Discovery of an Experimental Model of Unicuspid Aortic Valve.

Background: The epithelial growth factor receptor family of tyrosine kinases modulates embryonic formation of semilunar valves. We hypothesized that mice heterozygous for a dominant loss-of-function mutation in epithelial growth factor receptor, which are mice, would develop anomalous aortic valves, valve dysfunction, and valvular cardiomyopathy.

Methods And Results: Aortic valves from mice and control mice were examined by light microscopy at 2.

Intraperitoneal administration of CDP-choline or a combination of cytidine plus choline improves nerve regeneration and functional recovery in a rat model of sciatic nerve injury.

Objective: Topical cytidine-5'-diphosphocholine (CDP-choline) improves functional recovery and promotes nerve regeneration in sciatic nerve injury in rats. The aims of this study were to test whether systemic treatment with CDP-choline was effective in improving the recovery of injured sciatic nerve, and to determine whether the cytidine and/or choline moieties of CDP-choline contribute to its beneficial actions.

Methods: Seventy Sprague-Dawley rats underwent a surgical procedure that involved transectioning and immediate surgical repairing of the right sciatic nerve.

Deficits of neuronal density in CA1 and synaptic density in the dentate gyrus, CA3 and CA1, in a mouse model of Down syndrome.

Ts65Dn mice are partially trisomic for the distal region of MMU16, which is homologous with the obligate segment of HSA21 triplicated in Down syndrome (DS). Ts65Dn mice are impaired in learning tasks that require an intact hippocampus. In order to investigate the neural basis of these deficits in this mouse model of Down syndrome, quantitative light and electron microscopy were used to compare the volume densities of neurons and synapses in the hippocampus of adult Ts65Dn (n=4) and diploid mice (n=4).