ABSTRACT
The Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society was founded in 1789 based on a model of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh by Sir James McGrigor and 11 medical students. The objectives at that time, as at present, were to promote teaching, self education, the application of medical skills learned at the bedside, fellowship, and social intercourse. A number of examples of key leaders in the profession and members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Aberdeen are featured. These include Alexander Gordon (puerperal fever), Sir James McGrigor (founder of the British Army Medical Services), Sir Alexander Ogston (associated with Lister's theory of antisepsis in surgery and the discovery of the staphylococcus), Sir Patrick Manson (the father of tropical medicine), Prof JJR Macleod (Nobel Laureate and the discoverer of insulin), Prof Sir Matthew Hay (public health physician who offered the first description of typhus and its origins), and Sir Dugald Baird (the founder in the United Kingdom and Europe of modern-day maternity services).
Subject(s)
Societies, Medical/history , Adult , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Male , Organizational Objectives , Physicians/history , Portraits as Topic/history , Schools, Medical/history , Scotland , Societies, Medical/organization & administration , Students, Medical/historyABSTRACT
In this comparative study, reproductive parameters and semen characteristics of cloned bulls (n = 3) derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) were compared to their original cell donor Holstein-Friesian (n = 2) bulls from the same enterprise to assess the differences in reproductive potential between a donor bull and its clones. The parameters evaluated included motility of fresh, frozen-thawed and Percoll-treated frozen-thawed spermatozoa, as well as in vitro fertilization (IVF) ability, embryo quality, birth and survival of calves following IVF and embryo transfer with frozen-thawed semen. With fresh semen, spermatozoa from one cloned bull had lower motility than its donor. Cloned bulls had higher velocity parameters in fresh semen, but those effects were not obvious in frozen-thawed or frozen-thawed semen selected with a Percoll gradient. Semen collected from cloned bulls had significantly higher IVF rates compared to donors; however, embryo development per cleaved embryo or quality of blastocysts did not differ between donors and cloned bulls. Pregnancy and live offspring rates from one donor and its cloned bull did not differ between fresh (40%, 16/40 versus 46%, 17/37) and vitrified/thawed (13%, 2/16 versus 25%, 4/16) embryo transfer following IVF. A total of 26 calves were obtained from genotypically identical donor and cloned bulls with no signs of phenotypical abnormalities. These preliminary results suggested that the physiology of surviving postpubertal cloned bulls and quality of collected semen had equivalent reproductive potential to their original cell donor, with no evidence of any deleterious effects in their progeny.
