Wild-type and single-transgenic (APP, PS1) and double-transgenic (APP+PS1) mice were studied at three different (3-, 12-, and 18-month-old) age periods. Transgenic mice had reflex eyelid responses like those of controls, but only 3-month-old mice were able to fully acquire conditioned eyeblinks, using a trace paradigm, whilst 12-month-old wild-type and transgenic mice presented intermediate val...

Abstract Complement cleavage products generated during activation serve a wide range of functions from immune defense against microbes to homeostasis. However, the complement activated such as C4a, albeit present at high levels in lupus, remain unknown. Studying is challenging. Studies using purified proteins can be confounded by minute contaminants with potent effects. Transgenic animals often...

Recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the first immunotherapy for prostate cancer encourages efforts to improve immune targeting of this disease. The synovial sarcoma X chromosome breakpoint (SSX) proteins comprise a set of cancer-testis antigens that are upregulated in MHC class I-deficient germline cells and in various types of advanced cancers with a poor prognosis. Humoral an...

ProSAAS is a neuroendocrine peptide precursor that potently inhibits prohormone convertase 1 in vitro. To explore the function of proSAAS and its derived peptides, transgenic mice were created which express proSAAS using the beta-actin promoter. The body weight of transgenic mice was normal until approximately 10-12 weeks, and then increased 30-50% over wild-type littermates. Adult transgenic m...

To examine the effect of increased hexosamine flux in liver, the rate-limiting enzyme in hexosamine biosynthesis (glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase [GFA]) was overexpressed in transgenic mice using the PEPCK promoter. Liver from random-fed transgenic mice had 1.6-fold higher GFA activity compared with nontransgenic control littermates (276 +/- 24 pmol x mg(-1) x min(-1) in transge...

By the effort to identify candidate signaling molecules important for formation of robust circadian rhythms in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), mammalian center, here we characterize role ?2? proteins, synaptic initially identified as an auxiliary subunit voltage dependent calcium channel, rhythm formation. In situ hybridization study demonstrated that type 3 gene (?2?3) was strongly expressed SC...

The effects of long-term chronic growth hormone (GH) excess on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism were investigated in 8-mo-old bovine GH (bGH)-transgenic mice. Total body weight, serum cholesterol, insulin-like growth factor-I, and insulin levels were higher, whereas serum levels of glucose, free fatty acids, and triglycerides were lower in transgenic mice. Very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) ch...