Research proposal

Archita Patel

Title: The effects of alcohol on inheritance patterns in fetal ethanol exposed rats, specificly patterns in NK cells, pertaining to circadian rhythm. Overview: Background: Fetal alcohol syndrome is a pattern of mental and physical defects that can develop in a fetus when a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Molecular and behavioral studies can be performed to produce data that could help us understand the significance of ethanol exposure on body systems such as the nervous, immune and endocrine system. NK cells are a critical component of the innate immune system and play a vital role in cellular resistance to malignancy and tumor metastasis (Colucci et al., 2003). The release of cytolytic granules containing granzymes (specifically, granzyme B) and perforin seems to be the major mechanism used for the killing of the target cell (Barry and Bleackley, 2002). Another vital function of NK cells is the production of the cytokines interferon (IFN-) (Trinchieri, 1989). Previous studies have shown that fetal ethanol exposure does have an effect on daily rhythms of cytotoxic factors (granzyme B and perforin), interferon-g (IFN-g) as well as NK cell cytotoxicity in adult male rats. (Arjona et al 2006)

Objective: To link fetal ethanol exposure to inherited defects in future generations. I will look to find significant changes in levels of expression of my genes of interest. The inheritance pattern will be traced through the germline of female and male offspring of ethanol exposed pregnent females.

Research materials: Previous Research Experience: I took Introduction to Genetic Research in the spring semester of 2010 for a total of three credits. Within the lecture topics such as DNA analyzing, DNA sequencing, bioinformatics, and plasmid minipreps were discussed. In the laboratory setting, students manipulated bacterial cells cultures, performed

Research proposal PCR, and sequenced DNA to send information to NCBI and create a final presentation.

Archita Patel

I have also been in the laboratory for the past semester under the supervision of Dr. Sarkar. Three months were spent learning the basics of animal handling such as vaginal smearing, pup feeding and Restraint Stress and experimental techniques, such as RNA isolation and cDNA Prep References Arjona Alvaro, Boyadjieva Nadka, Kuhn Peter, Sarkar Dipak K (2006) Fetal Ethanol Exposure Disrupts the Daily Rhythms of Splenic Granzyme B, IFN-c, and NK Cell Cytotoxicity in Adulthood Alcohol Clin Exp Res Vol. 30, No. 6 Barry, M., Bleackley, R.C., 2002. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes: all roads lead to death. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2, 401409. Colucci, F., Caligiuri, M.A., Di Santo, J.P., 2003. What does it take to make a natural killer? Nat. Rev. Immunol. 3, 413425. Trinchieri, G., 1989. Biology of natural killer cells. Adv. Immunol. 47, 187 376.