The pontomedullary region is responsible for both the tonic and phasic reduction of muscle activity in rapid-eye-movement sleep and contributes to the control of muscle tone in waking. This study focused on determining the time course of activity in the pontomedullary systems mediating atonia. Short-train stimulations (3 0.2-ms pulses at 330 Hz) of the pons and medulla suppressed neck and hindl...

Arterial smooth muscle constriction in response to pressure, i.e., myogenic tone, may involve calcium-dependent and calcium-sensitization mechanisms. Calcium sensitization in vascular smooth muscle is regulated by kinases such as PKC and Rho kinase, and activity of these kinases is known to be altered in cardiovascular disorders. In the present study, we evaluated the relative contribution of P...

The regulation of arterial tone is critical in the spatial and temporal control of cerebral blood flow. Voltage-gated Ca(2+) (CaV) channels are key regulators of excitation-contraction coupling in arterial smooth muscle, and thereby of arterial tone. Although L- and T-type CaV channels have been identified in rodent smooth muscle, little is known about the expression and function of specific Ca...

Because of its critical importance in rectoanal incontinence, we determined the feasibility to reconstruct internal anal sphincter (IAS) from human IAS smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with functional and molecular attributes similar to the intact sphincter. The reconstructs were developed using SMCs from the circular smooth muscle layer of the human IAS, grown in smooth muscle differentiation media ...