Microvascular endothelial cells (MEC) use a set of surface receptors to adhere not only to the vascular basement membrane but, during angiogenic stimulation, to the interstitium. We examined how cultured human MEC interact with laminin-rich basement membranes. By using a panel of monoclonal antibodies, we found that MEC cells express a number of integrin-related receptor complexes, including al...

Ligand stimulation of PDGF beta-receptors leads to autophosphorylation of the regulatory tyrosine 857 and of tyrosine residues that in their phosphorylated form serve as docking sites for Src homology 2 domain-containing proteins. Regulation of the PDGF beta-receptor by protein-tyrosine phosphatases is poorly understood. We have investigated PDGF beta-receptor dephosphorylation by receptor-like...

Renal afferent arterioles (Aff) from angiotensin II (AngII)-infused rabbits have enhanced contractions to AngII that are normalized by tempol (superoxide dismutase mimetic), whereas contractions to norepinephrine (NE) are normal and unaffected by tempol. Tested was the hypothesis that beta-receptor stimulation with NE prevents enhanced reactivity and superoxide generation. Preconstricted Aff fr...

Chronic stimulation of the beta(1)-adrenergic receptor leads to hypertrophy and heart failure in beta(1)-adrenergic receptor transgenic mice and contributes to disease progression in heart failure patients. The cellular mechanisms underlying these detrimental effects are largely unknown. In this study, we have identified the cardiac Na(+)-H(+) exchanger (NHE1) as a novel mediator of adrenergica...

BACKGROUND Positron emission tomography (PET) with 11C-labeled CGP-12177 (CGP) has been shown to have the potential to noninvasively measure beta-adrenergic receptor concentration in dog heart. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical value of this technique. METHODS AND RESULTS Eight normal subjects and 10 patients with heart failure related to an idiopathic cardiomyopathy w...

Today, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) represents the main cause of severe heart failure and disability in younger adults and thus is a challenge for public health. About 30% of DCM cases are genetic in origin; however, the large majority of cases are sporadic, and a viral or immune pathogenesis is suspected. Following the established postulates for pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, here we pro...

Introduction: The nucleus paragigantocellularis lateralis (LPGi) is involved in the descending pain modulation. The neurostreoid, 17β-estradiol found in the PGi nucleus and modulates nociception by binding to estrogen receptors and also by allosteric interaction with NMDA receptors. In this study, the role of NMDA receptors in the 17β-estradiol-induced pain modulation was investig...

Objective: Beta-blockers are a group of drugs used in the treatment cardiovascular ailments. On other hand, potential anticancer effects these have become increasingly important recent two decades. In this paper, beta-1 selective esmolol, beta-2 ICI-118,551 and non-selective nadolol on breast cancer cell lines with different aggressiveness were investigated for first time. Methods: A standard s...

The amino acid sequence deduced from cDNA of the human placental fibronectin receptor is reported. The receptor is composed of two subunits: an alpha subunit of 1,008 amino acids which is processed into two polypeptides disulfide bonded to one another, and a beta subunit of 778 amino acids. Each subunit has near its COOH terminus a hydrophobic segment. This and other sequence features suggest a...

Desensitization of the leukocyte beta-receptor system has been associated with a functional uncoupling of the components of the beta-receptor complex. In order to determine whether desensitization and uncoupling of the leukocyte beta-receptor is associated with any structural alterations in the beta-receptor, we studied labeling of lymphocytes using the photoactive beta-adrenergic antagonist p-...