Rats Selected for Different Nervous Excitability: Long-Term Emotional-Painful Stress Affects the Dynamics of DNA Damage in Cells of Several Brain Areas.

The maintenance of genome stability is critical for health, but during individual ontogenesis, different stressors affect DNA integrity, which can lead to functional and/or structural changes in the cells of target organs. In the nervous system, cell genome destabilization is associated with different neurological and psychiatric diseases, but experiments in vivo, where a link between stress and DNA instability has been demonstrated, are relatively rare. Here, we use rat strains selected for the contrast excitability of the tibialis nerve () and nonselected Wistar rats to investigate the reasons for individual differences in developing post-stress pathologies.

Pheromone of grouped female mice impairs genome stability in male mice through stress-mediated pathways.

Population density is known to affect the health and survival of many species, and is especially important for social animals. In mice, living in crowded conditions results in the disruption of social interactions, chronic stress, and immune and reproductive suppression; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of chemosignals in the regulation of mouse physiology and behavior in response to social crowding.

[Antimutagenic effect of chemosignals from isolated female house mouse on male germ cells (Mus musculus L)].

The influence of chemosignals from isolated mature females of the CBA line on level of spontaneous and radiation-induced meiotic disturbances in spermatocytes I of males of the same line was studied. Using an ana-telophase method, 24-hour exposure of males to soiled bedding containing isolated females chemosignals was shown to lead to a significantly lower frequency of chromosomal aberrations and other meiotic disturbances in spermatocytes I as compared to males kept on clean bedding. The same effect of female chemosignals was found in the reproductive cells of irradiated males (4 Gr).

[Chemosignals from isolated females have antimutagenic effect in dividing the cells of bone marrow from male mice of the CBA line].

A level of X-ray induced mitotic disturbances in the cells of the bone marrow of male mice was studied under the modifying influence ofchemosignals from isolated adult female mice of the CBA line. It has been shown that the frequency of chromosomal aberrations in irradiated (4 Gr) males after exposing them for 24 hours on bedding soiled with female chemosignals is lower than in irradiated males in cages with clean bedding. The mechanisms and importance of the antimutagenic effect of female house mouse chemosignals are discussed.