It has been previously reported that amiloride suppresses inflammatory cytokine biosynthesis. However, the molecular mechanism involved has yet to be ascertained. Therefore, the immunoregulatory potential mediated by amiloride and the underlying signaling transduction pathway was investigated. Exposure of alveolar epithelial cells to amiloride or its analog, 5-( N,N -hexamethylene)-amiloride (H...

The contributions of amiloride-sensitive and -insensitive fractions of alveolar fluid clearance in adult ventilated rats were studied under control conditions and after beta-adrenergic stimulation. Rats were instilled with a 5% albumin solution containing terbutaline (10(-4) M) or dibutyryl-cGMP (DBcGMP; 10(-4) M) with or without the cyclic nucleotide-gated cation channel inhibitor l-cis-diltia...

A B S T R A C T The steady-state transport kinetics of the interaction between external sodium and the diuretic drug, amiloride, was studied in isolated anuran skin epithelia. We also investigated the effect of calcium on the amiloride-induced inhibition of short-circuit current (Ise) in these epithelial preparations. The major conclusions of this study are: (a) amiloride is a noncompetitive in...

Chorda tympani taste nerve responses to NaCl can be dissected pharmacologically into amiloride-sensitive and -insensitive components. It is now established that the amiloride-sensitive, epithelial sodium channel acts as a sodium-specific ion detector in taste receptor cells (TRCs). Much less is known regarding the cellular origin of the amiloride-insensitive component, but its anion dependence ...

To examine a possible role of indoleamines in the regulation of epithelial sodium absorption, the effect of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) and several derivatives on electrolyte transport was measured in vitro in the baboon bronchus and in the trachea and colon of sodium-deficient rats. Serotonin, melatonin (N-acetyl-5-hydroxytryptamine), and harmaline (1-methyl-7-methoxy-3,4-dihydro-beta-carb...

Alternative splicing involves differential exon selection of a gene transcript to generate mRNA and protein isoforms with structural and functional diversity. Abnormal alternative splicing has been shown to be associated with malignant phenotypes of cancer cells, such as chemo-resistance and invasive activity. Screening small molecules and drugs for modulating RNA splicing in human hepatocellul...

INTRODUCTION Renal Na+ retention and extracellular fluid volume expansion are hallmarks of nephrotic syndrome, which occurs even in the absence of activation of hormones that stimulate renal Na+ transporters. Plasmin-dependent activation of the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) has been proposed to have a role in renal Na+ retention in the setting of nephrotic syndrome. We hypothesized that the ENa...

The amiloride-sensitive salt transduction pathway is thought to be critical for the discrimination between sodium and nonsodium salts in rodents. In rats, lingual application of amiloride appears to render NaCl qualitatively indistinguishable from KCl. In this study, we tested four strains of mice for salt discriminability. In one strain (C57BL/6J), chorda tympani nerve (CT) responses to NaCl a...

Objectives: To test whether simply increasing plasma potassium with amiloride would exert any of the same beneficial effects on “surrogate outcome measures” that are seen with spironolactone. The latter has been shown to improve mortality in chronic heart failure, possibly as a result of improvements in endothelial dysfunction, vascular angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), autonomic function, m...