Welcome to Ali Khammanivong's
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 Background
 
 
   
 Future Plans
 
 
  • Educations
    • Graduate Program in Genetics and Immunology in Neuroscience at University of Minnesota
    • Medical School
  • Careers
    • Cancer Research in Neuroscience
    • Research in Human Higher Brain Functions (extra interest)
    • Medical Practioner in Cancer Treatment
    • Senior Executive and Director of United Intelligence (UI)
   
 Submitted Work
 
 
THE MOUSE CIRCADIAN SYSTEM BECOMES UNRESPONSIVE TO LIGHT AFTER "SATURATING" LIGHT-INDUCED PHASE DELAYS
 
Ali Khammanivong and Dwight Nelson*, Department of Biology, 
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN  55105
 
Society for Neuroscience Abstract, 1998
 
 
     Many studies have examined the sensitivity of the circadian photic entrainment pathway in mice using single light pulses. We have begun to characterize changes in the light sensitivity in this pathway caused by an initial stimulation. Mice (C57BL/6J) were entrained for at least 3 weeks to a 12:12 LD cycle and then placed into single cages equipped to monitor running wheel activity using a data acquisition system (Chronobiology Kit, Stanford Software). After at least 1  more week in LD, mice were transferred to constant darkness. After 7 days of DD, light pulses were individually presented to mice at CT16. Mice (5-10 per group) were exposed to either one 15-min pulse, one 30-min pulse, or two 15-min light pulses separated by durations of darkness from 1-104 min. All stimuli were "saturating" white fluorescent light of 640 µW (~5000 lux) and should have induced a maximum phase delay at CT16. After 2 weeks the steady-state phase shift of the circadian activity rhythm was measured for each animal. Results suggest that the mouse circadian system is unresponsive to light following the initial light pulse. The initial stimulus induced a phase delay of 104 ± 12 min (0 ± SEM). Phase delays induced by 2 pulses separated by 1, 15 or 104 min were 85 ± 23, 114 ± 8 and 108 ± 9 min respectively and were not differ significantly from shifts induced by a single pulse. These results are similar to results obtained from hamsters using phase advances and suggest that the light responsiveness of the mammalian photic entrainment pathway is greatly reduced by an initial light stimulation or by the response an initial stimulus induces in the circadian pacemaker. The mechanism for this reduction in light sensitivity remains a mystery.
   
   
 
Last Updated: 7/13/1998
© Ali Khammanivong, 1998 - All Rights Reserved
 
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