Spermatogenesis is a highly orchestrated, strictly regulated cascade of events that could be divided into three major processes: mitotic expansion of diploid germ cells (spermatocytogenesis), meiotic division creating haploid cells, and spermiogenesis. Spermiogenesis, the final stage of spermatogenesis comprises a striking metamorphosis of round haploid spermatids into morphologically and functionally specialized spermatozoa designed for the fertilization. One of the proteins indispensable for proper sperm morphogenesis is centrobin, a structural component of the specialized cytoskeletal structures of the elongating spermatids (acroplaxome and manchette), executing essential role in sperm head shaping and assembly of the head-tail coupling apparatus. Disruption in Cntrob gene (coding for centrobin) in rats homozygous at the hd (hypodactyly) locus results in male infertility, with a striking morphological signature called "decapitated sperm syndrome" with detachment of sperm head from the flagellum due to impaired head-tail coupling. However, molecular function of centrobin in spermiogenesis is still unknown. Sperm decapitation is a distinct phenotype described in several mouse mutants and importantly from infertile human males. Strikingly, in addition to proteins functioning in cytoskeletal...

Background: A single infusion of ketamine has rapid antidepressant properties, although the drawback is a lack of sustained effect. A previous study showed a rapid enhancement (within 2 hours) in ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neuron population and locus coeruleus (LC) norepinephrine (NE) firing and bursting activity following a single ketamine administration. The current study investigated whether these changes are present 24 hours after a single administration and if they are maintained with repeated administration. Additionally, we examined dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) serotonin (5-HT) neurons to assess the effects of single and repeated ketamine administration on these neurons. Methods: Ketamine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered to male Sprague Dawley rats once or repeatedly (3 times/week) for 2 weeks. After single and repeated administration of ketamine, electrophysiological recordings were done in the VTA, LC and DRN in anesthetized rats, 24 hrs, 3 or 7 days post-administration. Spike frequency, bursting, and for VTA neurons, spontaneously active neurons/trajectory were assessed. Results: In the VTA, LC and DRN, 24 hrs after ketamine was injected acutely there was no significant difference between controls and treated animals in all parameters assessed. However, after repeated administration, there was an increase in bursting and number of spontaneously discharging neurons per tract of VTA DA neurons as well as an increase in frequency of discharge of LC NE neurons. While the increased number of spontaneously discharging neurons per tract had dissipated after 3 days, the enhanced bursting was still present but dissipated after 7 days. As for LC NE neurons, the increased frequency of discharge was no longer present after 3 days. No significant differences in the firing of DRN 5-HT neurons were observed between controls and treated animals even after ketamine was administered repeatedly. Conclusion: These results indicate that repeated but not acute administration of ketamine maintained the increase in population activity of DA neurons and firing activity of NE neurons.

This project is a master’s thesis in collaboration with Nomor, a company that offers pest control services. They had the need for the development of an automated mechanical rat trap for sewage systems. Brown rats populate the sewage systems in many cities, as it offers shelter and abundant food resources. Rats have been observed carrying various zoonotic diseases which are a health risk to people and animals, as rats may enter households via the sewage system. This report details the design and development process for a prototype for a striking mechanism, which will act as the foundation for a future trap. The process follows the theory described by Ulrich and Eppinger. The project resulted in the generation of 8 different concepts, which were screened down to a final pneumatic concept. The selected concept was then developed into a physical prototype, able to detect heat sources. A Simulink model was developed to support the detail design. The model calculates resulting impact energy from various input parameters, such as working pressure and moving mass. The prototype functions up to 3 bar with an impact energy of approximately 6 Joules.

