Long-term dark rearing induces permanent reorganization in retinal circuitry

Recent data challenged the assumption that light has little effect on retina development. Here, we report evidence that dark rearing permanently changes the synaptic input to GCs. A reduced spontaneous postsynaptic currents (SPSCs) frequency was found in retinal GCs from rats born and raised in the dark for three months. Glutamate antagonists (CNQX and AP-5) reversibly reduced SPSCs frequency in control and dark-reared (DR) retinae. The GABA antagonist picrotoxin (PTX) reduced SPSCs frequency in control retinas, but increased SPSCs frequency in DR, mainly by presynaptic action on excitatory currents. In DR animals exposed to normal cyclic light for 3 months, SPSCs frequency remained lower then in control rats and increased following PTX, suggesting that long-term dark rearing induces permanent modifications of the retinal circuitry. Our results strongly support the idea that light stimulation plays a role in establishing normal synaptic input to GCs.     

鸡蛋开窗法导入供体胚盘细胞对家鸡胚胎发育的影响研究

通过4批孵化实验,研究鸡蛋开窗法注射供体胚盘细胞对受体鸡胚发育及孵化率的影响。GLM方差分析表明,开窗处理极显著降低整个孵化期（21d)的活胚比例（P＜0．01）,至21日龄出壳时,处理组的孵化率为.8%-6.0%。导入供体胚盘细胞对受体鸡胚的发育仅为阶段性影响,表现在显著性孵化第8日龄左右的活胚比例（P＜0.05)。而对后期发育的影响不显著（P＞0．05）。因经,鸡蛋开窗处理是降低受体胚胎成活率和孵化率的主要原因,如何降低开窗处理对受体胚胎的应激和不利影响则是今后研究的一个课题。