In Siberian hamsters and other photoperiodic rodents, exposure to short photoperiods simultaneously inhibits gonadal hormone secretion and enhances some measures of immune function. The present study tested whether gonadal hormones mediate the effects of short days on skin immune function (delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions) in male Siberian hamsters. The magnitude of delayed-type hypersen...

A passage line of a spontaneous hamster fibrosarcoma is contaminated by the virus. of lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Tumors from animals receiving implants when newborn contain high titers of infectious lymphocytic-choriomeningitis virus and complement-fixing antigen, and hamsters receiving implants when weanlings develop high titers of complement-fixing antibody against lymphocytic-choriomening...

The collagen content of the diaphragm was measured in normal and dystrophic hamsters aged 130 and 270 days. The diaphragm collagen content was greater in dystrophic hamsters than in control hamsters of the same age. The effect was greater in the older hamsters whether the collagen content was expressed in terms of the percentage of dry weight, in relation to surface area, or as total collagen. ...

gen mustard, 6-mercaptopurine, and vinblastine exhibited slight immunosuppressive activity. Established immunity was especially labile to cortisol and cortisone administration with generalized Besnoitia relapse occurring consistently in all hamsters; this occurred infrequently during cyclophosphamide treatment. Focal relapse was seen in chronically irradiated and ALS-treated hamsters, but the l...

BACKGROUND Hantavirus, the hemorrhagic causative agent of two clinical diseases, is found worldwide with variation in severity, incidence and mortality. The most lethal hantaviruses are found on the American continent where the most prevalent viruses like Andes virus and Sin Nombre virus are known to cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. New World hantavirus infection of immunocompetent hamsters...

Introduction The biotransformation of polychlorinated biphenyls, world-wide environmental pollutants, is initiated mainly by an oxygenation of aromatic ring catalyzed by liver cyochrome P450(P450) [1]. A series of our studies using some tetrachlorobiphenyls (TCBs), major components of Kanechlor 400 caused Yusho poisoning in Japan in 1968, demonstrated that the hydroxylating ability of liver mic...

We investigated the susceptibilities of Syrian golden hamsters to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents from cattle. We report efficient transmission of the L-type atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent into hamsters. Importantly, hamsters were also susceptible to the transmissible mink encephalopathy agent from cattle, which has molecular features similar to those of th...

Our aim was to investigate the effect of Withaferin-A on bone marrow micronucleus frequency and buccal mucosa detoxication agents during 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) induced hamster buccal pouch carcinogenesis. Oral squamous cell carcinoma was developed in hamsters' buccal pouches by painting 0.5% DMBA in liquid paraffin, three times per week for 14 weeks. We observed 100% tumor forma...

Siberian hamsters undergo torpor during the short days of winter and in response to glucoprivation or food restriction. We tested whether the area postrema and the adjacent nucleus of the solitary tract (hereafter the AP), which monitor metabolic fuel availability, also control the onset of torpor. Siberian hamsters that had manifested torpor spontaneously or had entered torpor in response to 2...

Given the hypothesis that inflammation plays a critical role in the progression of cardiovascular diseases, the aim of the present study was to identify new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of myocardial proteins involved in early-phase cardiac impairment, using proteomics analysis. Using the two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) combined with MALDI-TOF/TOF t...