RATIONALE The coordination of vascular smooth muscle cell constriction plays an important role in vascular function, such as regulation of blood pressure; however, the mechanism responsible for vascular smooth muscle cell communication is not clear in the resistance vasculature. Pannexins (Panx) are purine-releasing channels permeable to the vasoconstrictor ATP and thus may play a role in the c...

PURPOSE Urinary angiotensinogen has been reported as a marker for the activation of intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in various kidney diseases. To investigate the importance of urinary angiotensinogen in diabetic nephropathy, we compared the urinary levels of angiotensinogen, albumin, and α1-microglobulin. MATERIALS AND METHODS Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes at various stage...

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an important neurotransmitter, but recent reports have revealed the expression of GABAergic components in peripheral, non-neural tissues. GABA administration induces natriuresis and lowers blood pressure, suggesting renal GABA targets. However, systematic evaluation of renal GABAergic components has not been reported. In this study, kidney cortices of Wistar-Ky...

GABA(A) receptors are critically involved in hippocampal oscillations. GABA(A) receptor α1 and α2 subunits are differentially expressed throughout the hippocampal circuitry and thereby may have distinct contributions to oscillations. It is unknown which GABA(A) receptor α subunit controls hippocampal oscillations and where these receptors are expressed. To address these questions we used transg...

Naftopidil, approved only in Japan, is an α1-adrenergic receptor antagonist (α1-blocker) used to treat lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Different from tamsulosin hydrochloride and silodosin, in that it has higher and extremely higher affinity respectively, for the α1A-adrenergic receptor subtype than for the α1D type, naftopidil has distinct ...

Alpha 1-adrenergic receptors (α1-ARs) control the activity of dorsal raphe nucleus (DRn) serotonin (5-HT) neurons and play crucial role in the regulation of arousal and stress homoeostasis. However, the precise role of these receptors in regulating glutamate synapses of rat DRn 5-HT neurons and whether chronic stress exposure alters such regulation remain unknown. In the present study, we exami...

The major subunit isoform of GABAA receptors is α1β2γ2. The subunits are thought to surround an ion pore with the counterclockwise arrangement α1γ2β2α1β2 as seen from the outside of the neuron. These receptors have two agonist sites and one high affinity drug binding site specific for benzodiazepines. Recently, this receptor was postulated to assume alternative subunit stoichiometries and arran...

Introduction: α1-antitrypsin deficiency (α1-ATD) is one of the most common genetic disorders in white race, a usual cause of liver disease in children, and hepatopulmonary involvement in children and adult. The aim of this case description is presenting a child with early lung disease without liver parenchymal disorder. Case presentation: We describe a 13 year old boy because of exertional dysp...

The Alexandrov–Fenchel inequality bounds from below the square of mixed volume V(K1,K2,K3,…,Kn) convex bodies K1,…,Kn in ℝn by product volumes V(K1,K1,K3,…,Kn) and V(K2,K2,K3,…,Kn). As a consequence, for integers α1,…,αm∈ℕ with α1+⋯+αm=n Vn(K1)α1n⋯Vn(Km)αmn suitable powers Vn(Ki) Ki, i=1,…,m, is lower bound V(K1[α1],…,Km[αm]), where αi multiplicity which Ki appears volume. It has been conjectur...

Reactive oxygen species play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. We studied the role of adrenergic and serotonin receptors in the generation of superoxide by retina and 661W retinal cells in high glucose and of the α1-adrenergic receptor (AR) on vascular lesions of the retinopathy in experimentally diabetic C57Bl/6J mice (and controls) after 2 and 8 months. Compared w...