Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2009. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR51561

Senior Honors thesis--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jun. 16, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Physiology and Developmental Biology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-47).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2012-09-06T01:12:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) 616.pdf: 4168242 bytes, checksum: 59e0b30e0d6358d8c0e2e8d361324a50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / (...) O objetivo foi investigar as mudanças na expressão do RE-alfa em alguns tecidos responsivos a estrógenos, tais como ovário, útero e vagina, durante a abertura de vagina, um evento crítico que marca o início da puberdade em ratas. A expressão de RE-alfa foi avaliada em grupos de ratas Sprague-Dawley sacrificados por decapitação no dia 21 pós-natal (21 DPN) e no dia de abertura de vagina (VA). A expressão de RE-alfa também foi avaliada em um terceiro grupo de ratas com vagina fechada (VF) pareados com animais do grupo VA por idade e(...)por ninhada de origem. Imediatamente após o sacrifício os órgãos-alvo (ovários, útero e vagina) foram removidos e armazenados à - 80°C até o uso. Os órgãos foram pesados ainda congelados, descongelados e homogeneizados (útero e vagina, individualmente, e pool de três ovários do mesmo grupo) antes das análises de SDS-PAGE e Western Blot. As membranas foram incubadas com anticorpo policlonal contra RE-alfa de camundongo (1:200) e posteriormente com anticorpo IgG secundário anti-coelho (1:5000). Diferenças de peso corporal entre os grupos VA e VF foram analisadas pelo teste de Wilcoxon Signed-rank entre animais pareados. Os pesos dos órgãos absolutos foram comparados por ANOVA e pelo teste t de student e as diferenças de peso relativo dos órgãos e densidades de bandas foram avaliados pelo teste de Kruskal Wallis seguido pelo teste U de Mann-Whitney. Em todos os casos a diferença foi considerada como estatisticamente significativa quando p menor ou igual a 0,05. Apesar de terem a mesma idade, e pertencerem à mesma ninhada, as fêmeas do grupo VA estavam mais pesadas que as do grupo VF. Esse fato vem confirmar achados anteriores de diferentes autores sugerindo que o peso corporal e os fatores meólicos desempenham papel fundamental no período da puberdade. Três variantes do RE-alfa - com pesos moleculares aparentes de 64, 56 e 42 kD - foram encontradas nos ovários, útero e vagina. A expressão de todas as três variantes em ovários e úteros, bem como as variantes 64 e 56 kD na vagina, das fêmeas do grupo VA, parece ter sido menor do que em ratas do grupo 21 DPN. Por outro lado, a expressão da variante 42 kD em tecido de vagina de ratas do grupo 21 DPN foi menor do que a expressão nas fêmeas do grupo VA e VF. Nossos resultados sugerem que - com exceção da variante 42 kD na vagina - a expressão de todas as variantes de RE-alfa nos ovários, úteros e vaginas parecem diminuir nas ratas quando ocorre a abertura de vagina

Fischer 344 (F344) rats may be useful for studying impairments in social interactions because they exhibit reduced play behavior compared to Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The purpose of this investigation was to explore F344 rats as a model of early social interaction deficits and to determine if oxytocin (OT) activity mediated attachment behavior. To this end, we conducted three experiments measuring the preference of a dam-paired odor in postnatal day (PD) 12 F344 and SD rats. In Experiment 1, PD 11 pups were conditioned with a dam- or neutral-paired odor and tested for odor preference on PD 12. Experiments 2 and 3 used the same protocol as Experiment 1, except in Experiments 2 and 3, pups received an injection of OT (0, 250, 500, or 1000 ng, IC) or OT antagonist (OTA) (0.1, 0.3, or 1 mg/kg, IP) prior to the start of conditioning. Preference for the dam-paired odor did not differ between rat strains, however both male and female F344 pups showed a greater preference for the maternal odor when treated with OT. Male rats showed this enhanced preference at 500 ng OT while females required 1000 ng OT. OT did not alter odor preference in SD pups and OTA did not alter either rat strain’s preference. In conclusion, F344 rat pups do not have attachment deficits but may be useful for testing compounds to treat attachment disorders. It is possible that maternal attachment differs from other social behaviors, such as play behavior. Exogenous OT administration enhanced attachment but only in F344 rats. These data suggest further research on OT in F344 rats is warranted. In addition, it has been suggested that, since ASD affects more boys than girls, the problem may lie with AVP rather than OT. Therefore, other mechanisms may be involved in the development of social behaviors and perhaps the development of maternal attachment. Further testing of other neurochemicals such as dopamine and AVP as well as examining other stages of development (i.e., adolescence and adulthood) may be useful in identifying new therapeutics for ASD.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 2001. / "May 2001." Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-150). Also available on the Internet.

