Animal survival necessitates adaptive behaviors in volatile environmental contexts. Virtual reality (VR) technology is instrumental to study the neural mechanisms underlying behaviors modulated by environmental context by simulating the real world with maximized control of contextual elements. Yet current VR tools for rodents have limited flexibility and performance (e.g., frame rate) for context-dependent cognitive research. Here, we describe a high-performance VR platform with which to study contextual behaviors immersed in editable virtual contexts. This platform was assembled from modular hardware and custom-written software with flexibility and upgradability. Using this platform, we trained mice to perform context-dependent cognitive tasks with rules ranging from discrimination to delayed-sample-to-match while recording from thousands of hippocampal place cells. By precise manipulations of context elements, we found that the context recognition was intact with partial context elements, but impaired by exchanges of context elements. Collectively, our work establishes a configurable VR platform with which to investigate context-dependent cognition with large-scale neural recording.
Animals ; Mice ; Rodentia ; Virtual Reality ; Cognition ; Recognition, Psychology

Understanding the connection between brain and behavior in animals requires precise monitoring of their behaviors in three-dimensional (3-D) space. However, there is no available three-dimensional behavior capture system that focuses on rodents. Here, we present MouseVenue3D, an automated and low-cost system for the efficient capture of 3-D skeleton trajectories in markerless rodents. We improved the most time-consuming step in 3-D behavior capturing by developing an automatic calibration module. Then, we validated this process in behavior recognition tasks, and showed that 3-D behavioral data achieved higher accuracy than 2-D data. Subsequently, MouseVenue3D was combined with fast high-resolution miniature two-photon microscopy for synchronous neural recording and behavioral tracking in the freely-moving mouse. Finally, we successfully decoded spontaneous neuronal activity from the 3-D behavior of mice. Our findings reveal that subtle, spontaneous behavior modules are strongly correlated with spontaneous neuronal activity patterns.
Animals ; Behavior, Animal ; Brain/diagnostic imaging* ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional/methods* ; Mice ; Neuroimaging ; Rodentia

Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is primarily associated with administering antiresorptive or antiangiogenic drugs. Despite significant research on MRONJ, its pathogenesis and effective treatments are still not fully understood. Animal models can be used to simulate the pathophysiological features of MRONJ, serving as standardized in vivo experimental platforms to explore the pathogenesis and therapies of MRONJ. Rodent models exhibit excellent effectiveness and high reproducibility in mimicking human MRONJ, but classical methods cannot achieve a complete replica of the pathogenesis of MRONJ. Modified rodent models have been reported with improvements for better mimicking of MRONJ onset in clinic. This review summarizes representative classical and modified rodent models of MRONJ created through various combinations of systemic drug induction and local stimulation and discusses their effectiveness and efficiency. Currently, there is a lack of a unified assessment system for MRONJ models, which hinders a standard definition of MRONJ-like lesions in rodents. Therefore, this review comprehensively summarizes assessment systems based on published peer-review articles, including new approaches in gross observation, histological assessments, radiographic assessments, and serological assessments. This review can serve as a reference for model establishment and evaluation in future preclinical studies on MRONJ.
Animals ; Bisphosphonate-Associated Osteonecrosis of the Jaw/drug therapy* ; Bone Density Conservation Agents/adverse effects* ; Diphosphonates/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; Rodentia

Objective: To study the molecular epidemiological characteristics and genotypes of hantavirus carried by rodents in Shenzhen. Methods: Rodents were captured, and their lung samples were collected and grinded for RNA extraction. The hantavirus positive samples were classified by real-time fluorescence PCR. Rat lung nucleic acid samples were selected to amplify the nucleotide sequences of partial M fragments (G2 segment) and S fragments by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested PCR). The PCR products were then sequenced and homology and phylogenetic tree analyses were conducted. Results: A total of 200 rodents were captured, including 189 Rattus norvegicus, 9 Rattus flavipectus and 2 Mus musculus. The positive rate of hantavirus was 21.0% (42/200), all of the isolates were seoul virus (SEOV) strains. The positive rate of hantavirus in Bao'an district was highest (45.7%), and the difference in detection rate among districts were significant (χ²=25.60,P<0.05). A total of 25 G2 segment sequences and S fragment sequences of SEOV were obtained by virus gene sequencing, and their nucleotide homology was 95.3%-100.0% and 97.6%-100.0%, respectively. Compared with other reference sequences of S2 subtype, the nucleotide homology between the sample sequence and the reference sequence from Guangzhou was high. Analysis on nucleotide homology and phylogenetic tree showed that hantavirus carried by the rodents captured in Shenzhen belonged to SEOV S2 subtype. Analysis on amino acid variation sites revealed that there was a variation in the nucleocapsid protein encoded by S gene from Alanine to Threonine at the 973 position of BA-111. Conclusion: Hantavirus carried by rodents in Shenzhen belongs to S2 subtype of Seoul virus, which have little variation compared with the hantavirus strains obtained in other years in Shenzhen and surrounding provinces.
Mice ; Rats ; Animals ; Orthohantavirus/genetics* ; Rodentia ; Phylogeny ; Hantavirus Infections/veterinary* ; Communicable Diseases ; Nucleotides ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Animals ; Heart Failure ; Models, Animal ; Rodentia ; Stroke Volume ; Ventricular Function, Left

