Introduction: Cholinergic-associated diseases currently constitute a significant cause of neurological and neurodegenerative disabilities.  As the drugs are not efficient in improving the suffered tissues, stem cell treatment is considered an effective strategy for substituting the lost cells. Methods: In the current study, we set out to investigate the differentiation properties of human adip...

Cholinergic agents (e.g., methacholine) induce cutaneous vasodilation and sweating. Reports indicate that either nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase (COX), or both can contribute to cholinergic cutaneous vasodilation. Also, NO is reportedly involved in cholinergic sweating; however, whether COX contributes to cholinergic sweating is unclear. Forearm sweat rate (ventilated capsule) and cutaneous v...

Vascular blood vessels have various types of cholinergic acetylcholine receptors (AChR), but the source of ACh has not been confirmed. Perivascular adrenergic nerves and nonadrenergic calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-containing (CGRPergic) nerves innervate rat mesenteric arteries and regulate vascular tone. However, function of cholinergic innervation remains unknown. The present study in...

PURPOSE The rabbit iris sphincter muscle is innervated by cholinergic and tachykinergic nerves that regulate its tone. To clarify the involvement of nitric oxide (NO) in the postsynaptic regulation of the rabbit iris sphincter muscle tone, the authors examined the effects of NO-related agents on the cholinergic contraction induced by carbamylcholine (carbachol) and the tachykinergic contraction...

Nerve agents are organophosphate compounds similar to those used as pesticides but with much higher toxicity. They all block the activity of the enzyme acetylcholine esterase. Victims are intoxicated by absorption of the toxin via exposed skin or, more commonly, via inhalation of the poisonous gas. The resultant clinical picture is of hyperstimulation of both the nicotinic and muscarinic cholin...

Degeneration of cholinergic receptors causes memory disorders and irreversible impairment in cognitive functions, whose advancement can lead to clinically recognizable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Very often, the first symptoms of AD are mood swings and hence depression should be excluded by differential diagnosis since it can also cause memory disorders and cognitive deficits. Due to the characte...

Chemical stimulation of brain cholinergic neurons in many species can produce hypertension. Recent studies in this laboratory have demonstrated that clonidine inhibits this central cholinergic pressor response by inhibiting the biosynthesis of brain acetylcholine. This study was designed to determine whether methyldopa, like clonidine, could inhibit brain cholinergic neurons involved in cardiov...

Phosphoinositide hydrolysis, a major mechanism for signal transduction in neural cells, generates diacylglycerol, which can in turn activate protein kinase C (PKC). Although cholinergic agonists elicit phosphoinositide hydrolysis in neural tissues, little is known about activation of PKC by cholinergic agonists. PKC requires phosphatidylserine for activation, and in intact cells this lipid requ...

The present experiments studied the effects of cholinergic agonists and antagonists on the spontaneous and acoustic-evoked discharge of auditory cortical neurons and examined whether these effects were mediated by muscarinic cholinergic receptors. A primary focus of this report is the analysis of specific effects of these agents on the spontaneous and tone-evoked discharge and on different temp...

The effect of kainic and quinolinic acid on cortical cholinergic function was examined following injections of these agents into the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (nbm) or into the frontoparietal cortex. The release of cortical 3H-acetylcholine (3H-ACh), high affinity choline uptake (HACU) and acetylcholinesterase was measured 7 days following injections of saline (control), kainic acid (4.7 ...