BACKGROUND Etomidate is a commonly used sedative in intravenous anesthesia. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of various etomidate doses administered by continuous infusion on adrenal function in dogs under general anesthesia. METHODS Thirty-six healthy adult male dogs were randomly divided into six groups. Sodium pentobarbital alone was administered to the control group (group...

A reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assay using conserved primers deduced from the core-envelope 1 (C-E1) region of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome was developed for subtyping purposes. The sensitivity and specificity of this assay tested against two HCV reference panels containing genotype 1 through 5 subtypes were similar to those of an RT-PCR assay from the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR...

Kv2.1 is a major delayed rectifying K(+) channel normally localized to highly phosphorylated somatodendritic clusters in neurons. Excitatory stimuli induce calcineurin-dependent dephosphorylation and dispersal of Kv2.1 clusters, with a concomitant hyperpolarizing shift in the channel's activation kinetics. We showed previously that sublethal ischemia, which renders neurons transiently resistant...

The effects of infusions of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on platelet deposition at atherosclerotic sites in vivo in man have been examined. Thirteen patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease received intravenous PGE1 25 mg/kg/min for 6 hours daily for 5 days. Prostaglandin E1 had no effect on platelet uptake at atherosclerotic sites but prolonged platelet half-life significantly (P less than 0....

Background & Aims: Release of proinflammatory cytokines after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of brain edema. Previous studies demonstrated that sex steroids decrease brain edema induced by TBI. In this study changes of brain cytokines after the administration of estrogen and progesterone 24 hours after TBI were evaluated. Materials and Methods: Female rats were divided into 7 gro...

Concentration-related dye leakage produced by intracutaneous injections of irritants was measured in rats by an Evans blue technique. 2 In rats pretreated with a total dose of 50 mg capasaicin over 4 days, the response to capsaicin, formalin, HCl, KCl, prostaglandin E1, bradykinin and bradykinin with prostglandin E1 (10(-6) M) were greatly reduced, the responses to histamine and 5-hydroxytrypta...

We are developing an orally available small-molecule, allosteric TSH receptor (TSHR) agonist for follow-up diagnostics of patients with thyroid cancer. The agonist C2 (NCGC00161870) that we have studied so far is a racemic mixture containing equal amounts of two enantiomers, E1 and E2. As enantiomers of many drugs exhibit different pharmacologic properties, we assessed the properties of E1 and ...

We evaluated an enzyme-linked immunoassay kit (Estramet 2/16) for the measurement of 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OH E1) and 16-alpha hydroxyestrone (16 alpha-OH E1), major metabolites of estradiol. Urine samples from 14 healthy premenopausal women on days 1, 8, 15, and 22 of their menstrual cycle were assayed along with standards, kit controls, and in-house controls. The intra-assay percentage CVs of 2...

Cytokinesis depends on a contractile actomyosin ring in many eukaryotes [1-3]. Myosin II is a key component of the actomyosin ring, although whether it functions as a motor or as an actin cross-linker to exert its essential role is disputed [1, 4, 5]. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the myo2-E1 mutation affects the upper 50 kDa sub-domain of the myosin II heavy chain, and cells carrying this leth...