A survey of the reactivity of diagnostic bilirubin reagents developed in Japan using artificially prepared bilirubin materials: A comparison of synthetic delta, unconjugated, and taurine-conjugated bilirubin.

Background: diagnostic bilirubin reagents based on oxidation with bilirubin oxidase or vanadic acid for total and direct-reacting bilirubin are widely used in Japan; however, their reactivity to unconjugated and conjugated bilirubin and delta bilirubin has not been completely disclosed by manufacturers. We used artificially prepared bilirubin materials to investigate the reactivity with four diagnostic bilirubin reagents.

Methods: Porcine unconjugated bilirubin solution, chemically synthesized ditaurobilirubin solution, and chemically synthesized delta bilirubin solution were used as surrogates of naturally occurring unconjugated bilirubin, conjugated bilirubin, and delta bilirubin, respectively.

A transgenic minipig model of Huntington's Disease.

Background: Some promising treatments for Huntington's disease (HD) may require pre-clinical testing in large animals. Minipig is a suitable species because of its large gyrencephalic brain and long lifespan.

Objective: To generate HD transgenic (TgHD) minipigs encoding huntingtin (HTT)1-548 under the control of human HTT promoter.

Combinational spinal GAD65 gene delivery and systemic GABA-mimetic treatment for modulation of spasticity.

Background: Loss of GABA-mediated pre-synaptic inhibition after spinal injury plays a key role in the progressive increase in spinal reflexes and the appearance of spasticity. Clinical studies show that the use of baclofen (GABA(B) receptor agonist), while effective in modulating spasticity is associated with major side effects such as general sedation and progressive tolerance development. The goal of the present study was to assess if a combined therapy composed of spinal segment-specific upregulation of GAD65 (glutamate decarboxylase) gene once combined with systemic treatment with tiagabine (GABA uptake inhibitor) will lead to an antispasticity effect and whether such an effect will only be present in GAD65 gene over-expressing spinal segments.

Transplantation of rat synapsin-EGFP-labeled embryonic neurons into the intact and ischemic CA1 hippocampal region: distribution, phenotype, and axodendritic sprouting.

A major limitation of neural transplantation studies is assessing the degree of host-graft interaction. In the present study, rat hippocampal/cortical embryonic neurons (E18) were infected with a lentivirus encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) under control of the neuron-specific synapsin promoter, thus permitting robust identification of labeled neurons after in vivo grafting. Two weeks after transient forebrain ischemia or sham-surgery, GFP-expressing neurons were transplanted into CA1 hippocampal regions in immunosuppressed adult Wistar rats.

[Liquid handling with mechanical pipettes].

Dispensing very small amounts of liquid is essential in all science fields. A wide range of pipetting systems is now available, including air-cushion pipettes and positive-displacement pipettes. The precision and accuracy depends on not only the principle of pipetting systems but vapor pressure, density, viscosity or wetting behavior of the solution.