Epidemiological and animal studies have shown that placental undernutrition impairs reproduction in adult offspring, but the underlying molecular mechanisms within the male genital tract remain unknown. Due to its special physiological characteristics in transport and the modulation of the environment to which its luminal content is exposed, we hypothesized that the vas deferens would be a high...

There is good evidence that in vascular smooth muscle, the relaxant effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) are mediated by increases in cGMP levels and activation of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG). However, in rat vas deferens and rat distal colon, cGMP-elevating agents such as SNP and atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) have been shown to elevate cGMP without inducing relaxation. The lack of r...

OBJECTIVES Within a randomised trial of neonatal vitamin A supplementation (VAS) in Guinea-Bissau, neonatal VAS did not affect overall infant mortality. We conducted a post-hoc analysis to test the hypothesis that neonatal VAS primes the response to subsequent vitamin A. METHODS All trial children were offered VAS after follow-up ended at 1 year of age (FU-VAS). We compared mortality between ...

Congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD) is found in most males with cystic fibrosis (CF), but this malformation can be observed without any pulmonary or digestive features. We have analyzed 13 exons of the CF gene in a cohort of 25 CBAVD patients. Among the 50 chromosomes studied, 24 mutations were identified: delta F508 (14 cases), R117H (7 cases), R1070W (2 cases), 621 + 1 G ...

The skewed amplitude distribution of spontaneous excitatory junction potentials (sEJPs) in the mouse vas deferens and other electrically-coupled smooth muscle syncytia has been attributed to electrically-attenuated depolarizations resulting from the spontaneous release of quantized packets of ATP acting on remote smooth muscle cells (SMCs). However, in the present investigation surface SMCs of ...

The P2 receptor-mediated responses of isolated guinea pig urinary bladder and vas deferens (P2X receptors) and taenia caeci (P2Y receptors) were registered at the three temperature conditions of 30, 37 and 42 degrees C. The contractile responses of both urinary bladder and vas deferens to a P2X receptor agonist alpha,beta-methylene ATP (alpha,beta-meATP; 0.01-30 microM) and to electrical field ...