OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of contrast pulse sequence (CPS) ultrasound imaging for high-resolution perfusion imaging after gene transfer (GT) for therapeutic angiogenesis. BACKGROUND Imaging modalities capable of accurate and feasible perfusion measurement are essential for the preclinical and clinical development of therapeutic angiogenesis. However, cur...

BACKGROUND Receptor for advanced glycated end product (RAGE) expression is a prominent feature of atherosclerosis. We have previously shown in apoE null mice uptake of a radiolabeled anti-RAGE antibody in atherosclerotic plaque and now evaluate RAGE-directed imaging to identify advanced plaques in a large animal model. METHODS Nine hyperlipidemic (HL) pigs were injected with 603.1 ± 129.5 MBq...

We investigated the evolutionary relationships among populations of two threatened Red Data Book fossorial skinks, Scelotes gronovii and Scelotes kasneri, along the Western Cape Coast of South Africa. The genus Scelotes shows considerable variation in limb and digit reduction. We sampled four localities purported to contain S. gronovii and seven of S. kasneri, encompassing all of each species' ...

Background: Most animal studies of spinal cord injury are conducted in quadrupeds, usually rodents. It is unclear to what extent functional results from such studies can be translated to bipedal species such as humans because bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion involve very different patterns of spinal control of muscle coordination. Bipedalism requires upright trunk stability and coordinated po...

W THEN notoedric mange is present in a large rabbit colony it becomes a serious menace unless adequate measures are taken to control it. The disease seems invariably to appear first on the nose, later spreading over the frontal region, lips, eyelids, and base of the ears. Simultaneously with the spread of lesions on the head, the lateral aspect of the hind limbs, the dorsal aspect of the fore l...

We have recently demonstrated that some forms of cathodal high voltage pulsed current (HVPC) curb posttraumatic edema formation in frog hind limbs. The purpose of this study was to determine, by assessing the capacity of anodal HVPC to curb posttraumatic edema formation, whether polarity is an important variable. Fourteen anesthetized bullfrogs were placed on large dispersive electrodes lining ...

To prospectively evaluate the feasibility of using magnetic resonance (MR) techniques for in-vivo assessing a rat diabetic model of limb ischemia. Unilateral hind limb ischemia was induced by ligation of the iliac-femoral artery in male streptozotocin-treated and non-diabetic control rats. Four weeks after ligation, rats underwent MR Angiography (MRA), T(1)-weighted and Short Time Inversion Rec...

A total of 275 dromedary camels (16 males and 259 females) of local "Arabiyat" breed suffering from different types and degrees of severity of toenail tumors were surgically treated. Histopathological examination of the tissue samples removed from 50 tumor-like growths (2 males and 48 females) revealed three types of tumors; squamous cell carcinoma (70%), spiny keratoderma (22%) and fibroma (8%...

OBJECTIVE To determine peak vertical force (PVF) and vertical impulse (VI) in cats that had or had not undergone bilateral forelimb onychectomy. ANIMALS 26 healthy adult cats. PROCEDURE Onychectomized cats (n = 13) had undergone surgery more than 6 months prior to the study. The PVF and VI were collected from all limbs of each cat with a 2-m pressure platform walkway. Cats were allowed to w...

Conservation within intergenic DNA often highlights regulatory elements that control gene expression from a long range. How conservation within a single element relates to regulatory information and how internal composition relates to function is unknown. Here, we examine the structural features of the highly conserved ZRS (also called MFCS1) cis-regulator responsible for the spatiotemporal con...