6333 to 0.9697 respectively. The PIC value ranged from 0.757 to 0.913, indicated all the loci are high polymorphism. No significant linkage disequilibrium was detected and only one locus deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These loci could provide useful information for the genetic analyses of S. bealei populations.”
“In rats,

the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF) KPT-8602 was reported 40 years ago. Although it has been demonstrated in papers that these IVF oocytes using sperm freshly collected from cauda epididymides can be developed to term via embryo transfer, successful IVF with cryopreserved rat sperm has never been reported to date. Here, we report establishment of a successful IVF system using frozen/thawed rat spermatozoa. Our data showed that intracellular cAMP and free cholesterol levels in frozen/thawed rat sperm were maintained low, suppressing capacitation-associated tyrosine phosphorylation. The treatment of methyl-beta-cyclodextrin improved removal of free cholesterol from the membrane in frozen/thawed sperm but not induction of capacitation-associated tyrosine phosphorylation in the sperm. Treatment with a phosphodiesterase selleckchem inhibitor, 3-isobutyl-1-methyl-xanthin (IBMX), dramatically increased cAMP and tyrosine phosphorylation levels in frozen/thawed rat sperm. When the IBMX-treated frozen/thawed sperm were used for IVF, the

proportions of pronuclear formation and blastocyst formation were significantly higher than those of frozen/thawed sperm treated without IBMX (P < 0.05). The embryos were developed to term at a high success rate equivalent to the rate

obtained with IVF using fresh sperm. Thus, we established for the first time a successful IVF system in rats using cryopreserved spermatozoa.”
“It is well known that large dose of leucine reduces the food intake and causes growth retardation in experimental animals when leucine is given with a low-protein diet. However, the mechanism for the anorectic effect of leucine has not yet been clarified. We demonstrate here that the anorectic effect of leucine was significantly reduced in a vagotomized rat.”
“Mannion DJ, McDonald JS, Clifford CWG. Orientation anisotropies in selleck chemical human visual cortex. J Neurophysiol 103: 3465-3471, 2010. First published April 21, 2010; doi:10.1152/jn.00190.2010. Representing the orientation of features in the visual image is a fundamental operation of the early cortical visual system. The nature of such representations can be informed by considering anisotropic distributions of response across the range of orientations. Here we used functional MRI to study modulations in the cortical activity elicited by observation of a sinusoidal grating that varied in orientation. We report a significant anisotropy in the measured blood-oxygen level-dependent activity within visual areas V1, V2, V3, and V3A/B in which horizontal orientations evoked a reduced response.