Practice problem . Researchers wanted to see if atherosclerosis (buildup of chol

Question

Practice problem . Researchers wanted to see if atherosclerosis (buildup of cholesterol plaques) had an effect on telomere length in blood vessels. They used a mouse model for these studies in which the animals develop coronary atherosclerosis. They isolated tissue, digested with restriction enzymes, and performed a Southern Blot with a probe that will bind to telomeres. A: (2 pts) For this experiment, would you want DNA, RNA, or B: (4 pts) What tissue would you isolate as the control and C: (4 pts) Tell me what the results of the Southern blot tell us protein? experimental? about telomere length and atherosclerosis. Con Exp 21 kbp 15kbp

Explanation / Answer

Please find the answers below:

Answer A: According to the information, Sourther blot is being conducted in the experiment. Thus, the preferred source of nucleic acid will be DNA in this case.

Answer B: As the experimental model corresponds to that of atherosclerosis, a naive mouse blood vessels will be used as control. On the other hand, experimentally positive mice with developed atherosclerosis will be used as source of atherosclerotic blood vessel as the main test group.

Answer C: Here, the control group has larger telomeres whereas the experimental group has shorter telomeres. This clearly shows that the atherosclerotic mice have shortened telomeres thus leading to cell death in blood vessels. This can be attributed to accumulation of atherosclerotic plaques since the growing plaque will tend to erode the cells of the vessel endothelium thus causing cell death.

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