Substantia nigra alterations in mice modeling Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related neurodegenerative pathology of the central nervous system. The well-known abnormalities characteristic of PD are dysfunctions in the nigrostriatal system including the substantia nigra of the midbrain and the striatum. Moreover, in PD persons, alpha-synucleinopathy is associated with abnormalities in the dopaminergic brain system.

Probing metabolism in mouse embryos using Raman spectroscopy and deuterium tags.

The use of deuterated compounds is an interesting opportunity to expand the capabilities of Raman spectroscopy to study metabolism in living cells. Different biological objects have different tolerances to different deuterated compounds, and their metabolic chains may differ. Here, we explore the potential of this approach to probe metabolism in early mouse embryos.

Effect of cryopreservation on Odc1 and RhoA genes expression in diapausing mouse blastocysts.

The possibility of embryo cryopreservation is important for applying the genome resource banking (GRB) concept to those mammalian species that exhibit embryonal diapause in their early development. Odc1 encodes ODC1, which is a key enzyme in polyamine synthesis. RhoA is an essential part of Rho/ROCK system.

Program freezing of diapausing embryos in the mouse.

Embryonal diapause is a characteristic feature of about 130 mammalian species. However, very few studies have addressed cryopreservation of diapausing embryos. This work is aimed to apply program freezing to blastocysts obtained from CD1 mice, which were at diapause state after ovariectomy and the subsequent hormonal therapy.