RATIONALE Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)2 opposes the actions of angiotensin (Ang) II by degrading it to Ang 1-7. OBJECTIVE Given the important role of Ang II/Ang 1-7 in atherogenesis, we investigated the impact of ACE2 deficiency on the development of atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS C57Bl6, Ace2 knockout (KO), apolipoprotein E (ApoE) KO and ApoE/Ace2 double KO mice were followed ...

We investigated the resistance to Strongyloides venezuelensis primary infection of mice strains NIH (resistant) and C57BL/6 (susceptible) and the F1 and F2 offspring of crosses between these strains. The mice were infected with 2000 larvae and seven days later were sacrificed for parasite recovery and counting. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) sex effect on resistance. The F1 m...

BACKGROUND Injury and intestinal inflammation trigger wound healing responses that can restore mucosal architecture but if chronic, can promote intestinal fibrosis. Intestinal fibrosis is a major complication of Crohn's disease. The cellular and molecular basis of mucosal healing and intestinal fibrosis are not well defined and better understanding requires well characterized mouse models. ME...

The mouse mutant hemoglobin deficit (gene symbol hbd) is characterized by a severe microcytic anemia that is inherited in an autosomal-recessive manner. To assess the mutation's effect on hematopoiesis, unfractionated bone marrow (BM) from either a mutant C57BL6/J-hbd/hbd, Gpi1b/Gpi1b (phenotype symbol HBD), or normal C57BL6/J-+hbd/+hbd, Gpi1b/Gpi1b mouse was injected intravenously into irradia...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 8 weeks of endurance exercise on the cardiac mitochondrial function of mice. [Subjects] Ten 129 SvJ/C57BL6 Male mice were used. The mice were randomly divided into an exercise group (n=5; mean ± SD weight, 27.4 ± 1.6 g) and a control (n=5; mean ± SD weight, 28.2 ± 1.1 g). The exercise mice ran on a motor driven treadmill 5 da...

There has been significant utilization of the technique described by Hamelmann et al. (1997) in which a parameter, Penh, related to airways responsiveness is non-invasively measured using unrestrained plethysmography (UP). We investigated this technique, seeking to answer these questions: 1) How do changes in Penh compare with changes in traditional plethysmographic and lung mechanical paramete...

Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic and excessive inflammation of the colon small intestine. We previously reported that priming mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) with poly(I:C) induced them to express indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). tried find out whether IFN-γ poly(I:C)-primed MSCs have better therapeutic efficacy on experimental colitis in IDO1-dependent manner. Met...

area burn (C57BL6 mice; n=4 per time point). Imaging of the injured limb and skin incision only contra-lateral limb (control) was performed weekly (1–9 weeks post-injury) in a longitudinal fashion. Acoustic concentration (10*log(mm-3)) was calculated for each ultrasound frame. Houndsfield units were used to calculate HO volume on microCT imaging. Histology was used to confirm the presence of HO...