Animal Models for Alopecia Areata: What and Where?

Disease is not limited to humans. Rather, humans are but another mammal in a continuum, and as such, often share similar if not identical diseases with other mammalian species. Alopecia areata (AA) is such a disease. Natural disease occurs in humans, nonhuman primates, many domestic animals, and laboratory rodents. However, to be useful as models of human disease, affected animals need to be readily available to the research community, closely resemble the human disease, be easy to work with, and provide reproducible data. To date, the laboratory mouse (most if not all of the C3H substrains) and the Dundee experimental bald rat fit these criteria. Manipulations using full-thickness skin grafts or specific immune cell transfers have improved the models. New mouse models that carry a variety of genetic-based immunodeficiencies can now be used to recapitulate the human immune system and allow for human full-thickness skin grafts onto mice to investigate human-specific mechanistic and therapeutic questions. These models are summarized here including where they can currently be obtained from public access repositories. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc 2015 Nov; 17(2):23-6

Animal Models for Alopecia Areata: What and Where?

Disease is not limited to humans. Rather, humans are but another mammal in a continuum, and as such, often share similar if not identical diseases with other mammalian species. Alopecia areata (AA) is such a disease. Natural disease occurs in humans, nonhuman primates, many domestic animals, and laboratory rodents. However, to be useful as models of human disease, affected animals need to be readily available to the research community, closely resemble the human disease, be easy to work with, and provide reproducible data. To date, the laboratory mouse (most if not all of the C3H substrains) and the Dundee experimental bald rat fit these criteria. Manipulations using full-thickness skin grafts or specific immune cell transfers have improved the models. New mouse models that carry a variety of genetic-based immunodeficiencies can now be used to recapitulate the human immune system and allow for human full-thickness skin grafts onto mice to investigate human-specific mechanistic and therapeutic questions. These models are summarized here including where they can currently be obtained from public access repositories. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc 2015 Nov; 17(2):23-6

Animal Models for Alopecia Areata: What and Where

Disease is not limited to humans. Rather, humans are but another mammal in a continuum, and as such, often share similar if not identical diseases with other mammalian species. Alopecia areata (AA) is such a disease. Natural disease occurs in humans, nonhuman primates, many domestic animals, and laboratory rodents. However, to be useful as models of human disease, affected animals need to be readily available to the research community, closely resemble the human disease, be easy to work with, and provide reproducible data. To date, the laboratory mouse (most if not all of the C3H substrains) and the Dundee experimental bald rat fit these criteria. Manipulations using full-thickness skin grafts or specific immune cell transfers have improved the models. New mouse models that carry a variety of genetic-based immunodeficiencies can now be used to recapitulate the human immune system and allow for human full-thickness skin grafts onto mice to investigate human-specific mechanistic and therapeutic questions. These models are summarized here including where they can currently be obtained from public access repositories

Drink monitoring for self and others: precollege drinkers and the Bad-Habit-Formation Hypothesis

Background: Past research has demonstrated that precollege alcohol consumption is related to college alcohol consumption. But whether precollege drinking is also related to drinking-related behaviors, such as drink monitoring, is unknown. Some have argued that precollege drinking, as a form of experience, should be related to the performance of positive drinking-related behaviors (learning-from-experience hypothesis) whereas others have argued that, given the environment of precollege drinkers, it should be related to negative drinking-related behaviors (bad-habit-formation hypothesis). Methods: A cross-sectional survey of college students (n = 284) at a large Midwestern university in the U.S. Participants completed measures of precollege drinking, college drinking, fraternity membership, and responsible drinking behaviors. Results: Precollege drinkers were more likely to engage in college drinking; the former explained 12% of the variance in the College Drinking Scale, above and beyond other predictors. Precollege drinkers were less likely to monitor their own alcohol consumption or the consumption of their friends. Conclusions: Precollege drinkers were less likely to monitor their own drinking and the drinking of friends, consistent with the bad-habit-formation hypothesis; that is, the notion that early drinking experiences cultivate the formation of irresponsible drinking behaviors

EXPANDING THE LIMITS OF POWER: The Federal Reserve and the Implementation of Functional Regulation in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Era

Research on bureaucratic behavior suggests that agencies are more likely to use the implementation process to extend their power and influence under particular circumstances. I argue that when an agency has been delegated considerable power by Congress, but provided only vague guidance on how to implement this authority, an atmosphere of uncertainty and competition is created. Under such a circumstance the agency will feel pressured to further extend its power in order to defend its regulatory turf against competitors and protect the authority it was delegated. I test this proposition by examining the behavior of the Federal Reserve as it implements the functional regulation provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Evidence from the Federal Reserve's dealings with the Securities and Exchange Commission during the approval of the Schwab - U. S. Trust merger provides evidence that the Fed is indeed acting to extend its power and influence. Copyright 2002 by The Policy Studies Organization.