Physiological DNA damage promotes functional endoreplication of mammary gland alveolar cells during lactation.

Lactation insufficiency affects many women worldwide. During lactation, a large portion of mammary gland alveolar cells become polyploid, but how these cells balance the hyperproliferation occurring during normal alveologenesis with terminal differentiation required for lactation is unknown. Here, we show that DNA damage accumulates due to replication stress during pregnancy, activating the DNA damage response.

Alveolar progenitor differentiation and lactation depends on paracrine inhibition of notch via ROBO1/CTNNB1/JAG1.

In the mammary gland, how alveolar progenitor cells are recruited to fuel tissue growth with each estrus cycle and pregnancy remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a regulatory pathway that controls alveolar progenitor differentiation and lactation by governing Notch activation in mouse. Loss of Robo1 in the mammary gland epithelium activates Notch signaling, which expands the alveolar progenitor cell population at the expense of alveolar differentiation, resulting in compromised lactation.

Comparison of effectiveness of cefovecin, doxycycline, and amoxicillin for the treatment of experimentally induced early Lyme borreliosis in dogs.

Background: While Koch's postulates have been fulfilled for Lyme disease; causing transient fever, anorexia and arthritis in young dogs; treatment of sero-positive dogs, especially asymptomatic animals, remains a topic of debate. To complicate this matter the currently recommended antibiotic treatments of Lyme Disease in dogs caused by Borrelia burgdorferi require daily oral administrations for 31 days or longer, which makes non-compliance a concern. Additionally, there is no approved veterinary antimicrobial for the treatment of Lyme Disease in dogs in the USA and few recommended treatments have been robustly tested.

In vitro functional characterization of feline IgGs.

Very little is known about the functional properties of feline IgGs. Here we report the in vitro characterization of cloned feline IgGs. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and full-length PCR of cat splenic cDNA were used to identify feline sequences encoding IgG heavy chain constant regions (IGHC).

Transfer of Bacteroides splanchnicus to Odoribacter gen. nov. as Odoribacter splanchnicus comb. nov., and description of Odoribacter denticanis sp. nov., isolated from the crevicular spaces of canine periodontitis patients.

Numerous novel anaerobic bacteria were isolated from the crevicular spaces of dogs with periodontitis. The phenotypic characteristics of these bacterial isolates indicated that they were similar to members of the genus Porphyromonas. However, comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of the isolates indicated that they were related to members of the Bacteroides splanchnicus subgroup.