Mongolian gerbils Meriones unguiculatus
We have discontinued to maintain Mongolian gerbils.
| MGR | MGB | MGW |
|---|---|---|
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The Mongolian gerbil is a small rodent, which is classified in Rodentia; Sciurognathi; Muroidea; Muridae; Gerbillinae. The original habitat of wild species is Mongolia and adjacent parts of southern Siberia and northern China, Sinkiang, and Manchuria. The size of the animal is between mice and rats. This animal is easy to be handled because of its mild and quiet character. Therefore, the animal is widely used as a research animal in the field of brain infarction (brain attack), epilepsy, parasite and bacterial infections. This animal is one of the few species which were originally developed in Japan as laboratory animals.
In our laboratory, we are maintaining three inbred strains of Mongolian gerbils: two coat color variants (MGB with black coat, and MGW with white coat) and a strain with epilepsy resistance (MGR). So far, we have been doing research mainly on reproductive techniques, such as, artificial insemination, embryo transfer, cryopreservation of embryos (Ref 1) and sperm (Ref 2).
References
- Mochida K et al. (1999) Successful cryopreservation of Mongolian gerbil embryos by vitrification. Theriogenology, 51: 171.
- Koura M et al.(2003) Study of cryopreservation method of Mongolian gerbil sperm. The 50th annual meeting of Japanese association of laboratory animal sciences.