Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Sex And Social Status On Neuromuscular Differentiation In The Eusocial Naked Mole-Rat (Heterocephalus Glaber), Marianne Louise Seney

Open Access Dissertations

Naked mole-rats live in large colonies and exhibit a strict reproductive hierarchy. Each colony has 1 breeding female and 1-3 breeding males; all other individuals are non-reproductive subordinates. Subordinates show a remarkable lack of sex differences in behavior and anatomy, but can become reproductive if removed from the colony. The striated perineal muscles and their innervating motoneurons, which are sexually dimorphic in all other mammals examined, are not dimorphic in subordinate naked mole-rats. Here I asked whether sexual differentiation of this neuromuscular system occurs when subordinates become breeders. Sex differences in perineal motoneurons were not observed, regardless of social status. …

Distinct Dna Damage Signaling In The Brain Distinguishes Atld, Nbs, And Atr-Seckel Syndrome, Erin Renee Phillips Shull

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

DNA double strand breaks create a situation of extreme stress under which a cell must either be capable of repairing the lesions in order to continue replication or succumb to death. Not surprisingly, deficiencies in DNA repair genes often lead to human diseases frequently associated with genomic instability, cancer proneness, and neuropathology. Neurological consequences of aberrant DNA repair mechanisms vary depending upon the affected gene and the pathway in which it operates. Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is the prototypical disease associated with DNA double strand break (DSB) repair deficiency and is characterized by severe neural pathology. A-T results from homozygous mutations that …

Multiscale Genomic Analysis Of The Corticolimbic System: Uncovering The Molecular And Anatomic Substrates Of Anxiety-Related Behavior, Khyobeni Mozhui

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Genetic diversity generates variation at multiple phenotypic levels, ranging from the most basic molecular to higher-order cognitive and behavioral traits. The far-reaching impact that genes have on higher traits is apparent in several neuropsychiatric conditions such as stress and anxiety disorders. Like most, if not all, neural phenotypes, stress, anxiety, and other emotion-related traits are extremely complex and are defined by the interplay of multiple genetic, environmental, experiential, and epigenetic factors.

The work presented in this dissertation is a multi-scalar, integrative analysis of the molecular and neuroanatomic substrates that underlie emotion-related behavior. The amygdala is a principle component of the …

The Combined Effect Of In-Situ Tumor And Irradiation On Peritumoral Brain Vasculature, Janice Ann Zawaski

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

In the USA, 200,000 brain tumors are diagnosed each year with glioma representing 8.4% of the 200,000. The standard treatment for glioma consists of surgical resection, when possible, followed by radiation therapy (RT) and/or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy is one of the most effective treatments of brain tumors; however, the therapeutic ratio of RT is limited by damage to the normal tissue. We hypothesize that tumor growth has an adverse effect on the peritumoral tissue through the angiogenic/inflammatory environment it creates rendering it susceptible to further damage by RT which may be prevented by using anti-angiogenic/anti-inflammatory agents. We have developed a …

Immunomodulatory Effects Of Novel Therapies For Stroke, Aaron A. Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Each year, approximately 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke. About 610,000 of these are first attacks, and 185,000 are recurrent attacks (Carandang et al. 2006). Currently the only FDA approved treatment for ischemic stroke is recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (Alteplase) (Marler and Goldstein 2003). Unfortunately its use is restricted to a short, 4.5 hour, time window. Two promising therapies in the treatment of stroke at delayed timepoints are human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBC) and the sigma receptor agonist DTG

The first series of experiments were conducted to characterize the effects of sigma receptors on various aspects of …