Intravenous administration of tritium-labeled 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) to human subjects resulted in the labeling of endogenous catecholamines and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA). Determination of the changes in specific activity of these compounds with time in fractional collections of urine and in cardiac biopsies from patients undergoing corrective cardiac surgery permitted estimation o...

The regulation of female hydrocarbons and courtship behavior by dopamine and their relationship with locomotion, were investigated in Drosophila melanogaster. Ddc mutants and wild-type female flies treated with tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitors (alpha-methyltyrosine or 3-iodotyrosine) had fewer diene hydrocarbons (female pheromones) and there was a total (Ddc), partial (alpha-methyltyrosine) or n...

Disturbances of the sympathetic nervous system have been described in chronic renal failure, but their role in the genesis and maintenance of hypertension frequently associated with this condition has not been established. The neuroadrenergic activity in brain nuclei involved in the regulation of blood pressure in uremic animals has also not been previously evaluated. In these studies, the neur...

Abstract Introduction DiGeorge Syndrome is a microdeletion of chromosome 22q11.2 and most commonly de novo. Manifestations are wide-spread including cardiac malformations, palatal abnormalities, intellectual disability, hypocalcemia, dysmorphic facial features, psychiatric disorders (psychotic disorders, Autism, ADHD, etc). This case report highlights difficulties with diagnosis treatment psych...

The metabolic fate of the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor, alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (alpha-MPT), was studied after oral administration of single and multiple doses to patients with pheochromocytoma and essential hypertension. No major urinary excretion product was found other than the drug itself, which accounted for 44-88% of the fate of single or repeated oral doses. Though less than 1% of t...

Hypertension may be attributable to various disorders involving the central or peripheral adrenergic (catecholamine) pathways. Pheochromocytoma is the best known of these disorders, but many syndromes mimic the clinical features of this tumor. In adreno-medullary hypertension, cardiovascular tissues are stimulated by activation of alpha or beta adrenergic receptors, or both. Specific diagnosis ...

When rats were exposed to immobilized cold stress, adrenaline content in the adrenal gland as well as noradrenaline content in the brain stem were reduced drastically, while noradrenaline content in the atria was not altered by the application of stress. Oral administrations of taurine (4-7 g/kg/day, for 3 days) prevented the stress-induced decline of adrenaline in the adrenal gland and this pr...

The mechanism of stimulatory action of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) on spontaneous motor activity was investigated in rats. TRH produced a significant hyperactivity with intraperitoneal administration of 20 mg/kg or bilateral injection of 10 micrograms into the nucleus accumbens septi (NAS). Following bilateral injection of 6-hydroxydopamine into the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway, the...

Saframycin A (SFM-A) is a potent antitumor antibiotic that belongs to the tetrahydroisoquinoline family. Biosynthetic studies have revealed that its unique pentacyclic core structure is derived from alanine, glycine, and non-proteinogenic amino acid 3-hydroxy-5-methyl-O-methyltyrosine (3-OH-5-Me-OMe-Tyr). SfmD, a hypothetical protein in the biosynthetic pathway of SFM-A, was hypothesized to be ...