Measures of Heart and Ventilatory Rates in Freely Moving Crayfish

The fear, flight or fight response serves as the fundamental physiological basis for examining an organism''s awareness of its environment under an impending predator attack. Although it is not known whether invertebrates posses an autonomic nervous system identical to that of vertebrates, evidence shows invertebrates have a sympathetic-like response to regulate the internal environment and ready the organism to act behaviorally to a given stimuli. Furthermore, this physiological response can be feasibly measured and it acts as a biological index for the animal''s internal state. Measurements of the physiological response can be directly related to internal and external stressors through changes in the central nervous system controlled coordination of the cardio-vascular and respiratory systems. More specifically, monitoring heart and ventilation rates provide quantifiable measures of the stress response not always behaviorally observed. Crayfish are good model organisms for heart and ventilatory rate measurements due to the feasibility of recording, as well as the rich history known of the morphology of the crayfish, dating back to Huxley in 1888, and the well-studied typical behaviors.     

Normal fertility in male mice lacking ADAM32 with testis-specific expression

The a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) family proteins comprise a group of membrane-anchored proteins. ADAM32 is expressed specifically in testis and is closely related phylogenetically to ADAM2 and ADAM3, which are known to be critical for fertilization in mice. To assess the biological role of ADAM32, we analyzed Adam32-mutant mice. We found that male mice lacking ADAM32 have normal fertility, testicular integrity, and sperm characteristics. ADAM32 was found to exist at lower levels than ADAM2 and ADAM3 in wild-type testis and sperm, respectively. The present study demonstrates that ADAM32 is dispensable for fertility and appears to be functionally unrelated to ADAM2 and ADAM3 in mice.     

Metabolic activation and DNA-adducts detection as biomarkers of chlorinated pesticide exposures

Several authors have reported the high hepatic incidence of γhexachlorocyclohexane (γHCH), pentachlorophenol (PCP) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) which are widely used as pesticides. Their genotoxicity status was not clearly known and no m utagenic effects, using the Salmonella assay, were reported. In the first part of this report, DNA-adduct form ation is evaluated in three types of cultured hepatic cells (rodent, bird and hum an) as a biomarker of exposure to genotoxic com pounds. γHCH-, PCP- and HCB-DNA adducts were analysed, using the sensitive ³²P-postlabelling assay in its nuclease P1 enrichm ent version. The genotoxicity of lindane and PCP is clearly established. Total DNA-adducts reached a m axim um in foetal rat hepatocytes (17 and 15 adducts per 10⁹ nucleotides) after an exposure to pentachlorophenol and lindane respectively. After HCB treatm ent, lim ited am ounts of DNA-adducts were found in the different cells used. The finding that DNA adducts were not the sam e in all species tested m ight be due to m etabolic differences. Each type of cultured cells preferentially express different cytochrome P450 fam ilies. These P450s m etabolize a wide variety of xenobiotics and bioactivate carcinogens into reactive m etabolites able to form DNA-adducts. The objective of the present study was to exam ine the possible association between DNA-adduction and particular C YP450 induction. The induced cytochrom e P450s were m easured by northern blot analysis. In rat and hum an cells, lindane treatm ent strongly induces CYP2B and CYP3A m RNA levels, whereas pentachlorophenol treatm ent induces CYP1A, CYP2B and CYP3A.     

DNA adducts in marine and freshwater fish as biomarkers of environmental contamination

The analysis of DNA modifications in aquatic animals may serve as a sensitive marker of exposure to genotoxic contaminants. This is of importance in assessing water quality regarding pollution with genotoxic compounds, food safety analysing edible aquatic animals and in terms of ecotoxicology. Covalent modification of DNA is considered a crucial event in chemical carcinogenesis and thus may be considered a biomarker of an early genotoxic effect. Measuring DNA adducts is unique in that these lesions may be considered a biomarker of both exposure and effect. A number of studies have described the analysis of the DNA isolated from the liver of both freshwater and marine fish. Considerable levels of DNA adducts have been observed in some animals from contaminated lakes or rivers. Low levels were observed in DNA from the liver of marine fish. The background levels of DNA adducts have to be determined in animals from appropriate uncontaminated control sites that are matched for species, gender, age and season of the year. It is of crucial importance to consider the species analysed since there have been reports of the non responsiveness of some species.