Rats in Biological News

City rats loyal to their 'hoods, scientists discover

In the rat race of life, one thing is certain: there's no place like home. Now, a study published this week in the journal Molecular Ecology finds the same is as true for rats as for humans. Although inner city rodents appear to roam freely, most form distinct neighborhoods where they spe...

Stem cells replace stroke-damaged tissue in rats

Effective stem cell treatment for strokes has taken a significant step forward today (09 March) as scientists reveal how they have replaced stroke-damaged brain tissue in rats. The team of scientists is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and led by Dr M...

4 days of REM sleep deprivation contributes to a reduction of cell proliferation in rats

WESTCHESTER, Ill. Four days exposure to a REM sleep deprivation procedure reduces cell proliferation in the part of the forebrain that contributes to long-term memory of rats, according to a study published in the February 1 issue of the journal SLEEP. The study, authored by Dennis McGinty, Ph...

Glucose triggers brain cell death in rats after hypoglycemic coma

Brain damage that was thought to be caused by hypoglycemic coma actually occurs when glucose is administered to treat the coma, according to a study in rodents led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. The results are surprising, say the authors, and may be of clinical significa...

Metacognition: Faced with a test, rats can check their knowledge first

Researchers have found evidence that rats are capable of metacognition—that is, they can possess knowledge of their own cognitive states. This ability, which can also be thought of as the capacity to assess or reflect on one's own mental processes, was previously only recognized in humans and other...

Human stem cell treatment restores motor function in paralyzed rats

Rats paralyzed due to loss of blood flow to the spine returned to near normal ambulatory function six weeks after receiving grafts of human spinal stem cells (hSSCs), researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine report. The study, led by Martin Marsala, M.D., ...

Experimental treatment halts hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in newborns

...nt study, posted on the journal's website this month, included one-week-old rats in which brain hypoxia-ischemia was induced. The researchers found that hyp...search team examined the therapeutic effect of injecting PAI-1 into newborn rats suffering from the brain blood flow reduction and systemic hypoxia. The enz...

Short stressful events may improve working memory

...n working memory, Yan, Yuen and colleagues trained rats in a maze until they could complete it correctly 6...he maze again. Results showed that the stressed rats made significantly fewer mistakes as they went thr...s they proposed, researchers injected one group of rats before the stressful forced-swim with a medicinal ...

Stop and smell the flowers -- the scent really can soothe stress

...ces to soothe away emotional stress. Until now, however, linalool's exact effects on the body have been a deep mystery. The scientists exposed lab rats to stressful conditions while inhaling and not inhaling linalool. Linalool returned stress-elevated levels of neutrophils and lymphocytes key parts o...

UT San Antonio researcher wins $917,000 from NIH to study memory

... not simply involve 'what' and 'where' events occurred; 'when' is also a crucial variable. We believe the continual generation of new neurons in both rats and humans serve as a temporal marker for highly similar memories. Because time also plays a role in memories, the contribution of these new neurons ...

Improved method developed to test carcinogen risk

...t and laboratory logistics make it virtually impossible to test millions of rats at a time to see how many more cases of cancer appear when a compound is ad...e raised the dose, tested it on a relatively small but affordable number of rats to see the results, and then extrapolated the results to determine one-in-a...

UC Davis researchers visualize formation of a new synapse

... less than 1 micron wide 100 times narrower than a strand of human hair. To view the process, the researchers cultured neurons taken from newly born rats and flourescently labled the proteins neuroligin, PSD-95 and NMDA which are critical to synapse formation. "We are the first to observe that neu...

UBC researchers develop new method to study gambling addictions

...illions worldwide. In addition to showing that rats can "play the odds," the study finds that gambling...fering from gambling disorders." For the study, rats had a limited amount of time in which to choose be... possibility of more frequent and longer timeouts. rats learned how to be successful gamblers, selecting t...

Peripheral nerve repair with fat precursor cells led to wider nerves and less muscle atrophy

.... "We found that full regeneration of the sciatic nerve occurred in the rats receiving the autograft, the guide, and the guide loaded with APCs. No regeneration was observed in any of the rats in which the defect was left untreated," said Marra. Their results also s...

