Circulating ghrelin reduces blood pressure, but the mechanism for this action is unknown. This study investigated whether ghrelin has direct vasodilator effects mediated through the growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1a (GHSR1a) and whether ghrelin reduces sympathetic nerve activity. Mice expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein under control of the promoter for growth hormone secretagog...

1. The peripheral ganglia of eighteen inoculated chimpanzees and thirteen uninoculated controls, and of eighteen fatal human poliomyelitis cases, were studied for histopathological evidence of the route of transmission of virus from the alimentary tract to the CNS. 2. Lesions thought to be characteristic of poliomyelitis in inoculated chimpanzees could not be sharply differentiated from lesions...

Neural crest cells are multipotent progenitor cells that can generate both ectodermal cell types, such as neurons, and mesodermal cell types, such as smooth muscle. The mechanisms controlling this cell fate choice are not known. The basic Helix-loop-Helix (bHLH) transcription factor Twist1 is expressed throughout the migratory and post-migratory cardiac neural crest. Twist1 ablation or mutation...

Sympathetic nerve fibers arising from the superior cervical ganglia are the main innervation of the rat pineal gland. Since most organs innervated by these ganglia contain nerve growth factor (NGF), the hypothetical existence of NGF in the pineal gland was investigated. The peroxidase anti-peroxidase technique was applied for the immunohistochemical demonstration of NGF using a polyclonal antis...

Using specific antibody markers and double-label immunofluorescence microscopy, we have followed the fate of progenitor cells in the sympathoadrenal (SA) sublineage of the neural crest in developing rat embryos. Such progenitors are first recognizable in the primordial sympathetic ganglia at embryonic day 11.5 (El 1.5), when they express tyrosine hydroxylase. At this stage, the progenitors also...

The sympathetic nervous system controls and regulates the activities of the heart and other organs. Sympathetic nervous system dysfunction leads to disease. Therefore, intraoperative real-time imaging of thoracic sympathetic nerves (ITSN) would be of great clinical significance for diagnosis and therapy. The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate the feasibility and validity of intraope...

Hypertension is associated with the early onset of cardiac sympathetic hyperresponsiveness and enhanced intracellular Ca(2+) concentration [Ca(2+)](i) in sympathetic neurons from both prehypertensive and hypertensive, spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Oxidative stress is a hallmark of hypertension, therefore, we tested the hypothesis that the inhibitory action of the nitric oxide-cGMP pat...

Using specific antibody markers and double-label immunofluorescence microscopy, we have followed the fate of progenitor cells in the sympathoadrenal (SA) sublineage of the neural crest in developing rat embryos. Such progenitors are first recognizable in the primordial sympathetic ganglia at embryonic day 11.5 (E11.5), when they express tyrosine hydroxylase. At this stage, the progenitors also ...

Sensory and sympathetic ganglia of embryonic chick were cultured in media in which no growth of fibres occurred, and then transferred to culture conditions favouring the growth of fibres. The effects on fibre outgrowth of having NGF in neither, one or both media were examined quantitatively. It was concluded that the main effect of NGF, under these conditions, is to maintain the viability of th...