GM CROPS
On the day of discovery Tsangaras only wanted to compare a particular sequence of DNA enclosed in the mitochondria of different southeast Asian rodents.
Analysis of the sequences and comparison with reference data demonstrated that the complete mitochondrial genome of the rodents had been retrieved from the DNA pool.
#How beavers have affected ecosystem at Voyageurs National Parkfelling trees building dams and creating ponds--beavers have a unique ability to alter the landscape in ways that are beneficial to other organisms according to South dakota State university professor Carol Johnston of the natural resource management department.
That's why they are known as a keystone species. The ecologist received a two-year National Science Foundation grant for more than $143000 to compile a book based on her previous NSF-funded research on how beavers have affected the ecosystem at Voyageurs national park near
International Falls Minnesota. Beavers influence the environment at a rate far beyond what would be expected given their abundance said Johnston who has been doing beaver research
since the 1980s and authored or co-authored 28 of the 37 articles in the compilation.
Beavers create patchiness because they cut down big trees and make dams that flood the landscape creating wet meadows
However historical and aerial photos from 1927 and 1940 showed solid forests meaning little evidence of beaver activity.
From the 1940s through the 1980s the beaver population in the nearly 218000-acre park increased steadily according to Johnston.
By 1986 13 percent of the landscape was impounded by beavers. We saw lots of ponds where before there were none she said.
Having beaver on the landscape creates a lot of biodiversity. Since 1991 the number of beavers has begun to decrease Johnston pointed out.
However thanks to National park service officials mapping the active beaver lodges she can now relate the population data to changes in the landscape.
It's unusual to have both those types of data for such a large area she said.
when beaver numbers are reduced. Both predation and depleted food supply may account for the beavers'decline.
Aspen is preferred the food she said noting beavers don't hibernate and must rely on having a large supply of edible food in their underwater cache to survive the winter.
Beavers forage up to 110 yards from the pond edge creating what Johnston calls a bathtub ring of conifers
when most of the aspen and deciduous trees have been harvested. Venturing beyond that comfort zone makes them susceptible to predators she pointed out.
Beavers are preferred a prey for wolves. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by South dakota State university.
However inhalation exposure to 1-bromopropane in rodents caused tumors in several organs including the skin lungs and large intestine.
Inhalation exposure to cumene caused lung tumors in male and female mice and liver tumors in female mice.
It also caused tumors in the liver and other organs in mice. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS.
The nondigestible compounds in the Granny smith apples actually changed the proportions of fecal bacteria from obese mice to be similar to that of lean mice Noratto said.
Seventeen percent of the leopard's diet consisted of assorted wild animals including rodents monkeys and mongoose and birds.
The study which focused on laboratory rats was published today in the online peer reviewed journal Nature Communications.
such as mongoose rats and domestic cats serve as unnatural predators and take a huge toll on native species
Until now lab-built kidneys have been sized rodent and have functioned for only one or two hours after transplantation because blood clots developed said Anthony Atala M d. director and professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a senior author on the study.
-and-mouse as crops are introduced to pest free regions and briefly thrive before their pursuers catch up with them.
The gene was identified in Arabidopsis thaliana a small unassuming plant related to cabbage and canola that is the lab rat of plant research.
but the longest-surviving group was treated specifically with a high dose of recombinant mouse-rhesus chimeric antibody (clone 2c10r4).
In contrast use of an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody generated in a mouse (clone 3a8) did not extend survival.
The experimental therapy that humanitarian aid workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol received was purified based on a monoclonal antibodies from mice genetically engineered to produce humanlike antibodies against the Ebola virus.
Insects and rodents seemed to be unimportant. Truck conditions and bad weather were the top factors to blame for loss
A new mango drink enriched with antioxidants from mas cotekresearchers at the Universiti Teknologi MARA have enhanced the antioxidants present in mango fruit drink by adding the extracts of naturally occuring traditional herbs in Malaysia.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
Supports earlier epigenetic findingswhen Skinner and his colleagues exposed gestating rats to methoxychlor at a range typical of high environmental exposures they saw increases in the incidence of kidney disease ovary disease
Additionally the study identified mutations in the sperm epigenome of great-grandchild male rats. The epigenome functions like a set of switches for regulating gene expression and can be altered by environmental conditions.