The behavioral deficits produced by trimethyltin (TMT) are usually attributed to the hippocampal damage caused by this toxicant. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of TMT administration on acquisition and reversal of a discrete trial light-dark discrimination. Acquisition of this task is impaired by hippocampal lesions but the effects of TMT on it are not known. Forty-five days after some of the rats were given one of three doses of TMT, adult, male Long-Evans rats were given 100 trials per day for 20 days to acquire a discrete trial lever press discrimination with lit cue lights located above the correct lever. At the end of this time the contingencies were reversed and the rats were given 30 more days of training. No significant group differences occurred during the first 20 days. A significant group effect was found for the 30 days of reversal training. The rats given the highest dose of TMT (6 mg/kg) obtained significantly more reinforcements during reversal training than the other groups. Because surgical hippocampal lesions generally impair both acquisition and reversal of visual discriminations, these data were unexpected and suggest that other factors than hippocampal damage enter into the behavioral effects of TMT.

The postnatal development of rat retinal phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT) activity was measured by radiometric assay. Activity was detected on day 1 of life. Retinal PNMT activity of day 1 neonates approximated 10% that of the adult. There is an increase in enzyme activity before eye opening. By day 30, enzyme activity has peaked. The enzyme during this early period possesses the same substrate specificity and inhibitor sensitivity as that of the adult enzyme. PNMT activity is detected before tyrosine hydroxylase activity.

In primary rat hepatocyte cultures, growth hormone was shown to depress tyrosine aminotransferase levels induced with hydrocortisone. Both induction by glucocorticoid and repression by growth hormone could be demonstrated in cultures several days old.

The environmental neurotoxin trimethyltin (TMT) destroys parts of the hippocampal formation as well as the entorhinal cortex but leaves the septal cholinergic projection to the hippocampus and dentate gyrus intact. In this study we measured choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity in micropunch samples of the dentate gyrus, the CA1 region of Ammon's horn, and the caudate-putamen as a measure of density of cholinergic innervation in control rats and rats exposed to 7 mg/kg TMT by means of gastric intubation. Three months after the rats were exposed to a single dose of TMT both the dentate gyrus and CA1 demonstrated significantly higher ChAT activity in TMT-exposed rats than in control rats. No differences were found between groups for the caudate-putamen samples. These results support the hypothesis that exposure to TMT causes reactive synaptogenesis in the cholinergic septohippocampal system.

Trimethyltin (TMT) produces prominent neuron death in the hippocampus. The time-course of TMT-induced damage was studied using reduced-silver procedures for impregnation of degenerating axons and their terminals, and a modified Timm's stain procedure for visualization of hippocampal transitional metals. Standard cell body stains were also used. Fifty-four, adult, Long-Evans rats were gavaged with 6.0 mg TMT/kg b.wt. and 10 rats were gavaged with distilled water as controls. Five TMT-gavaged rats and one saline-gavaged rat were sacrificed on either postgavage day 1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 19, 30, 45, 70 or 99. Histological examination revealed a band of degenerating terminals in the stratum lucidum, below the hippocampal subfields CA3a,b pyramidal cells, by postgavage day 3. This preceded dentate gyrus granule cell loss supplying the mossy fiber input to the stratum lucidum by several days. Hippocampal pyramidal cell necrosis continued through the examination period while dentate granule cell loss subsided between postgavage days 9 and 14. Fiber and terminal degeneration was more extensive in the dorsal hippocampus than in the ventral hippocampus, although Timm's-stained sections revealed "bleaching" of stainable metal in the mossy fiber pathway of the ventral hippocampus. These data suggest that loss of ventral dentate granule cells might reduce TMT-induced necrosis of pyramidal cells in the ventral (temporal) part of the Ammon's horn, possibly by preventing the spread of seizure activity in this region of the hippocampus. Additionally, although previous studies have reported the toxic effects of TMT to last approximately 60 days, the results of the present study indicate that TMT-induced degeneration continues for more than 3 months. Reduced-silver stains, such as the Fink-Heimer procedure, appear to be more sensitive indicators of enduring neuropathology than more traditional cell stains.

