Single doses of 5-(3,3-dimethyl-l-triazeno)imidazole-4carboxamide (DIC), 200 to 1000 or 25 to 1000 mg/kg, injected i.p. into rats on the 11th or 12th day of pregnancy, respectively, produced dose-related malformations of the mandible, palate, brain, and limbs of fetuses examined on the 21st day of gestation. Doses of 200 to 1000 mg/kg injected on Days 9 or 10 were lethal but not teratogenic. Si...

withania somnifera (ws) possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. ws preparations have a potential therapeutic role in the central nervous system (cns) related disorders in animal models. in this study, the possible protective effect of acute aqueous ws root extract on behavioral despair was explored and compared with fluoxetine, an antidepressant with selective serotonin (5-ht) reu...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and transforming growth factor-beta(1) (TGF-beta(1)) mRNA increase in rat skeletal muscle in response to a single acute exercise bout. Nitric oxide (NO) is released locally by muscle vascular endothelium and muscle fibers during exercise, contributes to the blood flow response to exercise, and regulates mitochondr...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the contributions of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandins (PGs) to the increase in local muscle blood flow (MBF) observed following manual acupuncture (MA). METHODS Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=112; 250-310 g) were injected intraperitoneally with a non-selective NO synthase inhibitor (NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride: L-NAME; 10, 50 or 500 mg/kg), a non-s...

  The involvement of nitric oxide (NO) in the reinforcing properties of opioids was studied by examining the effect of a NO precursor (L-arginine) and NO synthase inhibitor (L-nitro-amino-methyl-ester, L-NAME) on the conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by morphine. The experiment was performed on male albino Swiss- White mice (25 ± 5 g). L-arginine in doses of 100, 200 and 500 mg/kg (i.p...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to use laser Doppler flowmetry to measure anterior choroidal blood flow in the anesthetized rat and to determine the role of nitric oxide (NO) in the maintenance of basal ocular blood flow in vivo. METHODS By using laser Doppler flowmetry, blood flow from the anterior choroid in pentobarbital-anesthetized rats was measured continuously. Graded single doses (0...

Effects of agmatine, an endogenous metabolite formed by decarboxylation of L-arginine, on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury were investigated in rats. Agmatine at 1 and 10 mg/kg i.p doses significantly increased ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury. This effect of agmatine was abolished completely by pretreatment with idazoxan, an imidazoline receptor-antagonist and alpha2 receptor- anta...

l-Tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP) is an active ingredients of Corydalis yanhusuo W.T. Wang, which protects against acute global cerebral ischaemia-reperfusion injury. In this study, we show that l-THP is cardioprotective in myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury and examined the mechanism. Rats were treated with l-THP (0, 10, 20, 40 mg/kg b.w.) for 20 min before occlusion of the left anterior desc...