Applications Booklet

Harvard Apparatus and affiliates are cited over 850,000 times in ‘Google Scholar’, and over 10,000 times in 2012 alone.* The following booklet contains examples of Harvard Apparatus products used in Neuroscience Research, along with summarizations of the experiments and related published articles. Thank you for considering Harvard Apparatus products for your Neuroscience Research needs. *Data compiled July 2012. Dear Scientist, he importance of your research work cannot be overstated. Everyone’s life is impacted by a family member or friend that has a neurodegenerative disorder, a learning disability,...

Roiko, et. al., (2012) Brain Uptake of the Drug of Abuse γ-Hydroxybutyric Acid in Rats Drug Metab Dispos. γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is an endogenous compound and a substrate for the ubiquitous monocarboxylate transporter (MCT) family. GHB is also a drug of abuse due to its sedative/hypnotic and euphoric effects, with overdoses resulting in toxicity and death. The goal of this study was to characterize the distribution of GHB into the brain using in vivo microdialysis and in vitro uptake studies and to determine concentration-effect relationships for GHB in a rat animal model. GHB was administered...

EXPERIMENT SUMMARIZATION Materials & Methods Heterogeneity in Ventricular Zone Neural Precursors Contributes to Neuronal Fate Diversity in the Postnatal Neocortex In utero electroporation preferentially transfects cells that transit through S- and M- phases of the cell cycle within 8 h of the surgery and that the vanguard of the transfected population is in the M-phase at the moment of electroporation. Female ICR mice were checked daily for vaginal plugs; the day of plug was considered embryonic day 0.5 (E0.5). Surgeries were performed at E13.5 or E14.5. Dams were anesthetized with ketamine/xylazine...

Adapted with permission from Liu X, Dawson DC., Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator: temperature-dependent cysteine reactivity suggests different stable conformers of the conduction pathway., Biochemistry, 50(47), 10311-7. Copyright 2011, American Chemical Society. Introduction Cysteine scanning has been widely used to identify pore-lining residues in mammalian ion channels, including the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Studies of this type, however, have been typically conducted at room temperature rather than at human body temperature. Reports of...

Hoffman, H.M., Nadal, R., Vignes, M., & Ortiz, J., (2012), Addiction Biology, 17(3), 565-575. Introduction Self-administration is a classical model of human drug-taking behavior and consists in establishing in rodents an operant conditioning of an instrumental response (nose-poke, lever pressing) to obtain a reward, according to a fix or progressive ratio. Self-administration is a standard paradigm for studying the acute rewarding properties of drugs, the development of habitual drug-seeking behaviors, and ultimately, addiction. In the present work, the self-administration paradigm was used in...

Panayotis K. Thanos, Carlos Bermeo, Gene-Jack Wang and Nora D. Volkow (2011) EXPERIMENT SUMMARIZATION Materials & Methods This experiment included thirty six, 6-week old male rats habituated for 7 days to desired temperature, humidity, and a 12 hour reverse light cycle. Animals were individually housed and kept on a normal diet, with food being restricted to 18 g/day during the cocaine selfadministration experiments only. Introduction Cocaine increases dopamine levels by blocking dopamine transporters, thus inducing rewarding effects leading to addiction. AMPA and NMDA receptors have been linked...

Introduction To evaluate the penetration of the blood–brain barrier by 9-fluoropropyl-(+)-dihydrotetrabenazine (AV-133), microdialysis probes were implanted simultaneously into rat blood and brain, and a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated to monitor the AV-133 concentration in the microdialysates. This method was used to determine the concentrations of AV-133 and its pharmacokinetics in the brains and blood of rats. The blood and brain concentration–time profiles for AV-133 were obtained, and the blood–brain barrier penetration was evaluated. Crown...

Julia A. Chester, Annette M. Blose and Janice C. Froehlich (2005) Alcohol and Alcoholism, 40(5), 379-387 Introduction Chronic alcohol drinking leads to a number of neurobiological processes, most notable alcohol dependence. Alcohol withdrawal syndrome emerges from the dependence with both physical signs and subjective symptoms. In the present work, the authors seek to investigate the effect of the alcohol withdrawal experience as a deterrent to alcohol consumption in both high and low alcohol drinking subjects. EXPERIMENT SUMMARIZATION Harvard Apparatus Neuroscience Application Guide Effects...

Dominguez, J.F., Guo, L., Carrasco, Molnar, M.A., Ballester Escobedo, A., Dunphy, T., Lund, T.D., Turman, J.E., Jr., (2009) Introduction The ability to characterize the development of metabolic function in neonatal rodents has been limited due to technological constraints. Low respiratory volumes and flows at rest pose unique problems, making it difficult to reliably measure O2 consumption, CO2 production, respiratory quotient (RQ), and energy expenditure (EE). To address this research need, a novel, highly sensitive open-circuit indirect calorimetry system capable of analyzing respiratory gas...

EXPERIMENT SUMMARIZATION Results Materials & Methods phiC31 Integrase Confers Genomic Integration and Long-Term Transgene Expression in Rat Retina Efficient nonviral delivery of plasmid DNA to rat RPE in vivo was achieved by using subretinal injection of plasmid DNA, followed by in situ electroporation. Gene delivery was evaluated by analyzing enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) expression in frozen sections. In subsequent experiments, a plasmid expressing luciferase, with or without a plasmid encoding the C31 integrase, was delivered to rat RPE. Luciferase expression was followed over...