Introduction: Mutations in the delta sarcoglycan gene (d-SG) cause limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2F with structural and functional alterations in cardiac, smooth and skeletal muscle. The objective of the present study was to improve information about changes in vascular reactivity of the thoracic aorta and the coronary artery in the perfused heart of the d-SG-null mutant mouse model. ...

Bronchial reactivity is a physiological property of healthy airways to develop a moderate airway obstruction in response to various non-specific stimuli, which is altered in several pulmonary diseases. The active effector of airway reactivity is airway smooth muscle (ASM). The contractile status of airway smooth muscle is under the control of many extracellular messengers acting on specific mem...

The coronary vasculature located distal to a chronic occlusion (collateral-dependent) has been shown to exhibit altered reactivity to vasoactive agonists. Thus we evaluated effects of chronic coronary artery occlusion on vasomotor responsiveness of collateral-dependent arteries isolated from a canine model of Ameroid occlusion of the left circumflex (LCX) coronary artery. We compared in vitro r...

BACKGROUND Perfusion of the isolated uterus has been shown to be a feasible experimental system for studies of the human endometrium and myometrium. Utilizing our established experimental perfusion model we perfused 20 uteri for 27 h and investigated the contractile reactivity of the myometrium in response to 17beta-estradiol (E2) and oxytocin (OT). METHODS Uteri of group A (n = 4) were stimu...

To determine the roles of estrogen and constrictor prostanoids in vasopressin (VP)-induced contraction of female rat aorta, vascular reactivity to VP was determined in thoracic aortas of intact, ovariectomized, and ovariectomized + estrogen-replaced female rats in the presence of indomethacin (Indo), NS-398, SQ-29,548, or vehicle control. The effects of estrogen on vascular reactivity to the th...

The expression of different isoforms of the contractile protein myosin plays a major role in determining contractile characteristics in both cardiac and skeletal muscle in the adult. There is little evidence pertaining to putative changes in myosin phenotype during cardiac embryogenesis or if such changes could play a role in modulating the contractile characteristics of the developing heart. W...

Gadolinium (Gd) blocks intra- and extracellular ATP hydrolysis. We determined whether Gd affects vascular reactivity to contractile responses to phenylephrine (PHE) by blocking aortic ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (E-NTPDase). Wistar rats of both sexes (260-300 g, 23 females, 7 males) were used. Experiments were performed before and after incubation of aortic rings with 3 µM Gd...

The present study evaluated the beneficial effect of aqueous extract of garlic (Allium sativum L.; 100mg/kg/day) on the alterations in vascular reactivity of streptozotocin-diabetic rats. After 8 weeks of treatment, thoracic aortic rings of rats were mounted in organ baths and contractile responses to phenylephrine and relaxant responses to acetylcholine and isosorbide dinitrate were assessed. ...

An antiserum with specific reactivity against the contractile proteins of the rat heart has been raised in the rabbit. Fractions of the serum have been shown to enter the isolated rat embryo by electron-microscopic studies with ferritin, where they bind to the myocardium, producing degenerative changes. Both IgG and IgM fractions are toxic, producing foetal death in a large proportion of explan...