Cardiac hypertrophy, which is commonly caused by hypertension, is a major risk factor for heart failure and sudden death. Endogenous ghrelin has been shown to exert a beneficial effect on cardiac dysfunction and postinfarction remodeling via modulation of the autonomic nervous system. However, ghrelin's ability to attenuate cardiac hypertrophy and its potential mechanism of action are unknown. ...

Cholinergic abnormalities, alongside senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and extensive neuronal loss, are the major characteristics in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Both nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are decreased in AD, and it has been shown that the reduction in the number of acetylcholine receptors precedes other pathologic changes. Anti-cholinergic drugs induce amnesia, ...

Anisodamine, an antagonist of muscarinic receptor, has been used therapeutically to improve blood flow in circulatory disorders such as septic shock in China since 1965. The main mechanism of anisodamine for anti-shock proposed in Pharmacology for Chinese medical students is to improve blood flow in the microcirculation. Here, we suggest a new mechanism for its anti-shock effect. That is, aniso...

This study was performed to investigate whether the spinal cholinergic and serotonergic analgesic systems mediate the relieving effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on oxaliplatin-induced neuropathic cold allodynia in rats. The cold allodynia induced by an oxaliplatin injection (6 mg/kg, i.p.) was evaluated by immersing the rat's tail into cold water (4℃) and measuring the withdrawal latency. EA s...

Introduction Cholinergic system is one of the important systems of mammalian CNS. Cholinergic neurons distributed in brain and spinal cord and contributed to principal functions like: consciousness, learning and memory, and motor control. In this study we investigated the differentiation potentiality of mouse embryonic stem cells toward cholinergic neurons. The aim of this study was to evaluate...

To The ediTor We would like to comment some methodological issues that arised from the interesting paper of Piovesan et al. and that did not were cleared in the discussion. As it is known, many antiparkinsonian agents may cause cognitive and psychiatric symptoms, mainly those with anti-cholinergic effects. Piovesan et al. stated that none of the patients in the PWID group (Parkinson Group with ...