The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in Mothers and Fathers of School-Aged Children

Research on parental reflective functioning (PRF)—defined as parents’ capacity to comprehend the developing mind of their child, reflect upon it, and hold in mind the inner life of the child—has mostly involved mothers of infants and young children, and rarely fathers and parents of school-aged children. The present study sought to extend research on PRF by examining aspects of the construct that are still scarcely explored, such as the role of gender and attachment; to investigate whether there were differences between mothers’ and fathers’ PRF and whether there were differences in PRF related to the gender and age of the child; and, finally, to assess the association between PRF and each parent’s attachment style. The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) were administered to a community sample of mothers and fathers of 385 children aged 3–10 years. A multi-group factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor model among both fathers and mothers. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance showed that mothers had higher levels of interest and curiosity in their children’s mental states than fathers. Parents of daughters showed higher pre-mentalizing modes than parents of sons. Parents of preschool children showed less nonmentalizing modes than parents of children aged 8–10. Correlations between PRFQ and ASQ showed that both mothers’ and fathers’ interest in thinking about their child’s internal experience and in taking the child’s perspective were correlated with higher levels of secure attachment style. Research implications are discussed

Towards large scale automated cage monitoring - Diurnal rhythm and impact of interventions on in-cage activity of C57BL/6J mice recorded 24/7 with a non-disrupting capacitive-based technique.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Automated recording of laboratory animal\u27s home cage behavior is receiving increasing attention since such non-intruding surveillance will aid in the unbiased understanding of animal cage behavior potentially improving animal experimental reproducibility. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Here we investigate activity of group held female C57BL/6J mice (mus musculus) housed in standard Individually Ventilated Cages across three test-sites: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, Rome, Italy), The Jackson Laboratory (JAX, Bar Harbor, USA) and Karolinska Insititutet (KI, Stockholm, Sweden). Additionally, comparison of female and male C57BL/6J mice was done at KI. Activity was recorded using a capacitive-based sensor placed non-intrusively on the cage rack under the home cage collecting activity data every 250 msec, 24/7. The data collection was analyzed using non-parametric analysis of variance for longitudinal data comparing sites, weekdays and sex. RESULTS: The system detected an increase in activity preceding and peaking around lights-on followed by a decrease to a rest pattern. At lights off, activity increased substantially displaying a distinct temporal variation across this period. We also documented impact on mouse activity that standard animal handling procedures have, e.g. cage-changes, and show that such procedures are stressors impacting in-cage activity. These key observations replicated across the three test-sites, however, it is also clear that, apparently minor local environmental differences generate significant behavioral variances between the sites and within sites across weeks. Comparison of gender revealed differences in activity in the response to cage-change lasting for days in male but not female mice; and apparently also impacting the response to other events such as lights-on in males. Females but not males showed a larger tendency for week-to-week variance in activity possibly reflecting estrous cycling. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that home cage monitoring is scalable and run in real time, providing complementary information for animal welfare measures, experimental design and phenotype characterization

Plasma focus based repetitive source of fusion neutrons and hard x-rays

A plasma focus device capable of operating at 0.2 pulses per second during several minutes is used as a source of hard x-rays and fast neutrons. An experimental demonstration of the use of the neutrons emissions for radiation probing of hydrogenated substances is presented, showing a particular application in detecting water concentrations differences in the proximity of the device by elastic scattering. Moreover, the device produces ultrashort hard x-rays pulses useful for introspective images of small objects, static or in fast motion, suitable for the identification of internal submillimetric defects. Clear images of metallic objects shielded by several millimeters iron walls are shown.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure

Importing genetically altered animals : ensuring quality

The reproducibility of research using laboratory animals requires reliable management of their quality, in particular of their genetics, health and environment, all of which contribute to their phenotypes. The point at which these biological materials are transferred between researchers is particularly sensitive, as it may result in a loss of integrity of the animals and/or their documentation. Here, we describe the various aspects of laboratory animal quality that should be confirmed when sharing rodent research models. We also discuss how repositories of biological materials support the scientific community to ensure the continuity of the quality of laboratory animals. Both the concept of quality and the role of repositories themselves extend to all exchanges of biological materials and all networks that support the sharing of these reagents.Peer reviewe

Tendon Immune Regeneration: Insights on the Synergetic Role of Stem and Immune Cells during Tendon Regeneration