#Fecal transplants let packrats eat poisonwoodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes.
Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters University of Utah biologists found.
The study of woodrats also known as packrats raises two concerns according to Kohl and the study's senior author Denise Dearing a professor and chair of biology:
The study of woodrats someday might impact farming practices in arid regions where toxic plants like creosote
Kohl says he'd like to transplant woodrat gut microbes into sheep or goats to find out if that increases their tolerance to toxic foods.
The study involved desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida)--grayish rodents native to western North american deserts. Woodrats somehow acquired novel toxin-degrading gut microbes to adapt to climate
and vegetation changes that began 17000 years ago. In a natural climatic event at the end of the last glacial period the Southwest dried out
Desert woodrats in the Mojave started eating creosote bushes while desert woodrats in the Great Basin kept eating toxic juniper to
How do woodrats get their tiny but valuable bacterial helpers today? Mammals acquire microbes during birth through contact with their mother's vaginal and fecal microbes Kohl says.
Other possible places to get microbes include leaf surfaces the soil or feces that woodrats collect from other animals.
Speeding Up Dietary Evolution with Fecal Transplantsin an earlier study the Utah researchers showed that the creosote-eating woodrats from the Sonoran
while juniper-eating woodrats from the Great Basin had a different set of gut bacteria.
In the new study Dearing and colleagues performed three experiments using two kinds of woodrats â juniper eaters from the Great Basin desert
In the first experiment the scientists studied the relative abundances of gut-microbe genes in two groups of the creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
Gut microbes were removed from the foreguts of both woodrat groups. DNA was isolated from the microbes to identify genes involved in detoxification.
The scientists found that a woodrat's diet determines the composition of its gut microbes.
The guts of creosote-fed woodrats were teeming with microbes that may degrade creosote while the guts of creosote-free woodrats had only one-fourth the levels of the same gut microbes.
In the second experiment the researchers experimentally removed gut microbes to highlight their dietary role in woodrats.
Antibiotics kill about 90 percent of the gut microbes in animals severely impairing their ability to consume toxic foods.
Two groups of woodrats were pretreated with the antibiotic neomycin in their drinking water. One group was placed on a diet of rabbit chow and creosote resin.
In the third experiment the biologists essentially sped up evolution by using fecal transplants to quickly change populations of microbes living in the woodrats'guts.
and showed that acquiring new microbes indeed helped woodrats adopt new diets. Woodrats naturally eat their own and other woodrats'feces.
So in the experiment juniper-eating Great Basin woodrats were fed rabbit chow mixed with feces either from other juniper eaters or from creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
Both woodrat groups then were challenged with a creosote diet. After ingesting feces --and thus gut microbes--from creosote eaters juniper eaters persisted for 11 days on the creosote diet without losing much weight.
Yet 65 percent of the juniper eaters that ate feces of other juniper eaters didn't gain microbes that detoxify creosote
It's not that those woodrats rejected creosote-laced food. They ate as much as the woodrats that were fed feces with creosote-detoxifying microbes.
Instead Kohl and co-authors found that when woodrats didn't get transplants of creosote-detoxifying microbes their urine was more acidic suggesting their livers expended a lot of energy to degrade creosote toxins.
But in juniper eaters that consumed the feces of creosote eaters their newly acquired gut microbes likely detoxified most of the creosote taking the burden off of liver enzymes.
The retinal beta-amyloid plaque findings and optical imaging technology began at Cedars-Sinai with studies in live rodents
and flavoring material can reverse the biomechanical cellular and anatomical changes that occur in the brains of mice with Parkinsonâ##s disease (PD).
and improves motor functions in mice with PD. This research was supported by grants from National institutes of health. â#oenow we need to translate this finding to the clinic and test ground cinnamon in patients with PD.
#Ancient hedgehog and tapir once inhabited British Columbiathe Earth has experienced many dramatic changes in climate
This is illustrated by a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology that describes an ancient hedgehog
The ancient hedgehog is a species hitherto unknown to science. It is named Silvacola acares which means tiny forest dweller
since this minute hedgehog likely had a body length of only 2 to 2. 5 inches.
