DNA damage occurs in human cells at a constant rate. These cells are usually able to repair themselves, but sometimes deficiencies in certain genes cause the repair process to shut down. When damaged DNA isn't fixed, mutations can occur that cause accelerated aging or cancerous tumors to form (Hoeijmakers, 2009). Scientists at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam have found a way to slow down...
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Following a well-designed protocol is essential to achieving accurate and consistent results in scientific research. Now, scientists using Neurolucida 360 for dendritic spine and neuron analysis can follow a published set of guidelines to ensure optimal confocal data series for proper dendritic spine quantification and neuron reconstruction. The paper, written by MBF Bioscience scientists and researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai...
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[caption id="attachment_6526" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Representative images of Iba-1+ microglia in the postnatal day 10 rat hippocampus. Image courtesy of Anna Klintsova, PhD.[/caption] Children born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders face a range of physical and cognitive impairments including long-term deficits in learning, behavior, and immune function. In a paper published in Neuroscience, Dr. Anna Klintsova and her lab at the University of Delaware report that activation...
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Complex imaging and experimental tasks must happen quickly in a smooth workflow so that experiments can be performed within the time constraints imposed by working with behaving animals. ScanImage is the software of choice for controlling your scanning microscopy experiments because it provides robust cutting edge imaging features coupled with the ability to automate and time workflows like no other application can. A key feature...
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The optical fractionator probe was used to quantify the number of neurons and glia in the dentate gyrus Doctors have used lithium to treat patients with bipolar disorder since the 1970s. Known for its efficacy in stabilizing patients' moods by regulating manic episodes, lithium is also associated with a decreased risk of suicide. But while this naturally occurring element is the most widely prescribed medication for...
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[caption id="attachment_6403" align="aligncenter" width="632"] This figure illustrates the separate and combined effects of acute stress and fear conditioning/extinction on dendritic morphology of pyramidal neurons in the infralimbic region of medial prefrontal cortex. Each neuron shown is a composite made up of apical (blue) and basilar (orange) arbor near the mean of the group. The apical and basilar arbors of each composite are from different neurons....
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We continue our history of innovation and invention as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awards us two patents. The first is for WormLab - our unique worm tracking software that gives researchers an enormous amount of behavioral data about a single worm or multiple worms, even as they go through omega bends, reversals, and entanglements. The second is for our radial shock wave technology...
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[caption id="attachment_6326" align="aligncenter" width="600"] An immunostained image of myelin basic protein in the cerebella of a mouse brain with an iron-sufficient diet compared with the brain of a mouse exposed to alcohol and fed an iron-insufficient diet. It shows the reduced cerebellar size due to the ID-alcohol combination. Green is MBP immunostain, blue is DAPI for nuclei. Image courtesy of Susan Smith, PhD.[/caption] If a pregnant...
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Aspiring medical doctors and life science researchers in the U.S. learn histology to understand the cellular organization of tissues and organs. In the past, microscopes were the only equipment available for viewing cells and other microscopic structures in tissue specimens. Now, more and more students are learning histology with virtual microscope slides – high-resolution digital images of tissue specimens that can be viewed on a...
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[caption id="attachment_6175" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Phosphorylated tau pS422 immunoreactive profiles (dark brown) in the cortex of P301S mice after repetitive mild TBI. Image courtesy of Dr. Leyan Xu, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University.[/caption] Over the course of a football game or a boxing match, athletes may experience a series of mild concussions. Some of these athletes develop a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a...
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