Humanized mice are frequently utilized in bench to bedside therapeutic tests to combat human infectious, cancerous and degenerative diseases. For the fields of hematology-oncology, regenerative medicine, and infectious diseases, the immune deficient mice have been used commonly in basic research efforts. Obstacles in true translational efforts abound, as the relationship between mouse and human cells in disease pathogenesis and therapeutic studies requires lengthy investigations. The interplay between human immunity and mouse biology proves ever more complicated when aging, irradiation, and human immune reconstitution are considered. All can affect a range of biochemical and behavioral functions. To such ends, we show age- and irradiation-dependent influences for the development of macrocytic hyper chromic anemia, myelodysplasia, blood protein reductions and body composition changes. Humanization contributes to hematologic abnormalities. Home cage behavior revealed day and dark cycle locomotion also influenced by human cell reconstitutions. Significant age-related day-to-day variability in movement, feeding and drinking behaviors were observed. We posit that this data serves to enable researchers to better design translational studies in this rapidly emerging field of mouse humanization.

Irrespective of the mouse strain or treatment, homocysteine failed to induce neural tube defects in our mouse models, which is in contrast to what has been reported in the chicken embryo models.

BackgroundGalectins are a large family of proteins evolved to recognize specific carbohydrate moieties. Given the importance of pattern recognition processes for multiple biological tasks, including CNS development and immune recognition, we examined the home cage behavioral phenotype of mice lacking galectin-3 (Lgals3) function. Using a sophisticated monitoring apparatus capable of examining feeding, drinking, and movement at millisecond temporal and 0.5 cm spatial resolutions, we observed daily behavioral patterns from 10 wildtype male C57BL/6J and 10 Lgals3 constitutive knockout (Lgals3−/−; both cohorts aged 2–3 months) mice over 17 consecutive days. We performed a second behavioral assessment of this cohort at age 6–7 months.ResultsAt both ages, Lgals3−/− mice demonstrated less movement compared to wildtype controls. Both forward locomotion and movement-in-place behaviors were decreased in Lgals3−/− mice, due to decreased bout numbers, initiation rates, and durations. We additionally noted perturbation of behavioral circadian rhythms in Lgals3−/− mice, with mice at both ages demonstrating greater variability in day-to-day performance of feeding, drinking, and movement (as assessed by Lomb-Scargle analysis) compared to wildtype.ConclusionCarbohydrate recognition tasks performed by Lgals3 may be required for appropriate development of CNS structures involved in the generation and control of locomotor behavior.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12868-018-0428-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Folate supplementation reduces the incidence of congenital heart defects, but the nature of this protective mechanism remains unclear. Immunolabeling demonstrated that the neural tube and neural crest (NC) cells were rich in the high-affinity folate receptor FOLR1and during the early stages of development FOLR1 was found principally in these cells. Suppression of Folr1 expression in the nascent cardiac NC by site-directed short-interfering RNA (siRNA) altered cardiac NC cell mitosis and subsequent migration patterns leading to abnormal development of the pharyngeal arch arteries (PAA) and outflow tract. qPCR analysis demonstrated that the siRNA treatment significantly reduced Folr1 24 hr after treatment. These treatments also significantly reduced mitosis in the neural tube, but adjacent, nontreated areas were unaffected. In summary, a brief reduction in the expression of Folr1 during a critical stage of NC development had long-term consequences for the development of the PAA and outflow tract. Developmental Dynamics 239:1136-1144,

Inexpensive, high-throughput, low maintenance systems for precise temporal and spatial measurement of mouse home cage behavior (including movement, feeding, and drinking) are required to evaluate products from large scale pharmaceutical design and genetic lesion programs. These measurements are also required to interpret results from more focused behavioral assays. We describe the design and validation of a highly-scalable, reliable mouse home cage behavioral monitoring system modeled on a previously described, one-of-a-kind system [1]. Mouse position was determined by solving static equilibrium equations describing the force and torques acting on the system strain gauges; feeding events were detected by a photobeam across the food hopper, and drinking events were detected by a capacitive lick sensor. Validation studies show excellent agreement between mouse position and drinking events measured by the system compared with video-based observation – a gold standard in neuroscience.