PURPOSE Itopride hydrochloride (itopride) inhibits acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and antagonizes dopamine D(2) receptor, and has been used as a gastroprokinetic agent. However, its prokinetic effect on the small bowel or colon has not yet been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of itopride on motor functions of the ileum and colon in guinea pigs. MATER...

Two tubular, segmented hearts propel blood through the closed circulatory system of the medicinal leech and switch every 20-40 beats between two constriction patterns. We showed recently that within one heartbeat cycle, heart segments on one side constrict peristaltically rear-to-front (;peristaltic heart'), followed by nearly synchronous front-to-rear constrictions in the contralateral heart s...

Wireless capsule Endoscopy (WCE) has rapidly shown its wide applications in medical domain last ten years thanks to its noninvasiveness for patients and support for thorough inspection through a patient’s entire digestive system including small intestine. However, one of the main barriers to efficient clinical inspection procedure is that it requires large amount of effort for clinicians to ins...

The structural basis by which Hsp104 dissolves disordered aggregates and prions is unknown. A single subunit within the Hsp104 hexamer can solubilize disordered aggregates, whereas prion dissolution requires collaboration by multiple Hsp104 subunits. Here, we establish that the poorly understood Hsp104 N-terminal domain (NTD) enables this operational plasticity. Hsp104 lacking the NTD (Hsp104(Δ...

A major puzzle in biology is how mammalian sperm maintain the correct swimming direction during various phases of the sexual reproduction process. Whilst chemotaxis may dominate near the ovum, it is unclear which cues guide spermatozoa on their long journey towards the egg. Hypothesized mechanisms range from peristaltic pumping to temperature sensing and response to fluid flow variations (rheot...

We consider incompressible, viscous fluid confined in a rectangular cavity. Both the bottom and top walls are made of thin membranes. Traveling waves with the same amplitude and frequency but opposite phase are transmitted in these membranes and induce peristaltic motion in the fluid. The induced velocity profiles are determined analytically for small-amplitude waves (ε) and numerically for wav...

Abstract Chemically synthesized metal nanowires are promising building blocks for next-generation photonic integrated circuits, but technological implementation in monolithic integration will be severely hampered by the lack of controllable and precise manipulation approaches, due to strong adhesion substrates non-liquid environments. Here, we demonstrate this obstacle can removed our proposed ...

The paper presents an analytical solution for dispersion of a solute in the peristaltic motion of a micropolar fluid in the presence of both homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions. The average effective dispersion coefficient has been found using Taylor’s limiting condition under long wavelength approximation. The effects of various relevant parameters on the average coefficient of di...

Animal models of human diseases are increasingly available and are invaluable for studies of organ pathophysiology. Megacolon, abnormal dilatation of the colon not caused by mechanical obstruction, involves the destruction of the autonomic nervous system innervating the colon. Animal models of megacolon include mouse models of Chagas disease and Hirschprung's disease. Small animal imaging has b...