RELIABILITY OF FORCES DURING VARIATIONS OF PLYOMETRIC EXERCISES

Thirteen college students performed a drop jump from height equal to their peak vertical jump, single leg jumps from the left and right legs, and a counter movement jump. Vertical ground reaction force (GRF) obtained via an AMTI force plate and video analysis of markers placed on the hip, knee, lateral malleolus, and fifth metatarsal were used to estimate reaction forces on the knee joint. One-way Repeated Measures ANOVA indicated no differences for knee joint reaction forces relative to body weight or peak GRF for any of the jumps (p > 0.05). Average measures Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ranged from r = 0.90 to 0.97. Results indicate that peak GRF and knee joint reaction forces during the drop jump, counter movement jump, and single leg left and right leg jumps are reliable measures

A novel systems biology approach to evaluate mouse models of late-onset Alzheimer\u27s disease.

BACKGROUND: Late-onset Alzheimer\u27s disease (LOAD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide. To date, animal models of Alzheimer\u27s have focused on rare familial mutations, due to a lack of frank neuropathology from models based on common disease genes. Recent multi-cohort studies of postmortem human brain transcriptomes have identified a set of 30 gene co-expression modules associated with LOAD, providing a molecular catalog of relevant endophenotypes. RESULTS: This resource enables precise gene-based alignment between new animal models and human molecular signatures of disease. Here, we describe a new resource to efficiently screen mouse models for LOAD relevance. A new NanoString nCounter® Mouse AD panel was designed to correlate key human disease processes and pathways with mRNA from mouse brains. Analysis of the 5xFAD mouse, a widely used amyloid pathology model, and three mouse models based on LOAD genetics carrying APOE4 and TREM2*R47H alleles demonstrated overlaps with distinct human AD modules that, in turn, were functionally enriched in key disease-associated pathways. Comprehensive comparison with full transcriptome data from same-sample RNA-Seq showed strong correlation between gene expression changes independent of experimental platform. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, we show that the nCounter Mouse AD panel offers a rapid, cost-effective and highly reproducible approach to assess disease relevance of potential LOAD mouse models

Comprehensive Evaluation of the 5XFAD Mouse Model for Preclinical Testing Applications: A MODEL-AD Study.

The ability to investigate therapeutic interventions in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases depends on extensive characterization of the model(s) being used. There are numerous models that have been generated to study Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and the underlying pathogenesis of the disease. While transgenic models have been instrumental in understanding AD mechanisms and risk factors, they are limited in the degree of characteristics displayed in comparison with AD in humans, and the full spectrum of AD effects has yet to be recapitulated in a single mouse model. The Model Organism Development and Evaluation for Late-Onset Alzheimer\u27s Disease (MODEL-AD) consortium was assembled by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop more robust animal models of AD with increased relevance to human disease, standardize the characterization of AD mouse models, improve preclinical testing in animals, and establish clinically relevant AD biomarkers, among other aims toward enhancing the translational value of AD models in clinical drug design and treatment development. Here we have conducted a detailed characterization of the 5XFAD mouse, including transcriptomics, electroencephalogram

Comprehensive Evaluation of the 5XFAD Mouse Model for Preclinical Testing Applications: A MODEL-AD Study.

The ability to investigate therapeutic interventions in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases depends on extensive characterization of the model(s) being used. There are numerous models that have been generated to study Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and the underlying pathogenesis of the disease. While transgenic models have been instrumental in understanding AD mechanisms and risk factors, they are limited in the degree of characteristics displayed in comparison with AD in humans, and the full spectrum of AD effects has yet to be recapitulated in a single mouse model. The Model Organism Development and Evaluation for Late-Onset Alzheimer\u27s Disease (MODEL-AD) consortium was assembled by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop more robust animal models of AD with increased relevance to human disease, standardize the characterization of AD mouse models, improve preclinical testing in animals, and establish clinically relevant AD biomarkers, among other aims toward enhancing the translational value of AD models in clinical drug design and treatment development. Here we have conducted a detailed characterization of the 5XFAD mouse, including transcriptomics, electroencephalogram

Comprehensive Evaluation of the 5XFAD Mouse Model for Preclinical Testing Applications: A MODEL-AD Study.

