Gene-dosage- and sex-dependent differences in the prodromal-Like phase of the F344tgHD rat model for Huntington disease.

In Huntington disease (HD) the prodromal phase has been increasingly investigated and is currently in focus for early interventional treatments. Also, the influence of sex on disease progression and severity in patients is under discussion, as a sex-specific impact has been reported in transgenic rodent models for HD. To this end, we have been studying these aspects in Sprague Dawley rats transgenic for HD.

Young human alpha synuclein transgenic (BAC-SNCA) mice display sex- and gene-dose-dependent phenotypic disturbances.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative movement disorder, characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and the accumulation of aggregated alpha synuclein (aSyn). The disease often presents with early prodromal non-motor symptoms and later motor symptoms. Diagnosing PD based purely on motor symptoms is often too late for successful intervention, as a significant neuronal loss has already occurred.

Comprehensive phenotyping revealed transient startle response reduction and histopathological gadolinium localization to perineuronal nets after gadodiamide administration in rats.

Gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCAs) are widely used in clinical MRI since the mid-1980s. Recently, concerns have been raised that trace amounts of Gadolinium (Gd), detected in brains even long time after GBCA application, may cause yet unrecognized clinical consequences. We therefore assessed the behavioral phenotype, neuro-histopathology, and Gd localization after repeated administration of linear (gadodiamide) or macrocyclic (gadobutrol) GBCA in rats.

Silhouette-Length-Scaled Gait Parameters for Motor Functional Analysis in Mice and Rats.

Gait analysis of transgenic mice and rats modeling human diseases often suffers from the condition that those models exhibit genotype-driven differences in body size, weight, and length. Thus, we hypothesized that scaling by the silhouette length improves the reliability of gait analysis allowing normalization for individual body size differences. Here, we computed video-derived silhouette length and area parameters from a standard markerless gait analysis system using image-processing techniques.

Early postnatal behavioral, cellular, and molecular changes in models of Huntington disease are reversible by HDAC inhibition.

Huntington disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by expanded CAG repeats in the gene (). Although mutant HTT is expressed during embryonic development and throughout life, clinical HD usually manifests later in adulthood. A number of studies document neurodevelopmental changes associated with mutant , but whether these are reversible under therapy remains unclear.

Serotype 3 pneumococci sequester platelet-derived human thrombospondin-1 via the adhesin and immune evasion protein Hic.

serotype 3 strains emerge frequently within clinical isolates of invasive diseases. Bacterial invasion into deeper tissues is associated with colonization and immune evasion mechanisms. Thus, pneumococci express a versatile repertoire of surface proteins sequestering and interacting specifically with components of the human extracellular matrix and serum.