The septation initiation network (SIN) regulates aspects of cell growth and division in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and is essential for cytokinesis. Insufficient signalling results in improper assembly of the contractile ring and failure of cytokinesis, generating multinucleated cells, whereas too much SIN signalling uncouples cytokinesis from the rest of the cell cycle. SIN signalling is theref...

During cell division, chromosome segregation must be coordinated with cell cleavage so that cytokinesis occurs after chromosomes have been safely distributed to each spindle pole. Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) is an essential kinase that regulates spindle assembly, mitotic entry and chromosome segregation, but because of its many mitotic roles it has been difficult to specifically study its post-an...

Asthma is characterized by the association of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), inflammation, and remodelling. The aim of the present article is to review the pivotal role of airway smooth muscle (ASM) in the pathophysiology of asthma. ASM is the main effector of AHR. The mechanisms of AHR in asthma may involve a larger release of contractile mediators and/or a lower release of relaxant mediato...

Background: Diabetes is an important risk factor for cardiovascular events. Endothelial dysfunction is the main reason cause of disability and death in diabetic patients and death. The present study investigates the effects of metformin and glibenclamide on vasoconstrictive and vasodilative responses in the diabetic rat aorta. Methods: Rats were divided into four experimental groups (con...

During cytokinesis, the guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) RhoA orchestrates contractile ring assembly and constriction. RhoA signaling is controlled by the central spindle, a set of microtubule bundles that forms between the separating chromosomes. Centralspindlin, a protein complex consisting of the kinesin-6 ZEN-4 and the Rho family GTPase activating protein (GAP) CYK-4, is required for centr...

Adherent cells normally apply forces as a generic means of sensing and responding to the mechanical nature of their surrounding environment. How these forces vary as a function of the extracellular rigidity is critical to understanding the regulatory functions that drive important phenomena such as wound healing or muscle contraction. In recognition of this fact, experiments have been conducted...

The contractile force in skeletal muscle models is commonly postulated to be the isometric force multiplied by a set of experimentally motivated functions which account for the muscle's active properties. Although both flexible and simple, this approach does not automatically guarantee a thermodynamically consistent behavior. In contrast, the continuum mechanical model proposed herein is derive...

Hydroperoxide-induced oxidative stress is assumed to be involved in vasospasm of cerebral arteries after subarachnoid hemorrhage. In order to study underlying mechanisms the effects of H2O2 and tert butylhydroperoxide on contractile functions as well as on free radical production of anterior cerebral artery from pig were investigated. The hydroperoxides increased in a similar dose-dependent art...

background and objective: in this research, the effect of chronic dietary soybean aqueous extract on aortic reactivity of streptozotocin (stz)-diabetic rats was investigated. materials and methods: stz-diabetic rats were treated with soybean aqueous extract for two months after diabetes induction. contractile reactivity to kcl and phenylephrine (pe) and relaxation response to acetylcholine (ach...

the present study was undertaken to determine whether two-month treatment of streptozotocin (stz)-diabetic rats with aqueous leaf extract of trigonella foenum-graecum (tfg 200 mg/kg i.p.) could improve thoracic aortic responsiveness and to evaluate its endothelium dependency. for this purpose, vascular responses to kcl and noradrenaline (na) were measured. diabetic state significantly increased...