Morphological and Biochemical Evaluation of the Induction of Atherosclerosis in Japanese Quails

A total of 77 birds were divided into 7 groups which were fed the following diets : Group I, basal ; Group II, 5% corn oil (CO) + 0.5% cholesterol (CH) ; Group III, 5% CO + 2% CH; Group IV, 5% CO + 4% CH; Group V, 15% CO + 0.5% CH ; Group V I, 15% CO + 2% CH; Group VII, 15% CO + 4% CH. Significant increase of serum lipid, accumulation of lipid in the liver, and lipid-rich aortic lesions were produced in Groups IV, VI and VIII. However, hyperlipidemia correlated well with the extent of hepatic lipid accumulation and severity of aortic atherosclerosis in Group VI. Proliferating intimal cells showed positive reaction to antibodies for vimentin and alpha-1-antichymotrypsin implicating an important role of phenotypical transformation of intimal cells from the medial fibroblastic cells in the development of aortic atherosclerosis. These results suggest that Japanese quail is highly susceptible to atherosclerosis, and the optimal dietary level of cholesterol and corn oil is 2% and 15%, respectively to induce lipid-rich aortic lesions in Japanese quail

The Inheritance of Jumping Activity in Reciprocal Cross of Two Subspecies of Mice

The objective of this study was to describe the nature of the inheritance of jumping as a behavioral trait and to analyze quantitatively the jumping height as a measure of vigor in two subspecies of mice. Two subspecies of mice, Yonakuni wild mouse (Y) and CF#1 laboratory mouse (C), were used as the parental types. Reciprocal mating between these two subspecies was made to produce subsequently the first and second generations. The first generation was F1 (YC) resulting from Y male x C female, and F1’ (CY) from C male x Y female. The second generation F2 (YCYC) was from mating F1 x F1 and F2’ (CYCY) from F1’ x F1’. Individuals were treated with a set of direct current shock apparatus at six weeks of age to evoke jumping. The results showed that the ratio between jumping and non jumping mice (J: NJ) for C was 0%:100% (0:1), which means that all C did not jump throughout the experiment, whereas Y was 68%:32% (2:1); and the F1 and F2 showed 65%:35% (2:1) and 51%:49% (1:1), respectively. All F1’ and F2’ individuals jumped as indicated by the ratio 100%:0% (1:0) for both these two genetic groups. Of the jumped mice, average height of the first three jumping observed for pooled sexes in Y, F1, F2, F1’, and F2'' were 19.3 cm, 19.3 cm, 18.0 cm, 19.9 cm and 16.4 cm, respectively. The distribution of jumping height showed a tendency to be a normal distribution. The jumping activity and jumping height may be affected by some major genes and polygenes, respectively. Keywords : Jumping Inheritance, Reciprocal Cross, Subspecies of Mic

Effects of Magnetic Pole on Orientation of Bull Sperm Treated by Dithiothreitol or Heparin

Effect of the north (N) or south pole (S) of a magnet and dithiothreitol (DTT) or heparin sodium (H) on the orientation of bull sperm were studied. Sperm were collected from four Japanese Black bulls of Okinawa Prefectural Livestock Experimental Station were treated with various concentrations of DTT or H during the first and sixth days and were then exposed them to N or S with a magnetic field of 3,000 Gauss for 24 hours. Experimental results showed that both N and S significantly increased the perpendicular oriented percentage of bull sperm in most treatments not treated or treated with DTT or H. Anisotropy of magnetic field of bull sperm was the main cause which induced them to orient perpendicular to the magnetic direction. The results of the experiment also showed that, in most cases, the two polarities had the same effect on the orientation of bull sperm. However, in some cases, N exerted a stronger effect on the perpendicular percentage of bull sperm than S, such as with the 20 mM DTT treatment at the first and sixth days and the 100 units H treatment at the sixth day. These cases showed that the perpendicular oriented percentage of bull sperm at N was significantly higher than that of S. It was only the 100 units heparin treatment at S both at the first and sixth days that upward perpendicular orientation was higher than that at N. This might be due to the fact that protamin-DNA structure of a small number of bull sperm nuclei slightly changed because of heparin action. Keywords : Magnetic Pole, Bull Sperm, Orientation, Dithiothreitol, Hepari

Average Direct and Maternal Genetic Effects and Heterosis Effects on Body Weight in Two Subspecies of Mice

