Adenosine is a potent vasodilator used extensively to study the coronary circulation of animals. Its use in humans, however, has been hampered by lack of knowledge about its effects on the human coronary circulation and by concern about its safety. We investigated in humans the effects of adenosine, administered by intracoronary bolus (2-16 jig), intracoronary infusion (10-240 ,ug/min), or intr...

1. The spontaneous contraction of the isolated colon was inhibited by mebeverine at doses greater than 1•~10-7g/ml. The effect of mebeverine was stronger than that of papaverine or buscopan. Two kinds of movement occur in the rabbit colon, peristaltic movement and the local tonic wave. The local tonic wave is produced mainly by the ring muscle. Papaverine mainly inhibited the peristaltic contra...

It has been suggested that papaverine relaxes the smooth muscle through inhibition of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase (PDE) and subsequent accumulation of cellular cyclic AMP (1-4). On the other hand, our previous study indicated that the relaxant effect of papaverine on the smooth muscle is partially due to a mechanism which is only activated in the presence of external sodium ion (5). Therefore,...

The degree of mixing in fluid layers immediately adjacent to the endothelial surface is a major variable in assessment of prostacyclin (PGI2) production by cultured endothelial cells or intact vessel endothelium in vitro. Lack of adequate mixing should lead to underestimation of true production because PGI2 immediately adjacent to endothelium would be only poorly sampled upon buffer collection....

Quantitation of morphine and other major alkaloids in opium gum from specially cultivated Papaver setigerum DC (“Wild Poppy”) is presented. Papaver setigerum plants (n = 14) were grown in an atmosphere containing a slightly elevated level of carbon dioxide (390 ppm). Opium gum collected from the capsules of the mature plants was analyzed for morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine, and papaverin...