OBJECTIVE We and others have previously shown that RhoA-dependent stimulation of myocardin-related transcription factor nuclear localization promotes smooth muscle cell (SMC) marker gene expression. The goal of this study was to provide direct in vivo evidence that actin polymerization by the diaphanous-related formins contributes to the regulation of SMC differentiation and phenotype. APPROA...

We report the discovery of a new smectic-C{*} liquid-crystal phase with six-layer periodicity by resonant x-ray diffraction. Upon cooling, the new phase appears between the SmC{alpha}{*} phase having a helical structure and the SmC{d4}{*} phase with four-layer periodicity. This SmC{d6}{*} phase was identified in two mixtures which have an unusual reversed SmC{d4}{*}-SmC{*} phase sequence. The S...

Remodeling of the uterine spiral arteries during pregnancy transforms them from high to low resistance vessels that lack vasoconstrictive properties. This process is essential to meet the demand for increased blood flow imposed by the growing fetus. Loss of endothelial and smooth muscle cells (SMC) is evident in remodeled arteries but the mechanisms underlying this transformation remain unknown...

OBJECTIVE The investment of newly formed endothelial cell tubes with differentiated smooth muscle cells (SMC) is critical for appropriate vessel formation, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We previously showed that depletion of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in the nkx2.5 expression domain led to aberrant outflow tract (OFT) morphogenesis and strove herein to determine the cell types ...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Various materials have been used as scaffolds to suit different demands in tissue engineering. One of the most important criteria is that the scaffold must be biocompatible. This study was carried out to investigate the potential of HA or TCP/HA scaffold seeded with osteogenic induced sheep marrow cells (SMCs) for bone tissue engineering. METHODS HA-SMC and TCP/HA-SMC ...

The proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) and impaired nitric oxide (NO) production are both crucial pathophysiological processes in the initiation and development of atherosclerosis. Epidemiological data have indicated that diets rich in whole grain foods are associated with a reduced risk of developing atherosclerosis. Avenanthramides are polyphenols found exclusively in oats (A...

Vascular calcification is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Hyperphosphatemia is an important contributor to vascular calcification. Our previous studies demonstrated that elevated phosphate induces calcification of smooth muscle cells (SMC) in vitro. Inhibition of phosphate transport by phosphonoformic acid blocked phosphate-induced calcification, implicating sodium-depen...

this study aimed to investigate the effects of tow nanoparticles (nps) on the absorption,accumulation, reproduction of the eisenia fetida. a 4×2×2 factorial experiment in a randomized completeblock design with three replications was conducted. the factors included in the experiment are the content ofnps at four levels (0, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2gr/kg weight of substrate), the type of nps at two level...

A precipitating factor in the development of atherosclerotic lesions is the inappropriate migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) within the intima of the vessel wall. Focusing on the role of extracellular matrix proteins in SMC migration, we have demonstrated that thrombospondin (TSP) itself is a potent modulator of SMC motility and acts to potentiate platelet-derived...

The convergence for the sequential Monte Carlo SMC implementations of the multitarget multiBernoulli MeMBer filter and cardinality-balanced MeMBer CBMeMBer filters is studied here. This paper proves that the SMC-MeMBer and SMC-CBMeMBer filters, respectively, converge to the true MeMBer and CBMeMBer filters in the mean-square sense and the corresponding bounds for the mean-square errors are give...