The ability to investigate therapeutic interventions in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases depends on extensive characterization of the model(s) being used. There are numerous models that have been generated to study Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and the underlying pathogenesis of the disease. While transgenic models have been instrumental in understanding AD mechanisms and risk factors, they are limited in the degree of characteristics displayed in comparison with AD in humans, and the full spectrum of AD effects has yet to be recapitulated in a single mouse model. The Model Organism Development and Evaluation for Late-Onset Alzheimer\u27s Disease (MODEL-AD) consortium was assembled by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop more robust animal models of AD with increased relevance to human disease, standardize the characterization of AD mouse models, improve preclinical testing in animals, and establish clinically relevant AD biomarkers, among other aims toward enhancing the translational value of AD models in clinical drug design and treatment development. Here we have conducted a detailed characterization of the 5XFAD mouse, including transcriptomics, electroencephalogram

Canadian Cardiovascular Society Clinical Practice Update on Contemporary Management of the Patient with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Numerous guidelines on the diagnosis and management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) have been published, by learned societies, over the last decade. While helpful they are often long and less adapted to non-experts. This writing panel was challenged to produce a document that grew as much from years of practical experience as it did from the peer-reviewed literature. As such, rather than produce yet another set of guidelines, we aim here to deliver a concentrate of our own experiential learning and distil for the reader the essence of effective and appropriate HCM care. This Clinical Practice Update on HCM is therefore aimed at general cardiologists and other cardiovascular practitioners rather than for HCM specialists. We set the stage with a description of the condition and its clinical presentation; discuss the central importance of 'obstruction' and how to look for it; review the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; reflect on the appropriate use of genetic testing; review the treatment options for symptomatic HCM - crucially including cardiac myosin inhibitors; and deal concisely with practical issues surrounding risk assessment for sudden cardiac death, and management of the end-stage HCM patient. Uniquely, we have captured the pediatric experience on our panel to discuss appropriate differences in the management of younger patients with HCM. We ask the reader to remember that this document represents expert consensus opinion rather than dogma and to use their best judgement when dealing with the HCM patient in front of them

Third Report on Chicken Genes and Chromosomes 2015

Following on from the First Report on Chicken Genes and Chromosomes [Schmid et al., 2000] and the Second Report in 2005 [Schmid et al., 2005], we are pleased to publish this long-awaited Third Report on the latest developments in chicken genomics. The First Report highlighted the availability of genetic and physical maps, while the Second Report was published as the chicken genome sequence was released. This report comes at a time of huge technological advances (particularly in sequencing methodologies) which have allowed us to examine the chicken genome in detail not possible until now. This has also heralded an explosion in avian genomics, with the current availability of more than 48 bird genomes [Zhang G et al., 2014b; Eöry et al., 2015], with many more planned

Combination of novel and public RNA-seq datasets to generate an mRNA expression atlas for the domestic chicken

Background: The domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) is widely used as a model in developmental biology and is also an important livestock species. We describe a novel approach to data integration to generate an mRNA expression atlas for the chicken spanning major tissue types and developmental stages, using a diverse range of publicly-archived RNA-seq datasets and new data derived from immune cells and tissues. Results: Randomly down-sampling RNA-seq datasets to a common depth and quantifying expression against a reference transcriptome using the mRNA quantitation tool Kallisto ensured that disparate datasets explored comparable transcriptomic space. The network analysis tool Graphia was used to extract clusters of co-expressed genes from the resulting expression atlas, many of which were tissue or cell-type restricted, contained transcription factors that have previously been implicated in their regulation, or were otherwise associated with biological processes, such as the cell cycle. The atlas provides a resource for the functional annotation of genes that currently have only a locus ID. We cross-referenced the RNA-seq atlas to a publicly available embryonic Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) dataset to infer the developmental time course of organ systems, and to identify a signature of the expansion of tissue macrophage populations during development. Conclusion: Expression profiles obtained from public RNA-seq datasets - despite being generated by different laboratories using different methodologies - can be made comparable to each other. This meta-analytic approach to RNA-seq can be extended with new datasets from novel tissues, and is applicable to any species

Genome-Wide Analysis of Light- and Temperature-Entrained Circadian Transcripts in Caenorhabditis elegans

Transcriptional profiling experiments identify light- and temperature-entrained circadian transcripts in C. elegans

Macrophage Activation and Differentiation Signals Regulate Schlafen-4 Gene Expression: Evidence for Schlafen-4 as a Modulator of Myelopoiesis

Background: The ten mouse and six human members of the Schlafen (Slfn) gene family all contain an AAA domain. Little is known of their function, but previous studies suggest roles in immune cell development. In this report, we assessed Slfn regulation and function in macrophages, which are key cellular regulators of innate immunity