Tendon disorders represent a very common pathology in today’s population, and tendinopathies that account 30% of tendon-related injuries, affect yearly millions of people which in turn cause huge socioeconomic and health repercussions worldwide. Inflammation plays a prominent role in the development of tendon pathologies, and advances in understanding the underlying mechanisms during the inflammatory state have provided additional insights into its potential role in tendon dis-orders. Different cell compartments, in combination with secreted immune modulators, have shown to control and modulate the inflammatory response during tendinopathies. Stromal compartment represented by tenocytes has shown to display an important role in orchestrating the inflammatory response during tendon injuries due to the interplay they exhibit with the immune-sensing and infiltrating compartments, which belong to resident and recruited immune cells. The use of stem cells or their derived secretomes within the regenerative medicine field might represent synergic new therapeutical approaches that can be used to tune the reaction of immune cells within the damaged tissues. To this end, promising opportunities are headed to the stimulation of macrophages polarization towards anti-inflammatory phenotype together with the recruitment of stem cells, that possess immunomodulatory properties, able to infiltrate within the damaged tissues and improve tendinopathies resolution. Indeed, the comprehension of the interactions between tenocytes or stem cells with the immune cells might considerably modulate the immune reaction solving hence the inflammatory response and preventing fibrotic tissue formation. The purpose of this review is to compare the roles of distinct cell compartments during tendon homeostasis and injury. Furthermore, the role of immune cells in this field, as well as their interactions with stem cells and tenocytes during tendon regeneration, will be discussed to gain insights into new ways for dealing with tendinopathies

Scaffold-Mediated Immunoengineering as Innovative Strategy for Tendon Regeneration

Tendon injuries are at the frontier of innovative approaches to public health concerns and sectoral policy objectives. Indeed, these injuries remain difficult to manage due to tendon’s poor healing ability ascribable to a hypo-cellularity and low vascularity, leading to the formation of a fibrotic tissue affecting its functionality. Tissue engineering represents a promising solution for the regeneration of damaged tendons with the aim to stimulate tissue regeneration or to produce functional implantable biomaterials. However, any technological advancement must take into consideration the role of the immune system in tissue regeneration and the potential of biomaterial scaffolds to control the immune signaling, creating a pro-regenerative environment. In this context, immunoengineering has emerged as a new discipline, developing innovative strategies for tendon injuries. It aims at designing scaffolds, in combination with engineered bioactive molecules and/or stem cells, able to modulate the interaction between the transplanted biomaterial-scaffold and the host tissue allowing a pro-regenerative immune response, therefore hindering fibrosis occurrence at the injury site and guiding tendon regeneration. Thus, this review is aimed at giving an overview on the role exerted from different tissue engineering actors in leading immunoregeneration by crosstalking with stem and immune cells to generate new paradigms in designing regenerative medicine approaches for tendon injuries

EMMA—mouse mutant resources for the international scientific community

The laboratory mouse is the premier animal model for studying human disease and thousands of mutants have been identified or produced, most recently through gene-specific mutagenesis approaches. High throughput strategies by the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) are producing mutants for all protein coding genes. Generating a knock-out line involves huge monetary and time costs so capture of both the data describing each mutant alongside archiving of the line for distribution to future researchers is critical. The European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) is a leading international network infrastructure for archiving and worldwide provision of mouse mutant strains. It operates in collaboration with the other members of the Federation of International Mouse Resources (FIMRe), EMMA being the European component. Additionally EMMA is one of four repositories involved in the IKMC, and therefore the current figure of 1700 archived lines will rise markedly. The EMMA database gathers and curates extensive data on each line and presents it through a user-friendly website. A BioMart interface allows advanced searching including integrated querying with other resources e.g. Ensembl. Other resources are able to display EMMA data by accessing our Distributed Annotation System server. EMMA database access is publicly available at http://www.emmanet.org

Cx26 partial loss causes accelerated presbycusis by redox imbalance and dysregulation of Nfr2 pathway.

Mutations in GJB2, the gene that encodes connexin 26 (Cx26), are the most common cause of sensorineural hearing impairment. The truncating variant 35delG, which determines a complete loss of Cx26 protein function, is the prevalent GJB2 mutation in several populations. Here, we generated and analyzed Gjb2+/- mice as a model of heterozygous human carriers of 35delG. Compared to control mice, auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) worsened over time more rapidly in Gjb2+/- mice, indicating they were affected by accelerated age-related hearing loss (ARHL), or presbycusis. We linked causally the auditory phenotype of Gjb2+/- mice to apoptosis and oxidative damage in the cochlear duct, reduced release of glutathione from connexin hemichannels, decreased nutrient delivery to the sensory epithelium via cochlear gap junctions and deregulated expression of genes that are under transcriptional control of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a pivotal regulator of tolerance to redox stress. Moreover, a statistically significant genome-wide association with two genes (PRKCE and TGFB1) related to the Nrf2 pathway (p-value < 4\u202f 7 10-2) was detected in a very large cohort of 4091 individuals, originating from Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, with hearing phenotype (including 1076 presbycusis patients and 1290 healthy matched controls). We conclude that (i) elements of the Nrf2 pathway are essential for hearing maintenance and (ii) their dysfunction may play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of human presbycusis

The mammalian gene function resource: The International Knockout Mouse Consortium

In 2007, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) made the ambitious promise to generate mutations in virtually every protein-coding gene of the mouse genome in a concerted worldwide action. Now, 5 years later, the IKMC members have developed highthroughput gene trapping and, in particular, gene-targeting pipelines and generated more than 17,400 mutant murine embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and more than 1,700 mutant mouse strains, most of them conditional. A common IKMC web portal (www.knockoutmouse.org) has been established, allowing easy access to this unparalleled biological resource. The IKMC materials considerably enhance functional gene annotation of the mammalian genome and will have a major impact on future biomedical research