BACKGROUND The pregnancy hormone relaxin has been raised as a new compensatory mediator of cardiac origin in heart failure (HF). We set out to assess the role of relaxin in pressure overload-induced human HF. METHODS We studied 129 adult patients undergoing cardiac catheterization for isolated aortic valve stenosis (AS). Blood was sampled from the aortic root and, in a subset of 49 patients, ...

The hypothalamus plays a key role in the regulation of both energy homeostasis and reproduction. Evidence suggests that relaxin-3, a recently discovered member of the insulin superfamily, is an orexigenic hypothalamic neuropeptide. Relaxin-3 is thought to act in the brain via the RXFP3 receptor, although the RXFP1 receptor may also play a role. Relaxin-3, RXFP3, and RXFP1 are present in the hyp...

Experiments were performed to determine whether neutralization of relaxin in the brain, by injecting monoclonal antibodies to rat relaxin into the ventricular system of the brain, affected either the timing or the processes of birth in rats. Pregnant rats were injected daily through a chronically implanted intracerebroventricular cannula either with a specific monoclonal antibody raised against...

Matrix metalloproteinases are proteolytic enzymes that degrade the extracellular matrix and are essential for tissue remodeling. Uterine and cervical growth require remodeling of structural barriers to cell invasion and matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 degrade type IV collagen, the major component of basement membranes. Relaxin stimulates uterine and cervical growth and remodeling, which inclu...

This dissertation is an effort to further define the central relationship of oxytocin (OT) and relaxin. The enclosed experiments have used rats and pigs to study this relationship. The first study looked at the effect of relaxin on the secretion of oxytocin and prolactin in pregnant gilts. Intravenous administration of relaxin appeared to mildly increase the circulating oxytocin and prolactin i...

Relaxin is a corpus-luteum produced protein hormone with vasodilatatory, anti-fibrotic, and angiogenic properties that are opposite to angiotensin (Ang) II. We investigated whether or not relaxin ameliorates Ang II-induced target-organ damage. We used double transgenic rats harboring both human renin and angiotensinogen genes (dTGR) that develop severe hypertension, target-organ damage, and die...

Background: The chemical synthesis of multi-disulfide bonded heterodimeric peptides such as insulin has long been of significant scientific and commercial interest as well as a major challenge. The development of improved protocols which includes regioselective disulfide bond formation has greatly advanced the capacity to prepare and study insulin-like peptides including canine relaxin, an impo...

In myometrium of pigs and rats, though not humans, relaxin appears to mediate an inhibition of spontaneous and oxytocin-induced contractility, presumably acting through a G-protein coupled receptor (RXFP1) to generate cAMP. In humans, circulating relaxin is highest in the first trimester, including the time of implantation, when transitory uterine quiescence could help a blastocyst to implant. ...

BACKGROUND Noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur two to eight times more often in women than in men. Changes in ligament laxity and strength have been associated with female hormones such as relaxin. HYPOTHESIS Relaxin receptors are present within the female anterior cruciate ligament. STUDY DESIGN Controlled laboratory study. METHODS Remnants of anterior cruciate ligament ...

Leukocytes are critical effectors of inflammation and tumor biology. Chemokine-like factors produced by such inflammatory sites are key mediators of tumor growth that activate leukocytic recruitment and tumor infiltration and suppress immune surveillance. Here we report that the endocrine peptide hormone, relaxin, is a regulator of leukocyte biology with properties important in recruitment to s...