Developmental Biology Commons^™

Optimizing Sperm Collection Procedures In Zebrafish, Madelyn B. Wasden, Rachel L. Roberts, April Delaurier

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Zebrafish are a highly-valued model organism used for developmental biology research. Zebrafish can be used for genetic manipulation and hence, many mutant and transgenic lines exist. It is impractical to maintain lines of adult zebrafish, due to resource constraints and the need to continuously produce new generations. Therefore, a practical way to preserve zebrafish lines is to freeze sperm and retrieve lines using in vitro fertilization of fresh eggs. Most existing in vitro protocols used by research labs have a wide variety of fertilization rates (ranging from 0% to >90%). Due to this variability, lines may be at risk of …

Abnormal Dendritic Maturation Of Developing Cortical Neurons Exposed To Corticotropin Releasing Hormone (Crh): Insights Into Effects Of Prenatal Adversity?, Megan M. Curran, Curt A. Sandman, Elysia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) produced by the hypothalamus initiates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which regulates the body’s stress response. CRH levels typically are undetectable in human plasma, but during pregnancy the primate placenta synthesizes and releases large amounts of CRH into both maternal and fetal circulations. Notably, placental CRH synthesis increases in response to maternal stress signals. There is evidence that human fetal exposure to high concentrations of placental CRH is associated with behavioral consequences during infancy and into childhood, however the direct effects on of the peptide on the human brain are unknown. In this study, we used a …

Lymphoid Hematopoiesis And The Role Of B-Cells In Transgenic Mouse Model Of Sickle Cell Disease, Christina Cotte

University Scholar Projects

Sickle cell disease (SCD) has been shown to be associated with decreased baseline immunity and thus increased susceptibility to infection. I sought to discern possible causes of this by looking into the correlations between SCD and hematopoiesis, the immune system and the neuroendocrine system, and ultimately by conducting experiments surrounding the impaired immune system of SCD. These experiments focused on the potential causes and effects of the diminution of B-1a cells in the SCD spleen. Adoptive transfers, infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae, and histologic imaging were conducted to establish if the diminution of the B-1a cells in the SCD spleen …

Acetaminophen Associated Neurotoxicity And Its Relevance To Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Seol-Hee Kim

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder. The etiology of autism still remains unclear due to the heterogeneous and complex nature of the disorder, however synergistic actions between genetic components and environmental factors have been suggested. Acetaminophen (APAP) is one of the most popular over-the-counter drugs that possess antipyretic and analgesic effects. It is considered a relatively safe and effective within therapeutic doses. Recently, early exposure to APAP has been suggested to be one of the underlying cause of autism. Children are often prescribed APAP to lessen fever or irritability after vaccination during the first year, and APAP may adversely affect …

Microrna-Target Interactions In Embryonic Stem Cells, Shuang Wu

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Animal embryogenesis is a highly orchestrated process involving many geneexpression programs that determine specific fates of individual cells during development. Gene expression can be regulated at different stages such as at transcription initiation or mRNA stability, and microRNA-mediated gene regulation is a crucial pathway on the regulation of mRNA stability. microRNAs, or miRNAs, are small, conserved non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. The mouse miR-290-295 cluster and its human homolog miR-371-373 are stem cell-specific miRNA clusters, and their expression can only be observed in early embryos, primordial germ cells, germ cell compartments of adult testis and embryonic stem …

Programming Heart Disease: Does Poor Maternal Nutrition Alter Expression Of Cardiac Markers Of Proliferation, Hypertrophy, And Fibrosis In Offspring?, Cathy Chun

Honors Scholar Theses

Maternal malnutrition can affect fetal organogenesis, metabolic processes, and factors involved in developmental regulation. Of the many physiological effects poor maternal nutrition can induce in offspring, one of the most important organs affected is the heart. Cardiovascular disease has been associated with poor maternal diet. It also been suggested that hypertension can originate during impaired intrauterine growth and development. Hypertension can trigger hypertensive heart disease and is associated with numerous heart complications. We hypothesized that poor maternal nutrition would alter critical growth factors associated with normal heart development, specifically, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, IGF-2, transforming growth factor (TGF)β, and connective …

Problem Solving Skill And Obesity In Children, Caitlin R. Spano

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract:

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a problem that leads to many serious health effects including early maturation, decreased quality of life and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In 2012, over one third of children were considered obese (Childhood Obesity Facts 2015). Efforts have been made to reduce this number but they have not been fully successful (Nutrition Standards for School Meals 2015, Prevalence of Childhood obesity in the United States 2011-2012 2015). What other factors are causing kids to choose foods that lead to weight gain.

