guinea pig research

Mimi Heineman joined the lab in the spring of 2005. Her project was designed to investigate the development of the ventilatory system in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). Specifically, Mimi performed dissections of adult and neonatal guinea pigs to determine if the angle of attachment of the ribs to the vertebral column changes across ontogeny in these animals. She found that the rib angles were approximately equal in neonates and adults. Thus, quadrupeds, like guinea pigs, do not experience the changes in rib angle attachment that are undergone by humans as they age.





 
Alissa Hellie also joined the lab in the spring of 2005. During the semester, she assisted Mimi Heineman and Andrea Glaser with their projects. Alissa’s summer 2006 project was a study of the scalenus muscles of adult guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) to determine if this muscle is a primary or accessory inspiratory muscle.
 

 

She stained muscle tissue from adult animals for its myosin ATPase activity and imaged the stained tissue. These analyses allowed her to determine that the adult scalenus muscle is 89.9% (+/- 2.7%) fast-twitch. In addition, she stained the muscle tissue for a number of enzymes, which alllowed her to compare the metabolic properties of the different fiber-types in the adult scalenus muscles.
 

Click on the picture to see images of the guinea pig scalenus muscle.

 
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