BACKGROUND Although early monitoring of BK virus infection in renal transplant patients has led to improved outcomes over the past decade, it remains unclear whether monitoring for viremia is the best screening tool for BK virus nephropathy (BKVN). METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of the medical records of 368 renal transplant recipients who had a minimum of 18 months of posttransp...

This paper solves a class of combinatorial games consisting of one-pile counter pickup games for which the maximum number of counters that can be removed on each successive move equals f(t), where t is the previous move size and f is an arbitrary function. The purpose of this paper is to solve a class of combinatorial games consisting of one-pile counter pickup games for which the maximum numbe...

BK large conductance voltage- and calcium-activated potassium channels respond to elevations in intracellular calcium and membrane potential depolarization, braking excitability of smooth muscle. BK channels are thought to have a particularly prominent role in urinary bladder smooth muscle function and therefore are candidate targets for overactive bladder therapy. To address the role of the BK...

Broussonetia kazinoki Siebold. (B. kazinoki) has long been used in the manufacture of paper in Asian countries. Although B. kazinoki leaves (BK) have been employed in dermatological therapy, use of BK has not been tested in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Using Nc/Nga mice, which are genetically predisposed to develop AD-like skin lesions, we confirmed the efficacy of BK in AD treatment. ...

This study focused on the mechanisms of the negative inotropic response to bradykinin (BK) in isolated rat hearts perfused at constant flow. BK (100 nM) significantly reduced developed left ventricular pressure (LVP) and the maximal derivative of systolic LVP by 20-22%. The cytochrome P-450 (CYP) inhibitors 1-aminobenzotriazole (1 mM and 100 microM) or proadifen (5 microM) abolished the cardiod...

Bradykinin (BK) plays an important role in different physiological processes including the general preservation and modulation of vascular systems. The present study was designed in order to examine the effect of BK on isolated rat femoral artery rings and to investigate the participation of intact endothelium, cyclooxygenase products, Ca(2+) channels, Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase, and B2 kinin receptors ...

The antibacterial activity of BK-218 was similar to that of cefamandole when it was tested against several laboratory strains. The inhibiting effect of BK-218 was greater than that of cephalexin and cefoxitin on penicillin-binding proteins of Escherichia coli HB101. This result was in close correlation with the relative inhibition of radiolabeled glucosamine incorporation (greatest with BK-218)...

Estrogens have an important role in regulating detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) function. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms by which estrogens control human DSM excitability and contractility are not well known. Here, we used human DSM specimens from open bladder surgeries on 27 patients to elucidate the mechanism by which 17β-estradiol regulates large conductance voltage- a...

The hydrolysis of bradykinin (Bk) by different classes of proteases in plasma and tissues leads to a decrease in its half-life. Here, Bk actions on smooth muscle and in vivo cardiovascular assays in association with a protease inhibitor, Black eyed-pea trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitor (BTCI) and also under the effect of trypsin and chymotrypsin were evaluated. Two synthetic Bk-related peptide...

We have used an established cell line of rabbit cortical collecting duct (RCCD) epithelial cells representing a mixed population of principal and intercalated cell types to determine which phospholipase A2(PLA2) enzyme therein is responsible for bradykinin (BK)-stimulated arachidonic acid (AA) release and how its activation is regulated. BK-stimulated AA release was reduced 92% by arachidonyl t...