The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a basic helix-loop-helix Per-Arnt-Sim transcription factor that mediates induction of metabolic enzymes and toxicity of certain environmental pollutants. Although AHR knockout (KO) mice develop cardiac hypertrophy, conflicting reports associate this pathology with hypotension or endothelin (ET)-1-dependent hypertension. Because hypertension occurred at mod...

BACKGROUND It has recently been shown that commercial air travel triggers hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and modestly increases pulmonary artery pressure in healthy passengers. There is large interindividual variation in hypoxic pulmonary vasoreactivity, and some passengers may be at risk of developing flight-induced pulmonary hypertension, with potentially dangerous consequences. This stud...

Yaks have adapted to high altitude and they do not develop hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Although we previously identified the important role of augmented nitric oxide synthase activity in the yak pulmonary circulatory system, evidence of the direct involvement of Rho-kinase as a basal vascular tone regulator is lacking. Four domesticated male pure-bred yaks and four bulls that were born and ...

Cardiac disease is the main cause of death in both forms of thalassemia; thalassemia major (TM) and thalassemia intermedia (TI). Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is one of the cardiopulmonary morbidities with high mortality that, if not treated, may trigger right-sided heart failure and premature death. PH is defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure of ≥25 mmHg at rest or ≥30 mmHg during exercise...

Globally, it is estimated that > 140 million people live at a high altitude (HA), defined as > 2,500 m (8,200 ft), and that countless others sojourn to the mountains for work, travel, and sport. The distribution of exposure to HA is worldwide, including 35 million in the Andes and > 80 million in Asia, including China and central Asia. HA stress primarily is due to the hypoxia of low atmospheri...

pulmonary arterial hypertension (pha) is a frequent complication of congenital heart disease (chd), most commonly in systemic-to-pulmonary shunt lesions. in patients with an uncorrected left-to right shunt, pah will end up to eisenmenger’s syndrome, which is contraindication of surgery. what about patients with moderate to severe pah, who do not have criteria of eisenmenger’s syndrome; immediat...

conclusions ipah is associated with subclinical hypothyroidism and low patient functional capacity, and is more common in rv failure. results in this research, 84.8% of the participants were women. the mean pap was 51.6 mmhg (31-87) and mean thyroid stimulating hormone (tsh) level was 4.2 miu/ml (0.7 - 10). subclinical hypothyroidism was detected in 26 patients (49.1%). there were significant c...