NO produced by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) plays important roles in the regulation of vascular tone and structure. The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of eNOS-derived NO on vascular remodeling by use of eNOS-transgenic (eNOS-Tg) mice. The common carotid artery was ligated just proximal to the carotid bifurcation. Four weeks later, the proximal carotid artery of the ligation sit...

INTRODUCTION Recently, we have reported the antitumor properties of a new family of synthetic merosesquiterpenes, among which meroxest is highlighted, since it has high activity and specificity for ER+ breast cancer cells. In this paper, we characterize allografts of ER+ E0771 mouse breast tumor cells in immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice, and also analyze the effect of meroxest on the prognosis of t...

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is associated with an increase of leukocyte infiltration, proinflammatory cytokines, and fibrosis in the heart and lung. Regulatory T cells (Tregs, CD4(+)CD25(+)FoxP3(+)) suppress inflammatory responses in various clinical conditions. We postulated that expansion of Tregs attenuates CHF progression by reducing cardiac and lung inflammation. We investigated the eff...

Chemokines participate in leukocyte infiltration, which plays a major role in glomerular injury during immune complex glomerulonephritis (IC-GN). Because target cell expression of chemokine receptors (CCR) is thought to mediate leukocyte migration, the expression pattern of chemokines and CCR in a model of IC-GN was examined. The transient course and predominant glomerular pathology of this mod...

Although leukocytes adhere in arteries in various vascular diseases, to date no endogenous proinflammatory molecule has been identified to initiate leukocyte adhesion in the arterial vasculature. This study was undertaken to assess angiotensin II (Ang II)–induced leukocyte adhesion in arterioles in vivo. Rats received intraperitoneal injections of Ang II; 4 hours later, leukocyte recruitment in...

Transplantation of pancreatic islets is a promising therapy for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, long-term islet graft survival rates are still unsatisfactory low. In this study we investigated the role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in islet allograft failure. STZ-diabetic rats received an allogenic islet graft in combination with either an acute CMV infection or control infectio...

PURPOSE To determine the effect of azithromycin (AZM) in a murine model of corneal inflammation. METHODS The effect of topical AZM was studied in murine corneal inflammation. Corneal inflammation was induced by thermal cautery in BALB/c mice. Leukocyte infiltration at different time points was analyzed by flow cytometry. At set time points, real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to...

The expression of chemokines and their receptors is thought to contribute to leukocyte infiltration and progressive renal fibrosis after unilateral ureter obstruction (UUO). We hypothesized that blocking the chemokine receptor CCR1 using the nonpeptide antagonist BX471 could reduce leukocyte infiltration and renal fibrosis after UUO. UUO kidneys from BX471-treated mice (day 0-10 and day 6-10) r...

Renal reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mononuclear leukocyte infiltration are involved in the progressive stage (exacerbation) of IgA nephropathy (IgAN), which is characterized by glomerular proliferation and renal inflammation. The identification of the mechanism responsible for this critical stage of IgAN and the development of a therapeutic strategy remain a challenge. Osthole is a pure com...

Chemokines have been shown to play an important role in leukocyte infiltration into ischemic lesions. Recently, the increased expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) was observed in experimental stroke models where infiltrated leukocytes were supposed to induce tissue injury, however, the protein level and time course of th...