Literature Review: In research regarding psychological motivations of overeating, there has been a correlation …

Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The field of regenerative medicine seeks to create replacement tissues and organs, both to repair deficiencies in biological function and to treat structural damage caused by injury. Scaffoldings mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM), the structure to which cells attach to form tissues, have been developed from synthetic polymers and also been prepared by decellularizing adult tissue. However, the structure of ECM undergoes significant remodeling during natural tissue repair, suggesting that ECM-replacement constructs that mirror developing tissues may promote better regeneration than those modeled on adult tissues. This work investigated the effectiveness of a method of viewing the extracellular matrix of developing …

The Grass Shrimp, Palaemonetes, Pugio: Hypoxic Influences On Embryonic Development, Christensen C. Javier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Grass shrimp,Palaemonetes pugio, can survive in brackish waters and estuarine ecosystems despite the frequent oscillations and fluctuations in salinity, temperature and oxygen. AdultP. pugiohave the ability to osmoregulate (Romney and Reiber 2011), change cardiac parameters to tolerate temperatures (not yet published, Mika and Reiber) and oxyregulate (Guadagnoli and Reiber 2013). Manipulation of cardiac parameters allows for these methods of regulation. However, cardiac contraction and internal convection of oxygen do not occur until later stages of embryonic development. Studies focused on these morphological and physiological advantages may provide further understanding of the regulatory mechanisms within grass shrimp embryos, larvae and adults. …

Photobiostimulation In C. Elegans As A Model For Low Level Light Therapy, Michael J. Spoto, Daryl D. Hurd

Science Scholars

Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is a developing therapeutic technique that has been gaining recognition in the scientific community in recent years. Previous experiments performed in LLLT research projects have been primarily mammalian and cell culture based. These experiments have produced results showing accelerated tissue repair. In this experiment, we introduce a new model, Caenorhabitidis elegans, a free-living soil nematode, to be used in LLLT research by testing the effects of exposure of the organism to various wavelengths and intensities of light commonly used in LLLT. C. elegans was shown to respond to photobiostimulation when exposed to specific wavelengths of …

The Effects Of Nesting Environment On Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury, Laura Grace Rollins

Graduate Masters Theses

Term neonates with hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury are at risk for devastating neurological sequelae. The objective of this study is to determine if altering the early environment for maternal care-taking impacts the immediate and long-term sequelae of HI offspring. The Rice-Vannucci model was used to induce HI in postnatal day (PND) 7 Long-Evans pups. Litters were assigned to a closed nest (CN) or normal standard housing (SH) condition. Neurobehavioral development, cognitive ability, and stress response were assessed to establish any benefits of the CN condition. Finally, postmortem brain tissue was analyzed for morphometric markers of injury.

Impairment Of Trkb-Psd-95 Signaling In Angelman Syndrome, Cong Cao, Mengia S. Rioult-Pedotti, Paolo Migani, Crystal J. Yu, Rakesh Tiwari, Keykavous Parang, Mark R. Spaller, Dennis J. Goebel, John Marshall

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by severe cognitive impairment and a high rate of autism. AS is caused by disrupted neuronal expression of the maternally inherited Ube3A ubiquitin protein ligase, required for the proteasomal degradation of proteins implicated in synaptic plasticity, such as the activity-regulated cytoskeletal-associated protein (Arc/Arg3.1). Mice deficient in maternal Ube3A express elevated levels of Arc in response to synaptic activity, which coincides with severely impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus and deficits in learning behaviors. In this study, we sought to test whether elevated levels of Arc interfere with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) …

A Proposal To Test The Effects Of Factor Ecat1 On Pluripotency, From Reprogramming To Differentiation Of Human Somatic Cells, Vritti R. Goel

CMC Senior Theses

The field of stem cell research has been growing more because of the interest in using stem cells to cure diseases and heal injuries. Human embryonic stem cells, because of the controversy surrounding them—and subsequently the difficulties in acquiring samples of the existing aging cell lines—can only be used in limited capacities. While the development of induced pluripotent stem cells in the last decade has allowed the field to progress closer to medical treatments, the low efficiency of reprogramming a somatic cell to a pluripotent state, and the vast molecular and genomic differences between human embryonic stem cells and human …