Animals ; Ehrlichia/isolation & purification* ; Ehrlichiosis/veterinary* ; Prevalence ; Rodent Diseases/microbiology* ; Rodentia ; Species Specificity

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a Met-controlled allosteric module (AM) of neural generation as a potential therapeutic target for brain ischemia. METHODS: We selected Markov clustering algorithm (MCL) to mine functional modules in the related target networks. According to the topological similarity, one functional module was predicted in the modules of baicalin (BA), jasminoidin (JA), cholic acid (CA), compared with I/R model modules. This functional module included three genes: Inppl1, Met and Dapk3 (IMD). By gene ontology enrichment analysis, biological process related to this functional module was obtained. This functional module participated in generation of neurons. Western blotting was applied to present the compound-dependent regulation of IMD. Co-immunoprecipitation was used to reveal the relationship among the three members. We used IF to determine the number of newborn neurons between compound treatment group and ischemia/reperfusion group. The expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) were supposed to show the changing circumstances for neural generation under cerebral ischemia. RESULTS: Significant reduction in infarction volume and pathological changes were shown in the compound treatment groups compared with the I/R model group (P<0.05). Three nodes in one novel module of IMD were found to exert diverse compound-dependent ischemic-specific excitatory regulatory activities. An anti-ischemic excitatory allosteric module (AM CONCLUSIONS AM
Animals ; Brain Ischemia/drug therapy* ; Gene Ontology ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; Rodentia ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

Adenocarcinoma ; Adenoma ; Animals ; Communicable Diseases ; Fibroma ; Humans ; Incidence ; Lung ; Male ; Mammals ; Penis ; Rodentia ; Sebaceous Glands ; Uterus

To compare the biological functions of astrocytes cultured by two methods. Methods The primary astrocytes were cultured from rodent neonatal brain,whereas the differentiated astrocytes were prepared by differentiating neural stem cells with fetal bovine serum.The morphologies of these two different types of astrocytes were observed under microscope and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP),an astrocyte-specific marker,was detected by immunofluorescence staining after treatment with 10 cytokines.Changes in GFAP,glutamate synthetase(GS),glutamate-aspartic acid transporter(xCT),neuregulin-1(NRG),N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor(NMDA),lipoprotein lipase(LPL)were detected and compared. Results The morphologies and GFAP expression differed between these two astrocyte types.Microarray showed that the expressions of GFAP,GS,xCT,NRG,NMDA,and LPL were significantly higher in primary astrocytes than in differentiated astrocytes.None of these 10 cytokines increased the expression of GFAP in primary astrocytes,whereas treatment with transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β)significantly increased the expression of GFAP in the differentiated astrocytes. Conclusion Compared with the differentiated astrocytes,the primary astrocytes are more similar to reactive astrocytes,and TGF-β can promote the transition of differentiated cells to reactive cells.
Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Astrocytes ; cytology ; Cell Differentiation ; Cells, Cultured ; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein ; metabolism ; Neural Stem Cells ; cytology ; Rodentia ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; pharmacology

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a pathological state with sustained elevation of pulmonary artery (PA) pressure. Since the pathogenesis of PH is mostly irreversible, the disease often comes up with poor prognosis. Pulmonary arterioles are affected by deteriorative changes, such as development of occlusive lesions of thickening of arterial walls. Such processes increase the pulmonary arterial pressure thus lead to consequent injuries such as right ventricle failure. Proliferation, or resistance to apoptosis of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) and fibroblasts, are characteristic changes observed in the PA in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. PAH can either occur idiopathically or come with other diseases. Emerging evidences suggest that pro-inflammatory processes are closely related to the development of PAH. Therefore, it is inferred that immune cells could be the key factors in PAH development. In this review, we summarize the way how each types of immune cells participate in PAH. We would also like to list the current rodent models used for PAH study.
Apoptosis ; Arterial Pressure ; Arterioles ; Fibroblasts ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Hypertension ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Inflammation ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Artery ; Rodentia