background:   astrocytes are cells within the central nervous system which are activated  in a wide spectrum of infections,  and  autoimmune and  neurodegenerative diseases.in pathologic states, they produce  inflammatory cytokines, chemokines,  and  nitric oxide (no), and sometimes  they induce apoptosis.their protease-activated receptors (pars) can be activated by proteases, e.g.thrombin and ...

in the present study, interactions between lead exposure with nitric oxide precursor (l-arginine) or nitric oxide synthase (nos) inhibitor (l-name) on naloxone-induced jumping and diarrhea in morphine-dependent mice were examined. chronic lead acetate (0.05%) exposure altered naloxone-induced jumping and diarrhea in mice. jumping was decreased after 7 days and was unchanged 14 and 28 days after...

background: skin flap grafting is a popular approach for reconstruction of critical skin and underlying soft tissue injuries. in a previous study, we demonstrated the beneficial effects of two 5α-reductase inhibitors, azelaic acid and finasteride, on tissue survival in a rat model of skin flap grafting. in the current study, we investigated the involvement of nitric oxide and inducible nitric o...

Background: During the initial phase of an infection, there is an upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase in the macrophages for the production of nitric oxide. This is followed by the recruitment of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophils) which release arginase. Arginase competes with inducible nitric oxide synthase for a common substrate L-arginine. Objective: To investigate whethe...

introduction: the relation between morphine and nitric oxide release has been shown. due to important role of nitric oxide in regulation of skin blood flow, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of nitric oxide synthase inhibitor (l-name) and nitric oxide synthesis precursor (l-arginine) on skin blood flow of intact and morphine-dependent rats. methods: skin blood flow of hind paw...

nitric oxide (no) is a molecule required for many physiological functions, produced from l-arginine by no synthases (nos). it is a free radical, producing many reactive intermediates that account for its bioactivity. sustained induction of the inducible form of nos (inos) in chronic inflammation may be mutagenic, through no-mediated dna damage or hindrance to dna repair, and thus potentially ca...

objective(s): endometriosis is a complex gynecologic disease with unknown etiology. noscapine has been introduced as a cancer cell suppressor. endometriosis was considered as a cancer like disorder, the aim of present study was to investigate noscapine apoptotic effect on human endometriotic epithelial and stromal cells in vitro. materials and methods:in this in vitro study, endometrial biopsie...

The integrity of the genome is threatened by DNA damaging events such as radiation, viral infection and chemicals. Ionizing irradiation is known to cause genotoxic damage through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS) and we have found that a signaling pathway for the nuclear translocation of Translin is initiated in association and efficiently blocked by a s...

We are pursuing a dual strategy for investigating the chemistry of nitric oxide as a biological signaling agent. In one approach, metal-based fluorescent sensors for the detection of NO in living cells are evaluated, and a sensor based on a copper fluorescein complex has proved to be a valuable lead compound. Sensors of this class permit identification of NO from both inducible and constitutive...