Hydroid planulae metamorphose in response to an inducing external stimulus, usually a bacterial cue. There is evidence that neurotransmitters participate in the signal transduction pathway of hydroid metamorphosis. Eudendrium racemosum is a colonial hydroid common in the Mediterranean Sea. It lacks the medusa stage and the planulae develop on female colonies during the fertile season. In this w...

Plasma serotonin levels are markedly elevated in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) and platelet levels of serotonin are low. Furthermore, plasma serotonin levels remain elevated after bilateral lung transplantation, in the absence of any pulmonary hypertension. Dexfenfluramine can cause the anorexigen-induced form of PPH that is clinically and histologically indistinguishable f...

In the recent past, the importance of the fish brain monoaminergic system in aggression, mating and feeding has been documented. There are several apparent similarities between the functioning of the fish and mammalian monoaminergic systems. In fish, the hypermetabolism of catecholamines (norepinephrine and dopamine) and indoleamine (serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) has been found to be as...

Drugs altering serotonin levels have been reported to influence skin inflammation. Serotonin 2A receptor (HTR2A) is hypothesized play a key role in mediating inflammation as it widely-expressed on many immune cells and HTR2A partial agonist could attenuate imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasiform murine model. Furthermore, analysis of data from GEO database has found mRNA expression be lower psoria...

5-HT(2)-type serotonin receptors (5-HT(2)Rs) are widely expressed throughout the brain and mediate many of the modulatory effects of serotonin. It has been thought that postsynaptic 5-HT(2)Rs act primarily by depolarizing neurons and thereby increasing their excitability. However, it is also known that 5-HT(2)Rs are coupled to G(q/11)-type G-proteins and that some other types of G(q/11)-coupled...

A glycoprotein that circulates in blood, binds to the surface of platelets, and also binds serotonin with high avidity and specificity, has previously been found in rats. This glycoprotein has been called serotonectin. We now report the purification and characterization of a similar circulating glycoprotein in human blood that we propose be called human serotonectin, to distinguish it from the ...

schizophrenia is a debilitating illness, rating as one of the leading causes of lost years of quality of life. the illness imposes a disproportionate burden on patients and their families, healthcare systems and society. pharmacological management is the cornerstone of treatment of schizophrenia, and antipsychotics, both first generation of antipsychotics and second generation of antipsychotics...

Midbrain raphe nuclei provide strong serotonergic projections to the hippocampus, in which serotonin (5-HT) exerts differential effects mediated by multiple 5-HT receptor subtypes. The functional relevance of this diversity of information processing is poorly understood. Here we show that serotonin via 5-HT(1B) heteroreceptors substantially reduces synaptic excitation of cholecystokinin-express...

the objective of this experiment was comparison blood serotonin levels in ascetic and non ascitic broilers of three strains (ross, arbor acres plus and cobb). to this purpose, a factorial test in crd was applied. in each of these three strains, 12 ascitic and 12 non ascitic broilers were selected. after tagging and blood sampling, all of blood samples were divided in two parts. one part was app...

Biogenic amines have been demonstrated to protect cells from apoptotic cell death. Herein we show for the first time that serotonin and dopamine increase H(2)S production by the endogenous enzyme cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) and protect cells against hypothermia/rewarming induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and apoptosis. Treatment with both compounds doubled CBS expression throug...