Platelet activating factor (PAF) and PAFlike lipids induce inflammatory responses in target cells. These lipid mediators are inactivated by PAF-acetylhydrolase (PAFAH). The PAF signaling system affects the growth of hematopoietic CD34 cells, but roles for PAF-AH in this process are unknown. Here, we investigated PAF-AH function during megakaryopoiesis and found that human CD34 cells accumulate ...

Chami, O., A. Megevand, T. Ott, F. Bazer, and C. O’Neill. Platelet-activating factor may act as an endogenous pulse generator for sheep of luteolytic PGF2a release. Am. J. Physiol. 276 (Endocrinol. Metab. 39): E783–E792, 1999.— Pulsatile release of uterine prostaglandin F2a (PGF2a) induces luteolysis in ruminants. However, the mechanism(s) that initiates and maintains luteolysis has not been de...

Angiotensin II may contribute to the progression of renal glomerular diseases. Beneficial effects of converting enzyme inhibition in models of renal disease are, however, not always explicable by hemodynamic consequences of angiotensin II inhibition. Angiotensin increases intracellular calcium in glomerular mesangial cells and activates phospholipase A2, factors required for the formation of th...

LIS-1 is a gene whose hemi-deletion causes the human neuronal migration disorder Miller-Dieker lissencephaly. It encodes a subunit of a brain platelet-activating factor (PAF) acetylhydrolase, an enzyme that inactivates PAF by hydrolyzing the acetyl moiety in the sn2 position of this phospholipid. Because PAF receptor activation has been shown to affect the developing neuronal cytoskeleton, we h...

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) and its receptors are involved in inflammatory-like processes of the uterus associated with increased vascular permeability. PAF is supposed to be influenced by ovarian steroid hormones. The present study was undertaken to examine whether progesterone (P(4)), estradiol (E(2)) or PAF influence the PAF receptor gene expression in perfused endometrial explants deri...

1-O-Alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholines (platelet-activating factor (PAF] stimulate exocytosis in isolated lobules from guinea pig parotid glands or pancreas by an acetylcholine-like mechanism (Söling, H. D., Eibl, H. J., and Fest, W. (1984) Eur. J. Biochem. 144, 65-72). We show here that both tissues are able to synthetize PAF themselves. Isolated guinea pig parotid gland acini incorpo...

RATIONALE The phospholipid platelet-activating factor (PAF) stimulates all cells of the innate immune system and numerous cardiovascular cells. A single enzyme (plasma PAF acetylhydrolase [PAF-AH] or lipoprotein-associated phospholipase [Lp-PL]A(2)) in plasma hydrolyzes PAF, but significant controversy exists whether its action is pro- or antiinflammatory and accordingly whether its inhibition ...

In rat brain stem slices, we investigated the role of platelet activating factor (PAF) in long-term potentiation (LTP) induced in the ventral part of the medial vestibular nuclei (MVN) by high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of the primary vestibular afferent. The synaptosomal PAF receptor antagonist, BN-52021 was administered before and after HFS. BN-52021 did not modify the vestibular potentials ...