[Corneal anomalies in murine trisomy 16].

Background: The prevalence of human Down's syndrome is about 1:700. Investigations using animal models are therefore of clinical relevance for understanding its etiopathogenesis. No corneal changes have been reported with transgenic murine trisomy 16.

Mapping of candidate genes for hypertension by fluorescence in situ hybridization on the genome of transgenic rats and mice.

Transgenic animals are new and important models for the study of candidate genes in hypertension research as well as in other fields of medicine. For detailed genetic characterization of the transgenic animals, and to account for the symptoms arising from the insertion of transgenes in the genome, it is essential to identify these insertion sites. In this study, the insertion sites of the transgenes of candidate genes for hypertension were identified by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) after G-banding of the chromosomes in transgenic rats and mice.

Isolation of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gapdh) cDNA from the distal half of mouse chromosome 16: further indication of a link between Alzheimer's disease and glycolysis.

The amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is localized on both human chromosome 21 and its murine counterpart, chromosome 16 and which is involved in the formation of deposits in Alzheimer's disease, could be shown to bind effectively to a glytolytic enzyme: rat glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gapdh). We report here the isolation of a cDNA of murine Gapdh from mouse chromosome 16 (MMU16) originating from microclones of the distal part of MMU16 and the use of homologous genomic DNA sequences to further screen a cDNA phage library. The cDNA was sequenced, confirmed by polymerase chain reaction following reverse transcriptase (RT-PCR) and the open reading frame was expressed in vitro.

Genesis and systematization of cardiovascular anomalies in murine trisomy 16.

On account of genetic homologies trisomy 16 in the mouse is regarded as an animal model of Down's syndrome. A detailed evaluation of the cardiovascular system in 109 fetuses with trisomy 16 and 422 balanced siblings was performed in order to systematize the cardiovascular anomalies and to elucidate the pathogenetic mechanisms responsible for their formation. 92% of fetuses with experimentally induced trisomy 16 exhibited cardiovascular anomalies.

A multivariate morphometric analysis of hippocampal anatomical variation in C57BL/6 in equilibrium BALB/c chimeric mice.

We investigated hippocampal anatomy in artificially-produced chimeras derived by the aggregation of embryos from two widely-studied inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ. Contrary to expectations, the chimeras were not always intermediate between the parental strains. For a number of characters, the chimeras exceeded qualitatively as well as quantitatively the phenotypical range displayed by both inbred parental strains.