We previously observed that the renal nerves facilitate sodium retention and contribute to the development of DOCA-salt hypertension in the rat. To determine whether the renal nerves also participate in the maintenance of DOCA-salt hypertension, we studied the effects of renal denervation after 3 or 10 weeks of DOCA-salt treatment on systolic blood pressure, urinary sodium excretion, creatinine...

INTRODUCTION Syndecans are heparan sulphate proteoglycans expressed by endothelial cells. Syndecan-3 is expressed by synovial endothelial cells of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients where it binds chemokines, suggesting a role in leukocyte trafficking. The objective of the current study was to examine the function of syndecan-3 in joint inflammation by genetic deletion in mice and compare with ...

To compare arteriolar versus venular smooth muscle sensitivity to myogenic and metabolic inhibition during reduced blood pressure and flow, we measured the diameter of first-order venules (diameter, 230 ,um) and arterioles (diameter, 156 gm) of the denervated, bloodperfused rat cremaster skeletal muscle that was suspended in a tissue bath. Sensitivity was determined for bath-added norepinephrin...

The objective of this study was to directly study a role for mast cells in ischemia-reperfusion (I/R)-induced mucosal and microvascular dysfunction. I/R was induced in the intestine and skeletal muscle (gastrocnemius and cremaster muscle) of wild-type mice and mast cell-deficient mice ( W/ Wv ). Changes in mucosal permeability (blood-to-lumen clearance of51Cr-EDTA), leukocyte infiltration (myel...

Previous studies have demonstrated that the metabolic syndrome is associated with impaired skeletal muscle arteriolar function, although integrating observations into a conceptual framework for impaired perfusion in peripheral vascular disease (PVD) has been limited. This study builds on previous work to evaluate in situ arteriolar hemodynamics in cremaster muscle of obese Zucker rats (OZR) to ...

Oxytocin administered intravenously to the anaesthetized rat produced dilatation of the blood vessels of the cremaster muscle at concentrations ranging from 2.5 times 10-minus 11 to 2.5 times 10-minus 9 M. When applied topically to the exposed vessels it produced constriction at concentrations ranging from 2.5 times 10-minus 12 to 5.0 times 10-minus 8 M. Oxytocin was thus similar to adrenaline ...

This study investigated the dosage effects of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) on intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC)-induced vasodilation in uncompressed upstream muscle and the effects of IPC on endothelial NOS (eNOS) expression in upstream muscle. After L-NMMA infusion, mean arterial pressure increased by 5% from baseline (99.5 +/- 18.7 mmHg; P <...