Background: Toll like receptors play a major role in immune responses against Leishmania parasites. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of vaccination with live attenuated L. major and TLR4 agonist in protection against L. major infection. Methods: Attenuated L. major was prepared by continuous sub-culturing of the parasite. A total of 90 mice were assigned to 9 groups including 6 groups of BAL...

Renal sympathetic nerves play a central role in the regulation of tubular Na+ reabsorption. Norepinephrine (NE) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) are colocalized in renal sympathetic nerve endings. The purpose of this study is to examine the integrated effects of these neurotransmitters on the regulation of Na+-K+-ATPase, the enzyme responsible for active Na+ reabsorption in renal tubular cells. Studies...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Obesity compromises adipocyte physiology. PPARs are essential to adipocyte plasticity, but its isolated role in the browning phenomenon is not clear. This study aimed to examine whether activation of PPAR-α or PPAR-β/δ could induce beige cell depots in the subcutaneous white adipose tissue of diet-induced obese mice. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sixty animals were randomly assigne...

Chronic treatment with β 2 adrenoceptor agonists is recommended as a first-line maintenance therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, a potential consequence of long-term treatment may be the loss of functional response (tachyphylaxis) over time. In this study, we have investigated the tendency of such agonists, with a range of efficacies, to develop functional desensit...

Patterns of increasing β-agonist use and the risk of fatal or near-fatal asthma. ERS Journals Ltd 1994. ABSTRACT: The association between the use of inhaled β-agonists by metereddose inhaler and the risk of fatal or near-fatal asthma has been demonstrated. It shows that asthmatics who use one canister of β-agonist per month more than the number used by other similar asthmatics have twice the r...

Traditional pulmonary therapies for cystic fibrosis (CF) target the downstream effects of CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) dysfunction (the cause of CF). Use of one such therapy, β-adrenergic bronchodilators (such as albuterol), is nearly universal for airway clearance. Conversely, novel modulator therapies restore function to select mutant CFTR proteins, offering a disease-modifyi...

Stroke is the third leading cause of mortality in women and it kills twice as many breast cancer. A key role pathophysiology stroke plays disruption blood–brain barrier (BBB) within neurovascular unit. While estrogen induces vascular protective actions, its influence on remains unclear. Moreover, experiments assessing impact endothelial cells to induce integrity are non-conclusive. Since pericy...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Asthma is associated with airway narrowing in response to bronchoconstricting stimuli and increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass. In addition, some studies have suggested impaired β-agonist induced ASM relaxation in asthmatics, but the mechanism is not known. OBJECTIVE To characterize the potential defect in β-agonist induced cAMP in ASM derived from asthmatic in c...