Dorsal root activity evoked by stimulation of vagina-cervix-uterus junction in the rat.

In the present study, we characterized the evoked electrical activity from T(13) to S(2) dorsal roots (DRs) during glass probe-stimulation of the vagina-cervix-uterus junction (VCUJ) of female Wistar rats. The results showed that gentle stimulation of VCUJ evoked high-amplitude electrical activity in L(3) and L(6) DRs. Hypogastric or pelvic nerve transection failed to abolish this activity. L(6)-S(1) spinal trunk transection abolished the high-amplitude electrical activity evoked in L(6) DR, while transection of the lumbosacral trunk blocked the high-amplitude electrical activity evoked in L(3) DR. These data suggest that during copulation, penile intromission likely activates the low-threshold sensory receptors of the VCUJ, thereby evoking sensory neural activity that enters the spinal cord via L(3) and L(6) dorsal roots, whose axons travel through the lumbosacral trunk and pudendal nerve.

The effects of castration and hormone replacement on the cross-sectional area of pubococcygeus muscle fibers in the female rat.

In this study, we analyzed the effect of ovariectomy and gonadal hormone replacement on the cross-sectional area of pubococcygeus (Pcm) fibers. It was found that in comparison to intact animals, ovariectomized animals [for 2 or 6 weeks] had an increased cross-sectional area average in Pcm fibers. Ovariectomy also reduced the percentage of fibers with smaller cross-sectional area. In ovariectomized animals after 4 weeks of hormone replacement with an empty Silastic capsule or filled with testosterone propionate or dihydrotestosterone, significantly increased the cross-sectional area average and the percentage of fibers with larger size. However, 17ß-estradiol but not estradiol benzoate treatment reduced the cross-sectional area average and increased the percentage of Pcm fibers with smaller size. Progesterone did not have an effect on the cross-sectional area of this muscle. We conclude that Pcm fibers of female rats are sensitive to gonadal hormones, and contrary to male castration, ovariectomy promotes an increase in their cross-sectional area. Also, we discuss according to other studies that an external mechanism which lies within the neuromuscular periphery could also participate in the modulatory hormonal effect on mass or muscle fiber size. Furthermore, in this process, estradiol is likely to regulate the fiber cross-sectional area growing produced by androgens.

Nature's food anticipatory experiment: entrainment of locomotor behavior, suprachiasmatic and dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei by suckling in rabbit pups.

In nature and under laboratory conditions, dams nurse rabbit pups once daily for a duration of fewer than 5 min. The present study explored neural mechanisms mediating the timing of nursing in this natural model of food anticipatory activity, focussing on the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the locus of the master circadian clock and on the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DMH), a region implicated in timing of food-entrained behavior. Rabbit pups are born in the dark, with eyelids closed. Nursing visits to the litters also occurs during the dark phase. To explore the effect of the timing of feeding, pups were maintained in constant darkness, while females housed in a light-dark cycle were permitted to nurse their pups either during the night (night-fed group) or day (day-fed group). All pups exhibited anticipatory locomotor activity before daily nursing. In the SCN, PER1 and FOS peaked during the night in both groups, with a longer duration of elevated protein expression in the night-fed group. In contrast, DMH peak PER1 expression occurred 8 h after pups were fed, corresponding to the shift in timing of nursing. Comparison of nursed and 48 h fasted pups indicates that the timing of PER1 expression was similar in the SCN and DMH, with fewer PER1-positive cells in the latter group. The results indicate that rabbit pups show food anticipatory activity, and that timing of nursing differentially affects PER1 expression in the SCN and DMH.

Diminished redundancy of outer membrane factor proteins in rhizobiales: a nodT homolog is essential for free-living Rhizobium etli.

Rhizobium etli is a gram-negative soil bacterium that induces nitrogen-fixing nodules on common bean roots (Phaseolus vulgaris). R. etli encodes two genes homologous to nodT of Rhizobium leguminosarum. nodTch is chromosomal and forms an operon with new genes resembling a multi-drug efflux pump of the resistance-nodulation-cell division (RND) family. nodTch is the last gene of this operon and can also be independently transcribed; the gene product is located in the bacterial outer membrane. Cell survival requires nodTch under all conditions tested. A second nodT gene, nodTpc, is encoded by plasmid c; it is constitutively transcribed but does not complement the essential function encoded by nodTch. NodT proteins belong to the outer membrane efflux proteins of the TolC superfamily. The number of duplications in the tolC gene family positively correlates with genome size in gram-negative bacteria. Nonetheless, some alpha-proteobacteria, including R. etli, encode fewer outer membrane factor exporters than expected suggesting further roles in addition to detoxification.