Mice

If you spend a lot of time in front of a computer, you've learned that the most important parts of the system are the ones that connect to you directly. You can live with a slow processor or disk drive, but a bad keyboard, mouse or monitor can sap your productivity or even imperil your health. Having survived one nasty bout with carpal tunnel syndrome, and being of middle age, which means my eyes aren't quite as flexible as they were, I tend to pay more attention to these gadgets than most people.

Mutant mice that ignore their own infants, allowing them to die from neglect, provide new evidence that in mammals the very essence of mothering -- the ability to nurture the young -- has an important genetic component.The inattentive mother mice, described in today's issue of the journal Cell, were bred by researchers at the Harvard Medical School to lack a gene known as fosB.The researchers did not set out to study nurturing; rather, they were curious about fosB, because it is one of many "immediate early genes," which are thought to be crucial players in learning, memory and other types of behavioral change.

Johns Hopkins scientists have genetically engineered mice that carry a human gene linked to schizophrenia, an advance they say could open new avenues of research into a debilitating disease that affects millions. Researchers hope the schizophrenic mice will be better test subjects than current mice, which often get injections of mind-altering drugs such as PCP to induce schizophrenic symptoms and behavior. The mice carry a human gene from a Scottish family prone to schizophrenia, making them a more accurate model of the disorder in humans and a boon to scientists working to unravel its causes and develop treatments, the Hopkins researchers said.

In a possible glimpse at the brain surgery of the future, biologists have partly cured mice of a disease resembling multiple sclerosis by injecting restorative cells into their brains.The cells migrated all over the brain and took the correct action to repair the neural disease, in this case a lack of the sheath that covers certain nerve cells and helps speed their conduction of electrical signals.The approach is founded on the use of stem cells, the regenerative cells with which organs renew and repair themselves.

Making slight alterations in a common gene makes mice drink 50 percent more alcohol than their littermates, new research shows. The genetic changes also made the animals more anxious. The gene, called CREB, is critical to both mice and humans. During early development, the gene `'turns on" other genes to regulate brain growth and function. Throughout life, it's intimately involved in learning and memory. Some studies suggest that boosting CREB activity makes it easier for animals to learn and remember.

A sudden movement, a startled cry -- it's Bubba!That's the generic name Baltimore County's 911 dispatchers give the field mice infesting their portion of Towson's county courts building. The rodents are among a number of maintenance woes at the multimillion-dollar center.But while they sometimes joke about the mice, workers say other problems at the center are more serious.They complain that exhaust and urine odors seep into the air system from the parking garage below the 911 center. They say the center isn't kept clean.

A glass of red wine might be good for your heart and ease the tension you feel after a hard day. Now researchers say that red wine - or a compound in it - might help you live longer even if you indulge in rich meals. The compound reversed the ill effects of a high-fat diet in mice and prolonged their lives, say researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Aging. Mice given heavy doses of resveratrol (res-VAIR-a-trol) had healthier heart and liver tissues and less likelihood of developing cancer and Type 2 diabetes, even though they were raised on high-fat diets.

New research suggests that males may be like autos with their accelerators welded to the floor, their aggressive and sexual urges held in check by constant application of the brakes.Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University reported today in the British journal Nature that male mice with a single gene switched off -- so their brains can't produce nitric oxide -- exhibit a startling pattern of behavior.They appear fearless when hanging upside down from miniature tightropes, lingering while normal mice scramble to right themselves.

Scientists have discovered a compound that can quickly turn off the appetite of mice, enabling the rodents to drop up to a third of their weight. The finding offers new targets for researchers struggling to stop one of the fastest-growing health problems in the country: obesity. Published in today's edition of the journal Science, the report provides fresh insight into how the brain controls feeding behavior. Essentially, investigators interrupted the normal flow of a complex "assembly line" that regulates appetite in the mouse brain.

Galesville residents spent more than 12 hours yesterday without telephone service, and the South County area was abuzz with word that sharpshooting vandals had taken out the lines. But the real culprits turned out to be mice. Verizon Communications officials blamed the four-legged varmints for a break in a fiber-optic line that occurred late Monday along Muddy Creek Road in Galesville. Officials said mice apparently nibbled halfway through an underground line, leaving about 9,100 households telephonically cut off from the outside world and without access to the 911 emergency number.