Research into the hunting behavior in members of the Cricetidae family offers an opportunity to reveal what changes in the predatory behavioral sequences occur when a rodent species shifts from an omnivorous to a predatory lifestyle. The study tests the following hypotheses: are there phylogenetic differences in the divergence of species' predatory lifestyles in hamsters or do ecological factors lead to shaping their hunting behavior? We applied the data compression approach for performing comparative analysis of hunting patterns as biological "texts." The study presents a comparative analysis of hunting behaviors in five Cricetinae species, focusing on the new data obtained for the desert hamster Phodopus roborovskii whose behavior has never been studied before.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudying pup isolation calls of wild rodents provides background for developing new early-life animal models for biomedical research and drug testing. This study discovered a highly complex acoustic phenotype of pup isolation calls in 4-5-day-old Mongolian hamsters . We analyzed the acoustic structure of 5,010 isolation calls emitted in the broad range of frequencies (sonic, below 20 kHz, and ultrasonic, from 20 to 128 kHz) by 23 pups during 2-min isolation test trials, 1 trial per pup.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic kidney disease (CKD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) causes impaired kidney function, leading to cognitive impairment, neuropathy, and cerebrovascular disease. Due to kidney damage, toxins stay in the blood rather than leaving the body through the urine, and brain function is affected by kidney-brain interaction. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effects of erythropoietin mimetic peptide (pHBSP) and infliximab on ischemic renal reperfusion injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing the data-compression method we revealed a similarity between hunting behaviors of the common shrew, which is insectivorous, and several rodent species with different types of diet. Seven rodent species studied displayed succinct, highly predictable hunting stereotypes, in which it was easy for the data compressor to find regularities. The generalist Norway rat, with its changeable manipulation of prey and less predictable transitions between stereotype elements, significantly differs from other species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effect of bacterial toxins, modifying the activity of regulatory N proteins of adenylate cyclase and probably other systems, on the mitogen-induced changes of cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) has been studied using Ca2+ fluorescent probe quin-2. It is shown that treatment of thymocytes with cholera toxin, E. coli heat-labile (HL) toxin or pertussis toxin abolishes the concanavalin A (con A)-induced rise of [Ca2+]i.
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