[Effects of acute fear stress on spatial memory and neuronal plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex in mice].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of acute fear stress on the spatial memory and neuronal plasticity of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) neurons in mice, and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying mPFC plasticity and post-stress memory regulation. Male C57BL/6 mice (6 weeks old) were randomly divided into control group and stress group. Foot shock stress was applied to establish an acute fear stress model.

Basic FGF or VEGF gene therapy corrects insufficiency in the intrinsic healing capacity of tendons.

Tendon injury during limb motion is common. Damaged tendons heal poorly and frequently undergo unpredictable ruptures or impaired motion due to insufficient innate healing capacity. By basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) or vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene therapy via adeno-associated viral type-2 (AAV2) vector to produce supernormal amount of bFGF or VEGF intrinsically in the tendon, we effectively corrected the insufficiency of the tendon healing capacity.

Regulatory effects of introduction of an exogenous FGF2 gene on other growth factor genes in a healing tendon.

In this study of a tendon injury model, we investigated how injection of a vector incorporating one growth factor gene changes expression levels of multiple growth factor genes in the healing process. The flexor tendon of chicken toes was completely cut and repaired surgically. The tendons in the experimental arm were injected with an adeno-associated virus-2 vector incorporating basic fibroblast growth-factor gene, whereas the tendons in the control arm were not injected or injected with sham vectors.

Molecular events of cellular apoptosis and proliferation in the early tendon healing period.

Purpose: Cellular proliferation is accompanied by cellular apoptosis. In the healing digital flexor tendon, molecular events concerning cellular apoptosis have not been investigated. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between cellular apoptosis and proliferation in early tendon healing.

Effectiveness of microRNA in Down-regulation of TGF-beta gene expression in digital flexor tendons of chickens: in vitro and in vivo study.

Purpose: Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta is considered to be responsible for the formation of scars such as adhesions around healing digital flexor tendons. We proposed to deliver microRNAs (miRNAs) to silence expression of the TGF-beta1 gene and to investigate the effectiveness of miRNAs in down-regulation of the TGF-beta1 gene in vitro and in vivo.

Methods: We designed and engineered 4 miRNAs according to genetic sequences of chicken TGF-beta1.

Application of AAV2-mediated bFGF gene therapy on survival of ischemic flaps: effects of timing of gene transfer.

Necrosis of surgically transferred flaps is a major problem in reconstructive surgery. We investigated efficacy of a new vector system-adeno-associated viral 2 (AAV2)-mediated bFGF gene transfer to enhance survival of the ischemic flap. Thirty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 3 gene therapy groups and 1 nontreated control of 9 or 10 each.

Tendon healing in vivo: gene expression and production of multiple growth factors in early tendon healing period.

Purpose: The actions of growth factors during healing of injured flexor tendons are not well characterized, although information pertinent to some individual growth factors is available. We studied gene expression and protein production of a number of growth factors at several time points during the early healing period in a chicken model.

Methods: Seventy-four long toes of 37 white Leghorn chickens were used.