Stress puts double whammy on reproductive system, fertility

...S ) The conclusions are based on experiments in rats and inferences from the effects of the hormone in ...s, or RFRPs. Kirby showed that acutely stressed rats showed increased RFRP levels for several hours, bu... researchers plan to confirm the results in female rats and investigate further the role of GnIH in reprod...

American Chemical Society weekly presspac -- June 10, 2009

... tests of an experimental "electronic nose" on exhaled breath of laboratory rats with no kidney function and normal kidney function. The device identified 27 so-called volatile organic compounds that appear only in the breath of rats with CRF. The results presented in this study raise expectations for future...

Specific genetic cause of fetal alcohol-related developmental disorders found

...changes to DNA that do not alter the actual DNA sequenceof developmental genes like Dio3 in the fetal brain. To investigate this hypothesis, they used rats to model moderate alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, demonstrated that fetal a...

Horse whisperers, lion tamers not needed: Scientists find genetic regions that soothe savage beasts

...ibirsk, USSR (now Russia), caught a large group of rats in the wilderness around the city. After bringing ...oups. The first group included the most "friendly" rats those that were not aggressive toward people. The second group included only the most aggressive rats those that screamed, attacked and bit the researc...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- May 27, 2009

...tube experiments, microcapsule versions of the arthritis drug, indomethacin, dissolved up to five times faster than a regular version of the drug. Lab rats given the new microcapsule version absorbed almost twice as much of the drug. ARTICLE #4 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Dry Hybrid Lipid-Silica Microcaps...

Caltech scientists reveal how neuronal activity is timed in brain's memory-making circuits

...s," only firing when the animal is in a particular spot in its environment. Lubenov and Siapas began to analyze the theta oscillations generated when rats move around and explore their environment. They watched howand whenthe rat's neurons fired relative to the rat's position and to the phase of the the...

NAU discovery could help feed millions

...ps intended for human consumption. "This environmentally neutral approach, that has never been available before, will reduce the damage rice-field rats cause in countries that depend on rice as a main food supply," Mayer said. Rodents consume or damage up to 50 percent of pre-harvest rice crops. D...

Bull's-eye electrode helps interpret thoughts, deliver stimulus to aid paralyzed, epileptic patients

...reat other neurological disorders. He has been awarded a $397,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to verify his earlier experiments with rats and develop a computer model of this system. "Some frequencies can cause seizures, while others are therapeutic, so this research will allow us to...

Chemical found in medical devices impairs heart function

... the chemical. The researchers then injected rats with either a salt solution or a salt solution con...taining cyclohexanone and measured heart function. rats that got only salt solution pumped approximately 2... average heart rate of 358 beats per minute, while rats injected with cyclohexanone pumped only about 150 ...

Limping rat provides sciatica insights

...rve. These roots are the parts of the nerve that pass through openings in the spine to the spinal cord. Surgical simulation of nerve compression in rats was led by Mohammed Shamji, a neurosurgery resident and recent Ph.D. graduate working in the laboratory of senior researcher Lori Setton, professor of...

Google Earth aids discovery of early African mammal fossils

...ents first formed. "It's likely that animals moving from Asia to Africa passed through the Khasm el Raqaba area," Gunnell said. Were the tiny bats, rats and other creatures whose fossils the researchers found among those very first migrants, the progenitors of today's iconic African wildlife? "The r...

Purdue study finds dairy better for bones than calcium carbonate

... and nutrition department, found that the bones of rats fed nonfat dry milk were longer, wider, more dense and stronger than those of rats fed a diet with calcium carbonate. Calcium carbona...lly get widens, she said. The study involved 300 rats that were divided into two groups. For 10 weeks, t...

