The purpose of the present study was 1) to develop a stable model for measuring contraction-induced elevations in mRNA in single skeletal muscle fibers and 2) to utilize this model to investigate the response of heat shock protein 72 (HSP72) mRNA following an acute bout of fatiguing contractions. Living, intact skeletal muscle fibers were microdissected from lumbrical muscle of Xenopus laevis a...

The major challenge of tissue engineering is directing the cells to establish the physiological structure and function of the tissue being replaced across different hierarchical scales. To engineer myocardium, biophysical regulation of the cells needs to recapitulate multiple signals present in the native heart. We hypothesized that excitation-contraction coupling, critical for the development ...

A 39-year-old woman treated with itraconazole for onychomycosis developed palpitation and dizziness during her treatment. Premature ventricular contractions (PVC) were detected during monitoring in the emergency room. Twenty-four hour holter electrocardiogram revealed aberrant premature atrial contractions (PACs) and PVCs. Corrected QT interval was in normal limits. After discontinuing the ther...

The graveyard of cardiovascular therapeutics is littered with common-sense ideas. Premature ventricular contractions trigger episodes of ventricular fibrillation; therefore, suppression of premature ventricular contractions should lessen the risk of cardiac arrest and sudden death–and yet it has not.1–2 Sudden cardiac death (SCD), which is responsible for between 184 000 and 450 000 deaths in t...

Isolated preparations of mammalian cardiac muscle have been employed to study possible mechanisms responsible for changes in diastolic compliance. Muscles have been studied at rest and during isometric and afterloaded contractions, at fixed initial length and during programmed, cyclic changes in length, and under the influence of paired stimulation, catecholamines, and elevated extracellular ca...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term effects of septic shock on cardiac function in children treated with inotropic and/or vasoconstrictive agents for 24 hours or longer. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Tertiary pediatric intensive care unit and outpatient follow-up clinic. PARTICIPANTS One hundred eight of 144 eligible children who were admitted to our tertiary pediatric intensive care unit ...

We searched for nutrient deficiencies that could cause cardiac arrhythmias [premature atrial contractions (PACs), premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), atrial fibrillation, and related sinus pauses], and found literature support for deficiencies of taurine and l-arginine. Case histories of people with very frequent arrhythmias are presented showing 10-20g taurine per day reduced PACs by 50...

The biochemical mechanisms by which octopamine, catecholamines and the peptide proctolin exert their actions on Limulus cardiac muscle were investigated. Amines produced long-lasting increases in the amplitude of contractions evoked by electrical stimulation. At 10(-5) mol l-1, the apparent order of potency for amine-induced increases in evoked contraction amplitude was dopamine approximately e...