Mother-infant separation (MS) is an early-life stressor which affects stress-related processes in brain and behaviors in rats. Changes associated with MS were investigated in the brain and behavior of two rat strains, Holtzman and Sprague-Dawley, at three points in development. The hypothesis was that MS would affect the prefrontal cortex (PFC), both in metabolic capacity and PFC-related behaviors across the lifespan. First, cytochrome oxidase (CO), an enzyme that directly reflects metabolic capacity in the brain, was quantified in two-week old Holtzman rats after MS, early handling (EH), or nohhandled controls. MS reduced CO activity in the PFC of female rats but not males. Path analysis of the CO data revealed a stronger descending influence of the medial PFC, a region associated with behavioral inhibition, in females; contrasted with a stronger descending influence of the lateral PFC, a region associated with motor output, in males. Second, adolescent rats were tested in the open field to assess MS effects on ambulatory activity and impulsivity. MS increased ambulatory activity and impulsivity in Sprague-Dawley males. In a separate study, MS reduced ambulation and impulsivity in Holtzman rats in the open field. Brains of Sprague- Dawley adolescents showed reduced PFC thickness in MS males relative to EH males. Across groups, male adolescents had reduced metabolic capacity relative to females in the PFC. Finally, extinction of Pavlovian fear, a PFC-related behavior, was not affected by sex or separation group in adult Holtzman rats. Across groups, males showed greater fear renewal than females, despite the extinction process. An unexpected finding was that EH attenuated fear renewal. Findings from these MS studies in Sprague-Dawley rats are similar to human psychopathology of ADHD, which is reported more frequently in young males and is related to PFC dysfunction. The opposite behavioral findings between Holtzman and Sprague-Dawley rats suggest that genetic predisposition can affect long-term responses to the same early-life stressor. Knowledge about baseline sex differences in brain and behavior gained from the studies on Holtzman rats may help future research to consider sex-dependent effects of disruptions during development, as it appears that some basic neural substrates are sexually dimorphic. / text

The aim of the present study was to develop an alternative non-obese non-genetic rat model of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Six-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into six groups, namely: Normal Control (NC), Diabetic Control (DBC), Caffeine 5 mg/kg BW + STZ (CAF5), Caffeine 10 mg/kg BW + STZ (CAF10), Caffeine 20 mg/kg BW + STZ (CAF20) and Caffeine 40 mg/kg BW + STZ (CAF40) and were fed a commercially available rat pellet diet and normal drinking water ad libitum throughout the 13 weeks experimental period. After a one week acclimatization period, diabetes was induced in the animals in DBC and all CAF groups with an injection (i.p.) of the respective dosages of caffeine (mg/kg BW) 15 min before the injection (i.p.) of STZ (65 mg/kg BW) when normal saline was injected to the DBC group instead of caffeine. The NC group received normal saline and citrate buffer instead of caffeine and STZ, respectively. One week after the STZ injection, animals with non-fasting blood glucose > 300 mg/dl were considered as diabetic. Three weeks after the STZ injection, the animals in the CAF5 and CAF10 groups were eliminated from the study due to the severity of diabetes and the experiment was continued with the remainder groups for a 13 weeks period. At the end of the experimental period the rats were euthanized and blood and organ samples were collected for subsequent analysis. The data of daily food and fluid intake, weekly body weight and blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance test, serum insulin, fructosamine, lipid profile, organ specific and antioxidative enzymes, anti-diabetic drug response tests, and liver, heart, kidney and pancreas histopathology suggest that the CAF20 group can be a new and alternative non-obese non-genetic chemically-induced model for T2D and can be therefore used for both chronic and acute research studies as well as pharmacological screening of new anti-diabetic drugs. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-88). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19754