The rat is an important system for modeling human disease. Four years ago, the rich 150-year history of rat research was transformed by the sequencing of the rat genome, ushering in an era of exceptional opportunity for identifying genes and pathways underlying disease phenotypes. Genome-wide association studies in human populations have recently provided a direct approach for finding robust genetic associations in common diseases, but identifying the precise genes and their mechanisms of action remains problematic. In the context of significant progress in rat genomic resources over the past decade, we outline achievements in rat gene discovery to date, show how these findings have been translated to human disease, and document an increasing pace of discovery of new disease genes, pathways and mechanisms. Finally, we present a set of principles that justify continuing and strengthening genetic studies in the rat model, and further development of genomic infrastructure for rat research.

Use of a cryoprotective agent is indispensable to prevent injury to human spermatozoa during the cryopreservation process. However, addition of cryoprotective agents to spermatozoa before cooling and their removal after warming may create severe osmotic stress for the cells, resulting in injury. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that the degree (or magnitude) of human sperm volume excursion can be used as an independent indicator to evaluate and predict possible osmotic injury to spermatozoa during the addition and removal of cryoprotective agents. Glycerol was used as a model cryoprotective agent in the present study. To test this hypothesis, first the tolerance limits of spermatozoa to swelling in hypo-osmotic solutions (iso-osmotic medium diluted with water) and to shrinkage in hyperosmotic solutions (iso-osmotic medium with sucrose) were determined. Sperm plasma membrane integrity was measured by fluorescent staining, and sperm motility was assessed by computer-assisted semen analysis before, during and after the anisosomotic exposure. The result indicate firstly that motility was much more sensitive to anisosmotic conditions than membrane integrity, and secondly that motility was substantially more sensitive to hypotonic than to hypertonic conditions. Based on the experimental data, osmotic injury as a function of sperm volume excursion (swelling or shrinking) was determined. The second step, using these sperm volume excursion limits and previously measured glycerol and water permeability coefficients of human spermatozoa, was to predict, by computer simulation, the cell osmotic injury caused by different procedures for the addition and removal of glycerol. The predicted sperm injury was confirmed by experiment. Based on this study, an analytical methodology has been developed for predicting optimal protocols to reduce osmotic injury associated with the addition and removal of hypertonic concentrations of glycerol in human spermatozoa.

Osmotic permeability characteristics and the effects of cryoprotectants are important determinants of recovery and function of spermatozoa after cryopreservation. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the osmotic permeability parameters of human spermatozoa in the presence of cryoprotectants. A series of experiments was done to: 1) validate the use of an electronic particle counter for determining both static and kinetic changes in sperm cell volume; 2) determine the permeability of the cells to various cryoprotectants; and 3) test the hypothesis that human sperm water permeability is affected by the presence of cryoprotectant solutes. The isosmotic volume of human sperm was 28.2 +/- 0.2 microns3 (mean +/- SEM), 29.0 +/- 0.3 microns3, and 28.2 +/- 0.4 microns3 at 22, 11, and 0 degrees C, respectively, measured at 285 mOsm/kg via an electronic particle counter. The osmotically inactive fraction of human sperm was determined from Boyle van't Hoff (BVH) plots of samples exposed to four different osmolalities (900, 600, 285, and 145 mOsm/kg). Over this range, cells behaved as linear osmometers with osmotically inactive cell percentages at 22, 11, and 0 degrees C of 50 +/- 1%, 41 +/- 2%, and 52 +/- 3%, respectively. Permeability of human sperm to water was determined from the kinetics of volume change in a hyposmotic solution (145 mOsm/kg) at the three experimental temperatures. The hydraulic conductivity (Lp) was 1.84 +/- 0.06 microns.min-1.atm-1, 1.45 +/- 0.04 microns.min-1.atm-1, and 1.14 +/- 0.07 microns.min-1.atm-1 at 22, 11, and 0 degrees C, respectively, yielding an Arrhenius activation energy (Ea) of 3.48 kcal/mol. These biophysical characteristics of human spermatozoa are consistent with findings in previous reports, validating the use of an electronic particle counter for determining osmotic permeability parameters of human sperm. This validated system was then used to investigate the permeability of human sperm to four different cryoprotectant solutes, i.e., glycerol (Gly), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), propylene glycol (PG), and ethylene glycol (EG), and their effects on water permeability. A preloaded, osmotically equilibrated cell suspension was returned to an isosmotic medium while cell volume was measured over time. A Kedem-Katchalsky model was used to determine the permeability of the cells to each solute and the resulting water permeability. The permeabilities of human sperm at 22 degrees C to Gly, DMSO, PG, and EG were 2.07 +/- 0.13 x 10(-3) cm/min, 0.80 +/- 0.02 x 10(-3) cm/min, 2.3 +/- 0.1 x 10(-3) cm/min, and 7.94 +/- 0.67 x 10(-3) cm/min, respectively. The resulting Lp values at 22 degrees C were reduced to 0.77 +/- 0.08 micron.min-1.atm-1, 0.84 +/- 0.07 micron.min-1.atm-1, 1.23 +/- 0.09 microns.min-1.atm-1, and 0.74 +/- 0.06 micron.min-1.atm-1, respectively. These data support the hypothesis that low-molecular-weight, nonionic cryoprotectant solutes affect (decrease) human sperm water permeability.