BACKGROUND Subtotal nephrectomy (N) in rats results in progressive hypertension, proteinuria and renal lesions. Renin-angiotensin system blockade initiated at N prevents these changes; treatments failing to reduce hypertension and proteinuria do not. METHODS Ten Munich-Wistar rats underwent 1½ surgical N; eight littermates were pretreated with losartan (L) only for 6 weeks prior to 1&f...

introduction: the effects of different doses of oestrogen on the endometrium of women with premature ovarian failure have been examined in this study. materials and methods: four groups of women of reproductive age were studied; 1 normal fertile controls 2. patients given a standard, variable hormone replacement therapy (hrt) 3. a group given a fixed daily dose of 1 mg of oestrogen and 4. a gro...

The afferent limb of the vesicovascular reflex (VV-R) evoked by distension or contraction of the urinary bladder (UB) was studied in urethane-anesthetized female rats by examining the changes in VV-R after administration of C-fiber afferent neurotoxins [capsaicin and resiniferatoxin (RTX)]. Systemic arterial blood pressure increased parallel (5.1 to 53.7 mmHg) with graded increases in UB pressu...

To enhance the ef f ic iency of DNA vaccines to HIV-1, we immunized BALB/c mice sequential ly with a gp120 DNA vector and a recombinant vaccinia virus (VV). We have also evaluated the effect of granulocyte macrophage colony st imulation factor (GM-CSF) expression by a DNA vector on both cellular and humoral immune responses when coadministered with the gp120-encoding DNA at priming. Our results...

The biological activity of a new intravenous (i.v.) preparation of human vaccinia immune globulin (VIGIV) was evaluated in two mouse models of vaccinia virus (VV) infection. In a mouse tail lesion model, female CD-1 mice were inoculated i.v. with 7 x 10(4) PFU of VV to produce >10 lesions per tail 8 days later. In a mouse lethality model, female severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were ...

BACKGROUND Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a nuclear chromatin-associated enzyme involved in several important cellular processes, particularly in the DNA repair system. PARP-1 rs1136410: C>T is among the most studied polymorphisms and likely involved in human carcinogenesis. However, results from previous studies are inconclusive. Thus, a meta-analysis was conducted to derive a more ...

Variable ventilation (VV), characterized by breath-to-breath variation of tidal volume (Vt) and breathing rate (f), has been shown to improve lung mechanics and blood oxygenation during acute lung injury in many species compared with conventional ventilation (CV), characterized by constant Vt and f. During CV as well as VV, the lungs of mice tend to collapse over time; therefore, the goal of th...