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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Comparison Of The Humoral Immune Response Following Both Bacterial Challenge And Rnai Of Major Factors On Proliferation Of Bartonella Quintana In The Human Louse, Jake Zina Oct 2022

Comparison Of The Humoral Immune Response Following Both Bacterial Challenge And Rnai Of Major Factors On Proliferation Of Bartonella Quintana In The Human Louse, Jake Zina

Masters Theses

Human body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, and head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, have been hematophagous ectoparasites of humans for thousands of years. Despite being ecotypes, only body lice are known to transmit bacterial diseases to humans, and it appears that lower humoral and cellular immune responses allow body lice to possess a higher vector competence. We previously observed that the transcription level of the defensin 1 gene was up-regulated only in head lice following oral challenge of Bartonella quintana, a causative agent of trench fever, and also that body lice excreted more viable B. quintana in their …


Shortening Sow Restraint Period During Lactation Improves Production And Decreases Hair Cortisol Concentrations In Sows And Their Piglets, L. Morgan, J. Meyer, S. Novak, A. Younis, W.A. Ahmad, T. Raz Jan 2021

Shortening Sow Restraint Period During Lactation Improves Production And Decreases Hair Cortisol Concentrations In Sows And Their Piglets, L. Morgan, J. Meyer, S. Novak, A. Younis, W.A. Ahmad, T. Raz

Elaine Marieb College of Nursing Faculty Publication Series

Food animal welfare is an issue of great concern, as society has a responsibility for animals under human care. Pork is the most consumed meat worldwide, with more than a billion pigs being slaughtered globally every year. Still, in most countries, sows are restrained in farrowing crates throughout lactation. In these crates, sows arc confined with bars to an area that is just slightly larger than their body. Thus, moving and turning around, grooming, or expressing other natural behaviors are typically impossible. In this study, we utilized a simple and practical modification of conventional farrowing crates to designed farrowing pens, …


Engineered Nanoparticles For Site-Specific Bioorthogonal Catalysis: Imaging And Therapy, Riddha Das Mar 2020

Engineered Nanoparticles For Site-Specific Bioorthogonal Catalysis: Imaging And Therapy, Riddha Das

Doctoral Dissertations

Bioorthogonal catalysis offers a strategy for chemical transformations complementary to bioprocesses and has proven to be a powerful tool in biochemistry and medical sciences. Transition metal catalysts (TMCs) have emerged as a powerful tool to execute selective chemical transformations, however, lack of biocompatibility and stability limits their use in biological applications. Incorporation of TMCs into nanoparticle monolayers provides a versatile strategy for the generation of bioorthogonal nanocatalysts known as “nanozymes”. We have fabricated a family of nanozymes using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as scaffolds featuring diverse chemical functional groups for controlled localization of nanozymes in biological environments, providing unique strategies for …


The Human Intruder Test: An Anxiety Assessment In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta), Emily J. Peterson Nov 2015

The Human Intruder Test: An Anxiety Assessment In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta), Emily J. Peterson

Masters Theses

The human intruder test (HIT) is a noninvasive tool widely used for assessing anxiety in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). This thesis explores the HIT procedure and applies it to a population of monkeys with a self-injurious behavioral pathology. Individual variation on this test can be used to assess anxiety and temperament. The first experiment of this thesis applied two different procedures of the HIT to 17 monkeys at UMass. Monkeys displayed little response to the intruder, and no significant differences were detected for the two procedures. To determine whether these responses were unique to the UMass monkeys, their …


A Novel Population Of Natural Killer Cells Plays A Critical Role In The Depletion Of Splenic B2 B Cells During Experimental African Trypanosomiasis, Deborah Frenkel Mar 2015

A Novel Population Of Natural Killer Cells Plays A Critical Role In The Depletion Of Splenic B2 B Cells During Experimental African Trypanosomiasis, Deborah Frenkel

Doctoral Dissertations

Loss of humoral immune competence in T. brucei-infected mice is associated with the apoptotic depletion of splenic transitional, marginal zone and follicular B cells as well as a depletion of CD8+ T cells. This occurs rapidly after infection and impairs responses to vaccine antigens in addition to responses to newly arising VSG antigenic variants, leading to uncontrolled parasite growth and death of the infected mice. Infection-induced B2 B cell and CD8+ T cell loss requires the presence of a novel population of natural killer (NK) cells and is mediated by a perforin-dependent process consistent with perforin- and …


Cd4 Silencing In Thymocytes Is Opposed By The Enforced Association Of P300 Hat, Hdac1 Or Suv39h1 With Runx Transcription Factors, Christyne Ayne Kane Apr 2014

Cd4 Silencing In Thymocytes Is Opposed By The Enforced Association Of P300 Hat, Hdac1 Or Suv39h1 With Runx Transcription Factors, Christyne Ayne Kane

Doctoral Dissertations

The transcription factors Runx1 and Runx3 are required for permanent silencing of CD4 in maturing CD8+ thymocytes. Runx binding to consensus sites within the CD4 silencer region is required for CD4 silencing post-positive selection. The Runx nuclear matrix targeting sequence (NMTS) is required for CD4 silencing and is implicated in binding to the histone acetyltransferase (HAT) p300, histone deacetylases (HDAC), and histone methyltransferase (HMT) SUV39H1 proteins. Epigenetic modifications of chromatin or post-translational modifications of Runx itself as a result of Runx association with these enzymes may be important for establishment of long-term CD4 silencing. In this study, we show that …