We examined the pathways that link neurotransmitter receptor activation and cell cycle arrest in oligodendrocyte progenitors. We had previously demonstrated that glutamate receptor activation inhibits oligodendrocyte progenitor proliferation and lineage progression. Here, using purified oligodendrocyte progenitors and cerebellar slice cultures, we show that norepinephrine and the beta-adrenergi...

Impaired vascular beta-adrenergic responsiveness may play an important role in the development and/or maintenance of hypertension. This defect has been associated with an alteration in receptor/guanine nucleotide regulatory protein (G-protein) interactions. However, the locus of this defect remains unclear. G-Protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) phosphorylate serine/threonine residues on G-p...

BACKGROUND We previously showed that cardiac nitric oxide (NO) inhibits the positive inotropic response to beta-adrenergic stimulation in humans with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Whether this effect is specific to heart failure per se or is a generalized feature of normal human myocardium is unknown. We therefore tested the hypothesis that inhibition of cardiac NO potentiates the positive...

The study presented here indicates that norepinephrine (NE) selectively induces long-lasting modifications of synaptically mediated responses in the dentate gyrus of the rat hippocampal slice. A low concentration of NE (1.0 microM; in the presence of 50 microM phentolamine, an alpha-adrenergic antagonist) or a 1.0 microM concentration of the specific beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol induce...

During treatment of primary cultured hepatocytes with either glucagon or isoproterenol for several hours, the stimulations of cAMP formation by these hormones decreased time dependently. Glucagon treatment also reduced the response to isoproterenol, but isoproterenol treatment did not decrease the response to glucagon. Treatment with isoproterenol caused more rapid desensitization than treatmen...

While evidence has been presented for the receptor-mediated activation of phospholipases A2, C and D, the activation of phospholipase A1 subsequent to receptor activation has not been established. Phospholipase A1-catalysed hydrolysis of 1-palmitoyl-2-linoleoyl-glycerophosphoethanolamine (GPE) by guinea-pig heart microsomes was stimulated 40-60% by isoprenaline. This isoprenaline-mediated incre...

The immediate effects of topical salbutamol, a beta 2 adrenergic agonist, on the aqueous humour dynamics of 22 normal subjects was studied by fluorophotometry and tonography. Significant lowering of intraocular pressure was accompanied by a significant increase in both aqueous flow rate and tonographic facility of outflow. Uveoscleral outflow was calculated and found to be significantly increas...

Adrenergic control of swimbladder blood flow was analysed in blood-perfused preparations of the European eel as well as in situ by recording the changes in swimbladder blood flow and blood pressure following an injection of catecholamine into the dorsal artery. In blood-perfused swimbladder preparations, injection of the alpha-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine into the perfusion loop caused a ma...

Neurons located in the locus coeruleus project to hippocampus and provide noradrenergic innervation necessary for hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. The mechanisms underlying the function of norepinephrine (NE) in memory processing are unknown but likely reside in the ability of NE to modulate the efficacy of glutamate synaptic transmission via activation of G-protein-coupled adrenergic...