UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Nicotine is a risk factor for pancreatitis resulting in loss of pancreatic enzyme secretion. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanisms of nicotine-induced secretory response measured in primary pancreatic acinar cells isolated from Male Sprague Dawley rats. The study examines the role of calcium signaling in the mechanism of the enhanced secretory response ob...

Both local anaesthetics and calcium antagonists depress cardiac function. Therefore, we have studied the interaction of these compounds in the isolated myocardium of guineapigs. The negative inotropic effect of various local anaesthetics was investigated in left atria in the absence or presence of nitrendipine 10(-7) mol litre-1 (n = 7-8 in each group). In addition, the effect of bupivacaine wa...

Emergence of new and medically resistant pathogenic microbes continues to escalate toward worldwide public health, wild habitat, and commercial crop and livestock catastrophes. Attempts at solving this problem with sophisticated modern biotechnologies, such as smart vaccines and microbicidal and microbistatic drugs that precisely target parasitic bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, remain promising ...

A role for calcium/calcium-binding proteins in a mechanism of signaling elicitor-inducible phytoalexin biosynthesis was investigated. Two classes of calcium/calmodulin antagonists, phenothiazines and naphthalenesulfonamides, inhibited sesquiterpene phytoalexin accumulation in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cell-suspension cultures when added 1 h before elicitor. The antagonists also inhibited the ...

Granule cells in the guinea pig dentate gyrus release kappa opioid neuropeptides, dynorphins, from dendrites as well as from axon terminals. We have found that both L- and N-type calcium channel antagonists inhibited dendritic dynorphin release. In contrast, N-type but not L-type calcium channel antagonists inhibited axonal dynorphin release. Neither L- nor N-type channel antagonists directly a...

Daunorubicin transport was compared in P388 murine leukemia and in P388/Adramycin (ADR), an anthracycline-resistant subline. We can demonstrate an energy-dependent outward transport system in P388/ADR which limits drug accumulation. Although no calcium requirement for the outward transport process could be shown, several calcium antagonists inhibited outward transport of daunorubicin in P388/AD...

Two hundred forty-five patients with variant angina were followed for an average of 80.5 months (range, 36-184 months). Survival rate at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years was 98%, 97%, 97%, and 93%, respectively. Survival rate without myocardial infarction at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years was 86%, 85%, 83%, and 81%, respectively. By univarite analysis, ST segment elevation in both the anterior and inferior electro...

Under adequate experimental conditions calmodulin antagonists like compound 48/80 do not dissociate calcium uptake from the calcium-dependent ATP hydrolysis of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes but simultaneously inhibit both processes. Apart from the agent's pump inhibiting effect, they interact with the caffeine sensitive calcium channel in the sarcoplasmic reticulum causing a ...

To investigate the channels and neurotransmitters in the ventrolateral medulla (VLM) oblongata that are responsible for the maintenance of sympathetic tone and cardio-respiratory reflex regulation. Microinjections of excitant amino acid (glutamate, 100 nl, 100 mM), calcium channel blockers, agonists and antagonists were made throughout the VLM in anaesthetized rats. Arterial blood pressure, sym...

Neuronal L-type calcium channels are essential for regulating activity-dependent gene expression, but they are thought to open too slowly to contribute to action potential-dependent calcium entry. A complication of studying native L-type channels is that they represent a minor fraction of the whole-cell calcium current in most neurons. Dihydropyridine antagonists are therefore widely used to es...