Enforced Expression Of Tbx1 In Fetal Thymic Epithelial Cells Antagonizes Thymus Organogenesis, Kim T. Cardenas

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Enforced expression of Tbx1 in fetal thymic epithelial cells antagonizes

thymus organogenesis

Kim T. Cardenas

The thymus and parathyroid glands originate from organ-specific domains of 3rd pharyngeal pouch (PP) endoderm. At embryonic day 11.5 (E11.5), the ventral thymus and dorsal parathyroid domains can be identified by Foxn1 and Gcm2 expression respectively. Neural crest cells, (NCCs) play a role in regulating patterning of 3rd PP endoderm. In addition, pharyngeal endoderm influences fate determination via secretion of Sonic hedgehog (Shh), a morphogen required for Gcm2 expression and generation of the parathyroid domain. Gcm2 is a downstream target of the transcription factor Tbx1, …

Axogial Communication Mediated By Soluble Neuregulin-1 And Bdnf, Zhenzhong Ma

Wayne State University Dissertations

During peripheral nervous system development, successful communication between axons and glial cells including Schwann cells in peripheral nervous system and oligodendrocytes in central nervous system, is required for the proper functions of both neurons and glia. Three types of alternatively-spliced proteins belonging to the neuregulin1 (NRG1) gene family of growth and differentiation factors are essential for Schwann cell survival and peripheral nerve development. While membrane-bound NRG1 forms (type III) has been strongly implicated in the regulation of myelination process at late stage of Schwann cell development, little is known about the role of soluble, heparin-binding forms of NRG1 (type I/II) …

Defining The Role Of Il-15 Trans-Presentation By Distinct Cell-Types During The Development And Homeostasis Of Natural Killer And Invariant Natural Killer T Cells, Eliseo F. Castillo

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The immuno-regulatory functions displayed by NK and iNKT cells have highlighted their importance as key lymphocytes involved in innate and adaptive immunity. Therefore, understanding the dynamics influencing the generation of NK and iNKT cells is extremely important. IL-15 has been shown to provide a critical signal throughout the development and homeostasis of NK and iNKT cells; however, the cellular source of IL-15 has remained unclear. In this investigation, I provide evidence that the cell-type providing IL-15 to NK and iNKT cells via trans-presentation is determined by the tissue site and the maturation status of NK and iNKT cells. For NK …

A Thyroid Hormone-Regulated Gene In Xenopus Laevis Encodes A Type Iii Iodothyronine 5-Deiodinase., Donald L. St Germain, Robert Schwartzman, Walburga Croteau, Akira Kanamori, Zhou Wang, Donald D. Brown, Valerie Galton

Dartmouth Scholarship

The type III iodothyronine 5-deiodinase metabolizes thyroxine and 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine to inactive metabolites by catalyzing the removal of iodine from the inner ring. The enzyme is expressed in a tissue-specific pattern during particular stages of development in amphibia, birds, and mammals. Recently, a PCR-based subtractive hybridization technique has been used to isolate cDNAs prepared from Xenopus laevis tadpole tail mRNA that represent genes upregulated by thyroid hormone during metamorphosis. Sequence analysis of one of these cDNAs (XL-15) revealed regions of homology to the mRNA encoding the rat type I (outer ring) 5'-deiodinase, including a conserved UGA codon that encodes selenocysteine in …

Effect Of Photoperiod On Developmental Morphology And Enolase Isoenzyme Immunohistochemistry In Rat And Djungarian Hamster Superficial Pineal Glands, Chalmer D. Mcclure

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The best understood functional activity of the pineal gland is its diurnal production of melatonin in response to environmental lighting cues. Several enzymes of the melatonin pathway respond to daily photoperiod changes, for example hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase (HIOMT) and serotonin N-acetyltransferase (SNAT). Increased levels of the glycolytic enzyme neuron-specific enolase (NSE) are thought to reflect increased physiological demands placed on neurons and neuroendocrine tissues. Homodimer non-neuronal enolase isoenzyme (NNE) is immunolocalized to cells, and the hybrid enolase (consisting of subunits from NSE and NNE) has been seen in cerebellar stellate and basket cells. Although not rate limiting, concentrations of both NSE and …