Although matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are expressed in abundance in arterial aneurysms, their contribution to arterial wall degeneration, dilation, and rupture has not been determined. We investigated MMP function in a rat model of aneurysm associated with arterial dilation, elastin loss, medial invasion by mononuclear inflammatory cells, and MMP upregulation. Rupture was correlated with in...

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a pivotal role in suppressing immune responses regulating behavior and gene expression in effector T cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Tregs infiltrate the infarcted myocardium; however, their role the inflammatory and reparative response after myocardial infarction remains poorly understood. We used FoxP3(EGFP) reporter mice to study Treg trafficking in t...

Physiological and pathological tissue remodeling needs an orderly degradation of the extracellular matrix. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are proteases capable of degrading different extracellular matrix components, including collagen and elastin. MMP expression is strongly enhanced in vascular pathologies such as stenosis following balloon dilation, in-stent restenosis, sustained flow change...

BACKGROUND Recent studies suggest that posttranslation processing or "shedding" (ie, secretion) of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) by tumor necrosis factor-alpha converting enzyme (TACE) may contribute to the left ventricular (LV) remodeling that occurs in the failing human heart. METHODS AND RESULTS To address the functional significance of TNF shedding, we generated lines of transgenic mice wit...

The affine systems generated by Ψ ⊂ L(R) are the systems AA(Ψ) = {D A Tk Ψ : j ∈ Z, k ∈ Zn}, where Tk are the translations, and DA the dilations with respect to an invertible matrix A. As shown in [5], there is a simple characterization for those affine systems that are a Parseval frame for L(R). In this paper, we correct an error in the proof of the characterization result from [5], by redefin...

A range of phenomena in the subsurface is characterised by interplay between coupled thermal, hydraulic and mechanical processes deforming structures such as fractures. Modelling dynamics can provide valuable phenomenological understanding, but requires models which faithfully represent involved; these models, therefore are themselves highly complex. This paper presents a mixed-dimensional ther...

OBJECTIVE Impairment of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 signaling accelerates atherosclerosis in experimental mice. However, it is uncertain whether increased TGF-beta1 expression would retard atherosclerosis. The role of TGF-beta1 in aneurysm formation is also controversial. We tested whether overexpression of active TGF-beta1 in hyperlipidemic mice affects atherogenesis and aortic dila...

In this paper, we first discuss about canonical dual of g<span style="font-family: NimbusRomNo9L-Regu; font-size: 11pt; color: #000000; font...

BACKGROUND Flow-induced regulation of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) depends on integrin signaling and tyrosine kinase activation. Integrins cluster in focal adhesion complexes, where the extracellular matrix is connected to the cytoskeleton and where focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is located. FAK plays a central role in integrin signaling and Src activation. Accordingly, we hypothesized that FAK ...

results there were significant differences between the groups in subjective labor pain scores (except vas 4) (p < 0.001). the duration of the phase one (3 cm dilatation to full dilatation) and phase two (full dilatation to birth) in the acupressure group was shorter than the control group (phase one, 225 min and 320 min, respectively; phase two, 15 min and 20 min, respectively; both p < 0.001)....