Modern hedgehogs and their relatives are restricted to Europe Asia and Africa. The other mammal discovered at the site Heptodon is an ancient relative of modern tapirs
and also revealed the possibility that this fungus could produce harmful metabolites that were previously unknown in this species. The researchers then tested the strain on mice where the fungus showed an ability to cause lethal infections
in squirrels and passerines it was lower and in partridges it was low. Authors highlight that carbon
However there is some evidence that rodents may increase their body temperature to reduce the toxicity of compounds found in some plant leaves.
The small rodents such as voles and lemmings benefit from this says Dr Jepsen while it appears that reindeer use the heavily defoliated areas less.
In severely defoliated areas we found increased amounts of small-rodent excrement and less from reindeer Insect outbreaks mean browner sub-arcticseveral studies in recent years have pointed to the greening of the Arctic due to a warming climate.
Specifically the study results using mice genetically engineered to mimic Alzheimer's disease suggest that Lavado cocoa extract prevents the protein Î-amyloid-(AÎ) from gradually forming sticky clumps in the brain
and reversing damage to synapses in the study mice. There have been some inconsistencies in medical literature regarding the potential benefit of cocoa polyphenols on cognitive function says Dr. Pasinetti.
The researchers specifically observed the foraging activity of elephants impalas small-dog-sized antelopes known as dik-diks and rodents.
and fruits were more likely to be eaten by insects rather than dik-diks or rodents.
In the study the researchers showed that the tetracycline gene construct also works in Drosophila the fruit fly lab rat of the insect world that is a distant cousin of the sheep blowfly.
The fossil record shows that the first primitive even-toed ungulates had legs with five toes (digits) just like modern mice and humans.
To this aim they compared the activity of genes in mouse and cattle embryos which control the development of fingers and toes during embryonic development.
in mouse embryos the so-called Hox gene transcription factors are distributed asymmetrically in the limb buds which is crucial to the correct patterning of the distal skeleton.
and loss of digitsthe scientists in the Department of Biomedicine then focused their attention on the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway as it controls Hox gene expression and the development of five fingers and toes in mice and humans.
They discovered that the gene expression in limb buds of cattle embryos is altered such that the cells giving rise to the distal skeleton fail to express the Hedgehog receptor called Patched1.
and other even-toed ungulates while it remained fully functional in some vertebrates such as mice and humans.
#Tests confirm that beloved hawk succumbed to multiple rat poisonsa red-tailed hawk named Ruby captured the imagination of many Massachusetts residents who watched Ruby
When Ruby died suddenly in April from apparently ingesting rat poison it was a local tragedy as well as a national warning about the serious dangers these chemicals pose to wildlife.
While these poisons are meant to kill rodents they have unintended consequences of harming and killing animals that prey on rodents.
Sadly wildlife is overlooked often in the age-old battle of human versus rodent. Susan Moses a Cambridge resident who had watched Buzz
Rodents and other species need a much smaller amount of the poisons to suffer their effects.
While this factor doesn't necessarily make second-generation poisons more lethal for rodents than first generation products it has devastating consequences for wildlife.
In light of high numbers of children accidentally exposed to second-generation rat poisons as well as the risk to wildlife the EPA tightened the safety standards for consumer use of household rat
and mouse poisons in 2011. After a prolonged battle with the EPA the last manufacturer to comply with the safety standards agreed in May to stop producing its second-generation poisons for sale to residential consumers by the end of the year.
Researchers from Universiti Teknologi MARA have invented successfully a PCR kit which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
In this study the team was able to piece together the biological process that leads to the production of new bone by studying the offspring of mice lacking the Gastric Intrinsic factor gene
The researchers found that bone mass was reduced severely at eight weeks of age in the offspring of mice with Vitamin b12 deficiency.
The team was surprised to find that B12-deficient mice had only one-third of the normal number of bone-creating osteoblast cells
When these mice were fed regular doses of taurine at three weeks of age they recovered bone mass
While the focus of this study was the impact of maternal Vitamin b12 deficiency on offspring in mouse models there are promising parallels between these findings and data from human patients.
The discovery of this unanticipated pathway between gut liver and bone would not have been possible without the use of mouse molecular genetics
and appears to play the same role in mice and human beings raises the prospect that targeting this pathway through pharmacological means could be a novel approach toward an anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. Story Source:
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011