The metabolism of pure cis- and trans- chlordane was studied in vitro. Microsomal preparations from the livers of male rats induced with cis- or trans-chlordane in feed for ten days were used to metabolize the pure compound corresponding to the inducer. Subsequent extraction, column fractionation and combined gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy resulted in the characterization of four compounds not previously reported from an in vitro system. In addition to the substrate, trans-chlordane extracts contained species with the following molecular weights and empirical formulae: m/e 370, c 10 H 5 Cl 7 , heptachlor; m/e 352, c 10 H 6 0C1 6, a hydroxylated chlordene; and m/e 422, c 10 H 6 0C1 8 , a hydroxylated chlordane. Dichlo rochlo rdene, oxychlordane and 1- chloro- 2 -hydroxychlordene chlorohydrin were also present, With the exception of the hydroxychlordane and heptachlor, cis - chlordane extracts contained all of the metabolites found in the trans-incubates. Additionally, a fully saturated compound m/e 372, c 10 H 7 c1 7, a dihydroheptachlor, was present. The 1, 2-trans-dihydrodiol of heptachlor found in previous in vitro incubates of cis-chlordane was not present in this extract. This information has been incorporated into a proposed route for the biotransformation of the chlordanes that offers an explanation for the observed differences in the metabolism of cis - and trans-chlordane . The pathway is based on the reductive dechlorination of the chlordanes through dihydroheptachlor to dihydrochlordene. Parallel pathways of hydroxylation, desaturation and epoxide formation arise at each of these species and at chlordane itself. The trans-isomer is predominantly desaturated or hydroxylated while the cis-isomer mainly undergoes dehaloge nation.

Effects of Fe and Se status on GSHPx activity and lipid peroxidation in liver and intestinal mucosa were studied. Rats were Se and Fe supplemented ( +Se+Fe), Sedeficient and Fe-supplemented (-Se+Fe), Se supplemented and Fe overloaded (+Se++Fe) by intramuscular injection, or Se deficient and Fe overloaded (-Se++Fe) for 20d. Fe overloaded tissues had more Fe, but hemoglobin was unaffected. Liver and mucosal GSHPx activity was low in Se-deficient rats. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were higher in Fe overloaded and -Se++Fe vs +Se++Fe tissues. Mucosal TBARS was higher in -Se++Fe rats gavaged with CBrCl3. In experiment 2, Fe overload was induced by a 2% carbonyl iron, low-Se diet fed for 2mo, the +Se++Fe and -Se++Fe groups. Low Se-, low Fe-diet was fed to rats supplemented with Fe or Fe and Se in the water, the -Se+Fe and +Se+Fe controls. Iron overloaded tissues had more Fe. Liver and mucosal GSHPx activity was lower in Se-deficient and +Se++Fe vs +Se+Fe rats. TBARS was higher in Fe overloaded, -Se++Fe vs +Se++Fe, and CBrCl3 tissues. Hemoglobin and serum Fe were lower in the -Se++Fe group. In experiment 3, low-Se, low-Fe diet was fed for 20d, the -Se-Fe, +Se-Fe, -Se+Fe and +Se+Fe groups. Mucosal Fe was lower in the Fe-deficient rats. Cytochrome P-450 and GSHPx activities were lower and TBARS was higher in Se-deficient tissues. In experiment 4, the +Se+Fe, +SeFe, -Se+Fe, -Se-Fe, +Se++Fe, and -Se++Fe groups treated as in experiment 3. Iron overloaded tissues had more Fe and TBARS, but hemoglobin and serum Fe were unaffected. GSHPx and Cytochrome P-450 activities were lower in Se-deficient and in +Se++Fe vs +Se+Fe rats. CBrCl3 did not affect TBARS. High TBARS occurred in liver and mucosa of Fe overloaded rats. Chronic Fe overload was required to reduce liver and mucosal GSHPx activity. The combination of Se deficiency and Fe overload caused very high TBARS. Low oral CBrCl3 doses elevated mucosal TBARS, a first report of extrahepatic action of CBrCl3 in vivo. Iron deficiency did not affect GSHPx activity or CBrCl3 induced lipid peroxidation.