Motile spermatozoa from the golden hamster have been arrested by rapid freezing and then fixed with glutaraldehyde at low temperature after substitution with ethylene glycol. As far as can be judged, the flagellar waveforms thus stabilized are similar to those seen in living sperm; in contrast, fixation in glutaraldehyde, without prior freezing, induces agonal changes in flagellar conformation....

The mammalian embryo is encased in a glycoproteinaceous coat, the zona pellucida (ZP) during preimplantation development. Prior to implantation, the blastocyst must undergo 'hatching' or ZP escape. In hamsters, there is a thinning of the ZP followed by a focal lysis and a complete dissolution of the ZP during blastocyst hatching. Earlier studies from our laboratory have indicated a role for cys...

17rethan in the drinking water (0.~2-0.4 per cent) was administered to 5to 7-weekold Syrian golden hamsters and continued for 4~ weeks with an 8-week interval between the 40th and 48th week. This t rea tment has been found to give rise to melanotic tumors of the skin, papillomas and carcinomas of the forestomach, adenomatous polyps of the cecum, pulmonary adenomatosis, m a m m a r y tumors, hep...

The morphology of the convoluted testicular artery and the pampiniform plexus of the golden hamster was studied by light microscopy and corrosion cast techniques combined with scanning electron microscopy. The artery was found to be totally enclosed by the pampiniform plexus, except for minor superficial areas where the artery was exposed. Although no direct connection between the artery and th...

During postnatal development of the visual cortex of golden hamster, there is a transient increase in both the expression and the activity of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which coincides temporally with the formation of ipsilateral retino-collicular and retino-geniculate projections and the functional differentiation of primary visual cortex, suggesting the involvement of NO in the maturation o...