골든 햄스터의 자연발생 골격 이상 돌연변이 = Spontaneous Mutations of Skeletal Defects in Golden Hamsters

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The limb skeleton of vertebrates develops from the limb buds. The skeletons are initially laid down as cartilaginous elements and then become ossified. The cartilage is replaced by bone, via a process known as endochondral ossification. The ossification starts in the centers of the bones and spreads outward. Then ossification centers develop at each end of the bone, elongating the bone. The bones thus have a bony shaft with cartilage confined to the articulating surface at each end, and to two internal regions near each end, the growth plate. The growth of the bone occurs by way of the proliferation, maturation, and hypertrophy of chondrocytes and osteoblasts which differentiates into osteocytes. Golden hamsters(Syrian hamsters) are small mammals whose sizes are intermediate between mice and rats. They inhabit in a temperate region and reproduce in a limited time of a year around summer season. Their sexual activities are regressed at winter during which environmental conditions are severe to them. The reproductive activities of these seasonal breeding animals are determined by the length of light in a day(photoperiod). The circumstance can be simulated for rearing by regulating the timer of electrical power in animal facility. The hamsters have served as experimental animals and pretty pets, which are a wild type with short/brown color of hairs and a white band around the front limb, respectively. The annual reproductive cycles are simulated in the animal facility. Among the golden hamsters reared for more than 20 years, the unanticipated mutations were witnessed from a dam. Some of the litters have defects with the naked eyes on one hind limb without autopod(phalanges), regardless of sex, and they are designated as novel mutants. The mutants had phenotypically normal father and mother. The skeletal characteristics of the mutants are reported here.