When tobacco is smoked, chewed or snuffed, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs or mucous membrane and quickly moved into the bloodstream, where it is circulated throughout the brain. In fact nicotine is highly dangerous to be consumed in any form. The present study was conducted to know the adverse effects of nicotine on the platelet aggregation in cerebral microvessels of mice. Male mice of aver...

Aloe vera plant (A. vulgari and A. barbadensis) has being used traditionally as a medicinal plant for centuries. Gel from the inner central zone of the leaves and latex from pericyclic cells are used for medicinal purposes. The present study was conducted to elucidate the beneficial effects of Aloe vera juice on the platelet aggregation in cerebral microvessels of mice. Male mice were injected ...

Delta-6 desaturase was measured in rat brain microvessels and choroid plexus by incubation in the presence of radioactive linoleic acid. Under our conditions, in 21-day-old animals, delta-6 desaturase was not detected in brain microvessels. In contrast, it was present in choroid plexus (about 21 pmol/min per mg protein). In comparison, the activity in brain was much lower (about 1 pmol/min per ...

OBJECTIVES The blood-brain barrier is a selective diffusion barrier between brain parenchyma and the intravascular compartment. Tight junctions are integral components of the blood-brain barrier. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are important in the pathogenesis of brain injury and could modify the protein constituents of tight junctions. We hypothesized that interleukin-6 (IL-6) downregulates key pr...

Endothelial cells from brain microvessels form the blood-brain barrier. Brain microvessels and endothelial cells isolated from rat brain microvessels express an amiloride-sensitive cationic channel that was characterized using [3H]phenamil binding and patch-clamp experiments. [3H]Phenamil, a labeled amiloride analog, recognizes a single family of binding sites with a dissociation constant of 20...

Cerebral capillaries constitute the blood-brain barrier. Studies of specific receptors (neurotransmitters or hormones) located on this structure can be performed by means of radioligand-binding techniques on isolated brain microvessels. We examined on pure bovine cerebral microvessel preparations the binding of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), using 125I-labeled ANF. Saturation and competition ...

For insulin to act within the brain, it is primarily transported from blood across blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, endocytic machinery necessary for delivering brain remains unknown. Additionally, there are processes endothelial cell that designed respond binding and elicit intracellular signaling. Using pharmacological inhibitors of different types endocytosis (clathrin-vs. caveolin-mediat...

Systemic administration of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) causes parkinsonism in humans and subhuman primates, but not in rats and many other laboratory animals; mice are intermediate in their susceptibility. Since MPTP causes selective dopaminergic neurotoxicity when infused directly into rat substantia nigra, we hypothesized that systemic MPTP may be metabolized by monoam...

Isolated bovine retinal and brain microvessels, exhibiting a patent lumen, were used to study the contribution of the microvasculature to the blood-brain and blood-retina barriers. The diffusion marker, sucrose, was taken up slowly by the isolated microvessels in contrast to leucine, tyrosine, and valine which were taken up at a considerably faster rate. Uptake of leucine was temperature depend...

Aloe vera plant (A. vulgari and A. barbadensis) has being used traditionally as a medicinal plant for centuries. Gel from the inner central zone of the leaves and latex from pericyclic cells are used for medicinal purposes. The present study was conducted to elucidate the beneficial effects of Aloe vera juice on the platelet aggregation in cerebral microvessels of mice. Male mice were injected ...