The reduction in sexual behavior of adult female rats exposed to immune stress in the neonatal period is associated with reduced hypothalamic progesterone receptor expression.

Purpose: We examined the mechanism by which neonatal immune stress reduces the sexual behavior of female rats in adulthood.

Methods: Neonatal female rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: control (n = 11), postnatal day 10 lipopolysaccharide (PND10LPS) (n = 23), and PND25LPS (n = 11) groups, which received intraperitoneal injections of LPS (100 μg/kg) or saline on PND10 and 25. Daily inspections of the vaginal opening (VO) were performed from PND27 to PND37.

Experiences With Aggressive Cardiac Rehabilitation in Pediatric Patients Receiving Mechanical Circulatory Supports.

Although some patients with fulminant myocarditis can be rescued owing to the improvements in mechanical circulatory support therapy, there are few reports providing evidence of cardiac rehabilitation during mechanical circulatory supports, particularly among pediatric patients. We treated two pediatric patients who underwent aggressive cardiac rehabilitation during mechanical support. Five days after the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy aggressive cardiac rehabilitation was started in a 10-year-old girl with fulminant myocarditis.

Constitutive activation of a CC-NB-LRR protein alters morphogenesis through the cytokinin pathway in Arabidopsis.

Possible links between plant defense responses and morphogenesis have been postulated, but their molecular nature remains unknown. Here, we introduce the Arabidopsis semi-dominant mutant uni-1D with morphological defects. UNI encodes a coiled-coil nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat protein that belongs to the disease resistance (R) protein family involved in pathogen recognition.

Caenorhabditis elegans DAZ-1 is expressed in proliferating germ cells and directs proper nuclear organization and cytoplasmic core formation during oogenesis.

The deleted in azoospermia (DAZ) family genes encode potential RNA-binding proteins that are expressed exclusively in germ cells in a wide range of metazoans. We have previously shown that mutations in daz-1, the only DAZ family gene in Caenorhabditis elegans, cause pachytene stage arrest of female germ cells but do not affect spermatogenesis. In this study, we report that DAZ-1 protein is most abundantly expressed in proliferating female germ cells, in a manner independent of the GLP-1 signaling pathway.

Studies on Unequal Cleavage in Sea Urchins II. Surface Differentiation and the Direction of Nuclear Migration: (sea urchin micromere/cortical differentiation/equal-unequal cleavage).

Cortical features of the meso- and macromeres differ from those of the micromeres in sea urchins. At the end of the 8-cell stage, the four animal cells have a continuous row of vesicles lining the free surface of the cell by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the nuclei and the resulting mitotic apparatuses (MA) remain at the cell centers and eventually divide equally into eight mesomeres. In the four vegetal cells, narrow gaps can be seen in the vesicular rows near the vegetal pole.

The Mitotic Apparatus with Unusually Many Microtubules from Sea Urchin Eggs Treated by Hexyleneglycol: (microtubule/mitotic apparatus/granular material/sea urchin).

The effect of hexyleneglycol on the structure of the mitotic apparatus was studied by light and electron microscopies. By treating sea urchin eggs at prometaphase and metaphase with hexyleneglycol, the mitotic apparatus was found to become remarkably decorated with unusually many astral microtubules which were conspicuously uniform in length. These microtubules appeared to be associated with the granular materials which are most likely microtubule initiating sites or microtubule-organizing centers.