Chronic hypoxia during pregnancy has profound effects on uterine artery (UA) contractility and attenuates uterine blood flow. The present study tested the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia inhibits the pregnancy-induced reduction in pressure-dependent myogenic tone of resistance-sized UAs. UAs were isolated from nonpregnant ewes (NPUAs) and near-term pregnant ewes (PUAs) that had been maintained ...

BACKGROUND Methanogenesis can indicate the fermentation activity of the gastrointestinal anaerobic flora. Methane also has a demonstrated anti-inflammatory potential. We hypothesized that enriched methane inhalation can influence the respiratory activity of the liver mitochondria after an ischemia-reperfusion (IR) challenge. METHODS The activity of oxidative phosphorylation system complexes w...

Levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are regulated, in part, through activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase/Akt pathway. Using pharmacologic inhibitors, we have examined the relative contributions of Akt and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling to VEGF production in neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma cells growing under normoxic (21% O(2)) or hypoxic (1% O(2))...

Tissue hypoxia occurs in pathologic conditions, such as cancer, ischemic heart disease and stroke when oxygen demand is greater than oxygen supply. An imaging method that can differentiate hypoxic versus normoxic tissue could have an immediate impact on therapy choices. In this work, the gadolinium(III) complex of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) with a 2-nitroimi...

Hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) regulates changes in transcription of key genes such as inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in hypoxic/ischemic environments. In normoxia, HIF-1 activation is controlled by HIF-1alpha-prolyl 4-hydroxylases, which target HIF-1alpha for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. We hypothesized that normoxic HIF-1 preservation could attenuate cardiac ischemia/reperfus...

Previous studies have shown that the expression of the major components from a local pancreatic renin-angiotensin system (RAS) was upregulated after chronic exposure to oxygen deprivation (10% oxygen). In the present study, the reversibility of expression for the pancreatic RAS affected by chronic hypoxia was investigated in the pancreas. Rats were first subject to hypoxia for one Month and the...