A microbore liquid chromatography method coupled to UV detection was developed and validated in order to monitor the passage of compound 21 (C21), a non-peptide angiotensin II type 2 receptor agonist, to the striatum of rats. For this purpose, sampling from the striatum was performed using the in vivo microdialysis technique. Separations were performed on a C₁₈ microbore (1mm i.d.) column using...

The angiotensin type 2 receptor (AT2R) has been shown to lower inflammation in the kidney. However, the role of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-10 in AT2R-mediated attenuation of inflammation has not been elucidated. We hypothesized that AT2R activation is renoprotective by directly increasing the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in the kidney via nitric oxide (NO) sig...

BACKGROUND Studies that use dietary biomarkers to investigate the association between whole-grain intake and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) are lacking. OBJECTIVE We examined the association between plasma total alkylresorcinols and the alkylresorcinol C17:0-to-C21:0 ratio, biomarkers of whole-grain wheat and rye intake and relative whole-grain rye over whole-grain wheat intake,...

The metabolism of cortisol and other steroids was studied in normal untreated rabbit iris-ciliary body and cornea as part of an investigation into the mechanism of glucocorticoid-induced glaucoma. Cortisol is readily converted to the inactive metabolite cortisone by these eye tissues indicating the presence of an 11beta-oxidoreductase system. This reaction is reversible with cortisone being con...

Dengue viruses (DENVs; serotypes 1-4) are members of the flavivirus family. The envelope protein (E) of DENV has been defined as the principal antigenic target in terms of protection and diagnosis. Antibodies that can reliably detect the E surface glycoprotein are necessary for describing and mapping new DENV epitopes as well as for developing more reliable and inexpensive diagnostic assays. In...

Oxidative and nitrosative stress have been implicated in high-sodium diet (HSD)-related hypertensive renal injury. In this study, we investigated angiotensin II type 2-receptor-mediated renoprotection in obese Zucker rats fed HSD. Obese Zucker rats were fed normal sodium diet or HSD 4%, for 14 days, with/without angiotensin II type 2-receptor agonist C21, delivered subcutaneously via osmotic pu...

BACKGROUND Brain synthesis of steroids including sex-steroids is attracting much attention. The endogenous synthesis of corticosteroids in the hippocampus, however, has been doubted because of the inability to detect deoxycorticosterone (DOC) synthase, cytochrome P450(c21). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The expression of P450(c21) was demonstrated using mRNA analysis and immmunogold electron...

Surfactant protein C (SP-C), a 3.7-kDa hydrophobic lung-specific protein, is synthesized and secreted by pulmonary type II cells through proteolytic processing of a 21-kDa propeptide (SP-C21) by currently undefined pathways. Previously, we reported the production of a polyclonal antibody against rat SP-C21 (anti-CPROSP-C) using a synthetic peptide as the immunizing antigen (Beers, M. F., Wali, ...