DCS for inducing pro-inflammatory genes even without induction by IL1b; below this threshold, NOS2 expression is not observed. In the presence of IL-1b, we showed that increasing magnitudes of DCS decreases NOS2 production, but only if the DCS magnitude is less than the aforementioned threshold where NOS2 expression begins to increase again. It is interesting to note that the induction of NOS2 synthesis occurs at the same threshold of DCS magnitude, with or without IL-1b. This result implies that regulatory and metabolic proteins are more common than constitutive or structural proteins, which can also be observed clearly from phylum-shared and domain-shared proteins. However, it should be kept in mind that optical imaging does not provide fully quantitative and tomographic information which will restrict the value for clinical application. In contrast, PET has gained more importance in clinically approved molecular imaging technologies, especially in cancer imaging and treatment. Furthermore, PET reporter genes have the advantage of giving fully quantitative tomographic information which can be directly transferred to clinical application using new generations of high resolution PET scanners. Vectors combining inducible and regulatable gene expression systems and PET reporter genes will be of great interest for the further development of gene therapeutic vectors and their potential use in clinical application. By co-expressing therapeutic genes with imaging marker genes, an indirect assessment of any therapeutic gene is possible. Furthermore, the use of bi-directional promoters can be used to combine expression of two independent genes as demonstrated in this study. We selected nest building as our EE treatment because isolation reared rats are deprived of normal post-weaning bonding, and a key aspect of bonding for rats involves the nest building by the rat pup’s dam. Specifically, we examined whether placing Nestlets in cages of isolation reared rats could dampen the negative down stream effects of isolation rearing on wound healing. Nest building with Nestlets is associated with anxiolysis , hippocampal function , reduction of stress hormones , and GDC-0941 957054-30-7 maternal behavior. To evaluate our hypothesis that the mechanism by which the EE of nest building improves wound healing is central , we gave all isolation reared rats exogenous oxytocin. We then compared the wound healing of animals given Nestlets with those given oxytocin. We reasoned that if the effect of Nestlets on wound healing is centrally mediated through the anxiolytic effects of the Nestlets, then rats treated with oxytocin should have a similar healing response to rats treated with Nestlets. We based this reasoning on the fact that oxytocin, through central mechanisms, enhances social bonding , and through its central effect, has a positive impact on the systemic stress response , and on wound healing. A recent study has shown that RB can stimulate DNA repair , which will enhance cell survival under conditions of genotoxic stress.