Sequencing the cow's genetic code -- a new agricultural era dawns

...environmental footprint, particularly animals with less greenhouse gas emissions. "The bovine genome is more similar to that of humans than mice or rats at all levels, from genomic DNA rearrangements, to shared genes and identity of their protein sequences" said Evgeny Zdobnov, one of the lead analysts...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 15, 2009

...including low sample rate and the necessity of a complex analytical apparatus. Serra and colleagues describe development and testing in laboratory rats of a wireless sensor that overcomes some of those drawbacks. The scientists used a variety of techniques including physiological stimuli and pharmaco...

Risk of vibration-induced vascular injuries linked to vibration frequency differences

... U.S. and international standards) for 10 days, 15 rats (five in each group) were placed in a container wh...ither 63, 125 or 250 Hz. One control group of five rats accompanied them to the experimental area, to make...directly related to the effects of vibration. The rats that experienced high frequency (125 and 250 Hz) v...

Lab study shows THC exposure as adolescents linked to negative effects of THC as adults

...gen or more precisely, having ovaries made adult rats exposed for the first time to THC, the primary ing...ology 2009 meeting in New Orleans, finds that when rats are first exposed to THC during the equivalent of ..., estrogen loses its protective effect. When these rats were again exposed to THC as adults, they performe...

Poison: It's what's for dinner

...uring the study, eight packrats also known as woodrats were captured from each of two western regions: the Mojave Desert and the cooler Great Basin. rats from both areas were fed rabbit chow mixed either with creosote or juniper. The scientists then scanned the rodents' genetic blueprints to look for ac...

Desert woodrats switch one dietary poison for another

...n their ecosystems." During the study, eight woodrats were captured from each of two western regions: the Mojave Desert and the cooler Great Basin. rats from both areas were fed rabbit chow mixed with either creosote or juniper. The scientists then scanned the rodents' genetic blueprints to look for...

Male impotence drugs may deserve a second look in women

...iving a drug to constrict the internal pudendal arteries in male and female rats as they would be in a non-erect state then giving doses of each impotency drug to see the impact. The arteries from male rats displayed a relatively standard concentration-dependent relaxation the mor...

Early isolation linked to enhanced response to cocaine

...l as the psychostimulant effects of cocaine. Since rats are social animals, isolation was used as a stress...t effects of drugs of abuse, such as cocaine. rats were stressed: (1) as fetuses (by housing the preg...ther alone), (2) as neonates (by isolating newborn rats for 1 hr daily during the first 9 days of life) or...

Early isolation linked to enhanced response to cocaine

...l as the psychostimulant effects of cocaine. Since rats are social animals, isolation was used as a stress...t effects of drugs of abuse, such as cocaine. rats were stressed: (1) as fetuses (by housing the preg...ther alone), (2) as neonates (by isolating newborn rats for 1 hr daily during the first 9 days of life) or...

HIV dearms protective protein in cells

...in a rat model for AIDS. The protective protein in rats is immune to HIV counteraction. Consequently, HIV ...ising strategy for therapy," says Dr. Keppler. rats and mice also have this protective protein; it has...en one wants to imitate and study HIV infection in rats in an animal model the infection in...

Long-lasting nerve block could change pain management

... used specially designed fat-based particles called liposomes to package saxitoxin, a potent anesthetic, and produced long-lasting local anesthesia in rats without apparent toxicity to nerve or muscle cells. The research was published online April 13 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

Desert woodrats switch one dietary poison for another

...n their ecosystems." During the study, eight woodrats were captured from each of two western regions: the Mojave Desert and the cooler Great Basin. rats from both areas were fed rabbit chow mixed with either creosote or juniper. The scientists then scanned the rodents' genetic blueprints to look for...

Poison: It's what's for dinner

...uring the study, eight packrats also known as woodrats were captured from each of two western regions: the Mojave Desert and the cooler Great Basin. rats from both areas were fed rabbit chow mixed either with creosote or juniper. The scientists then scanned the rodents' genetic blueprints to look for ac...

New approach discovered to lowering triglycerides

... CORVALLIS, Ore. Studies done with laboratory rats suggest that supplementation of their diet with li... not the result simply of less food intake. The rats used in the experiment were obese to begin with, a...ne weeks, the blood triglyceride levels doubled in rats given the supplement, but went up more than 400 pe...