Data on body weights were analyzed in the four genetic groups from all possible crosses of two subspecies of mice to estimate average direct genetic effects (ADGE), average maternal genetic effects (AMGE) and heterotic effect (HE). The genetic groups used were CF#1 laboratory mouse (Mus musculus domesticus), Yonakuni wild mouse (Yk, Musvusculus molossinus yonakuni) and two reciprocal F1 crosses of them, CY and YC. First symbol in the reciprocal F1 represent subspecies of dam. Body weight at 1 (Wk 1), 3 (Wk 3), 6 (Wk 6) and 10 weeks of age (Wk 10) were analyzed from 258 mice of the four genetic groups. The model used to evaluate body weights included main effects of genetic group and sex, and interaction effect between genetic group and sex. The ADGE and the AMGE were estimated as deviations of Yk from CF#1. The HE was estimated from the differences between the reciprocal F1 and the midparent mean, Results of this study showed that all effects, except sex and interaction between genetic group and sex at Wk1 and Wk3, were highly significant source variation (p<0.01). The ADGE were positive and highly significant (p < 0.01) at all ages studied for both sexes, while the AMGE were highly significant at Wk3, Wk6 and Wk10. The ADGE were larger in contributing effect on body weight differences than the AMGE. The positive value of the HE were observed at all ages for males, while for females the positive effects occurred from birth through weaning. Keywords : Direct and Maternal Effects, Heterosis Effects, Body Weight, Subspecies of Mic

Heterosis Effects on Jumping Height and Body Weight in Three-Way Rotational Crossing in Mice

The three-way rotational crossing experiment has been conducted to evaluate heterosis effects on jumping height and body weight. Yonakuni wild mice (Y) and two genetic groups of CF#1 (C) and C3H/HeNCrj (H) laboratory mice were used as materials. Reciprocal rotational crossing was made by crossing C male Y female and Y male X C female to produce basic group designated G0 and G0’, respectively. The females of the G0 and G0’ were mated to the H sire to produce second generation (G1 and G1’), and at the following generation the replacement females were mated to Y or C sire according to the basic group to produce G2 to G3 and G2’ to G3’. Individual jumping height data at Wk6 and body weight data at 1 (Wk1), 3 (Wk3), 6 (Wk6) and 10 (Wk10) weeks of age were analyzed. The results showed that effects of genetic group, sex and interaction of genetic group by sex were significant (p<0.01) for jumping height. For males, 55.34%~79.17% and 54.46%~78.29% of heterosis were reached at G1 to G3 and G1'''' to G3’, respectively. While for females at G1 to G3 and at G’ to G3’, heterosis effects were 61.53%~80.42% and 47.79%~85.86%, respectively. For body weight, genetic group was a significant source of variation at all ages studied. Sex effect was significant at Wk3, Wk6 and Wk10, and interaction between genetic group and sex was significant at Wk6 and Wk10 (p<0.01). C sires resulted in the highest body weight of offspring, while H sires were the intermediate and Y sires were the lightest. The significant positive and negative heterosis effects for body weight were exhibited. Crossing involved the Y sires in addition to smaller maternal effects of Y dams tended to result in small heterosis. Keywords : Jumping Height, Body Weight, Heterosis, Rotational Crossing, Mic

Multiphasic Analysis of Growth Curve of Body Weight in Mice

The present study describes the analysis of the multiphasic growth function (MGF) to body weight in laboratory and wild mice. Three genetic groups of laboratory mice (Mus musculus domesticus) designated CF#1, C3H/HeNCrj and C57BL/6NCrj, and a genetic group of Yonakuni wild mice (Mus musculus molassinus yonakuni, Yk) were used. Mean body weight of each genetic group-sex subclass from birth to 69 days of age taken at 3-day intervals were analyzed by a monophasic, diphasic and triphasic functions for describing growth patterns. A comparison among the three functjions of the MGF was based on the goodness-of-fit criteria : residual standard deviation (RSD), adjusted R-squrare (Adj R2) and Akaike`s information criterion (AIC). Result of this study indicated that body weight averaged heavier for males than for females. Among the four genetic groups within both sexes, CF#1 showed the highest, subsequent followed by C3H/HeNCrj, C57BL/6NCrj and Yk. Comparison among the three functions revealed that the triphasic function was the best fit to growth data, with the lowest RSD, the highest Adj R2 and the lowest AIC, for the four genetic groups. For the triphasic function, RSD within each genetic group-sex subclass was similar for males and females. ADJ R짼 was 0.999 for all genetic group-sex subclasses. AIC for laboratory mice males and females ranged from -70.48 to 66.50 and from -92.81 to -68.64, respectively ; whereas for Yk wild mice males was-78.42 and females -78.42. Keywords : Multiphasic Growth Function, Goodness-of-fit Criteria, Body Weight, Mic