In addition to adrenergic innervation, cerebral arteries also contain neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-expressing nerves that augment adrenergic nerve function. We examined the impact of development and chronic high-altitude hypoxia (3,820 m) on nNOS nerve function in near-term fetal and adult sheep middle cerebral arteries (MCA). Electrical stimulation-evoked release of norepinephrine (NE...

BACKGROUND The significance of the stenotic lesions of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) in Asian patients with striatocapsular small, deep infarctions (SSDIs) remains undetermined. OBJECTIVES To investigate the frequency of stenotic lesions of the MCA in patients with SSDIs and to evaluate clinical and radiological features in those same patients. SETTING Acute stroke registry of a universi...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To analyze the effects of substrain and gender differences in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and distal middle cerebral artery (MCA) branching patterns on infarct size, we compared infarct volumes produced by photothrombotic distal MCA occlusion using SHR/Kyushu and SHR/Izumo (Izm). METHODS Twenty-four male and 8 female SHR/Kyushu, 15 male and 5 female SHR/Izm, a...

Mycothiol (MSH), a functional analogue of glutathione (GSH) that is found exclusively in actinomycetes, reacts with electrophiles and toxins to form MSH-toxin conjugates. Mycothiol S-conjugate amidase (Mca) then catalyzes the hydrolysis of an amide bond in the S conjugates, producing a mercapturic acid of the toxin, which is excreted from the bacterium, and glucosaminyl inositol, which is recyc...

The methyl cation affinities of the rare gases have been calculated at 0 and 298 K by using coupled cluster theory including noniterative, quasiperturbative triple excitations with the new correlation-consistent basis sets for Xe up through aug-cc-pV5Z in some cases. To achieve near chemical accuracy (+/-1 kcal/mol) in the thermodynamic properties, we add to the estimated complete basis set val...

Exercise challenges cerebral autoregulation (CA) by a large increase in pulse pressure (PP) that may make systolic pressure exceed what is normally considered the upper range of CA. This study examined the relationship between systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) and systolic (V(s)), diastolic (V(d)). and mean (V(m)) middle cerebral art...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The functional role of arteriolo-arteriolar anastomosis (AAA) between the middle cerebral artery (MCA) and anterior cerebral artery in local hemodynamics is unknown, and was investigated here. METHODS Blood flow in AAAs was examined using fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled red blood cells (RBCs) as a flow indicator in 16 anesthetized C57BL/6J mice before and after MCA o...

RATIONALE Middle cerebral artery (MCA) anomalies are relatively rare and often related to aneurysms. Familiarity with these anomalies is important in resolving problems that arise in the complex angioarchitecture. Reports often describe that aneurysms that are related to accessory or duplicated MCA are often located at its origin. PATIENT CONCERNS A 59-year-old man presented with a headache f...

We studied dynamic cerebrovascular responses in eight healthy humans during repetitive stepwise upward tilt (SUT) and stepwise downward tilt (SDT) maneuvers between supine and 70 degrees standing at intervals of 60 s. Mean cerebral blood flow velocity (FV(MCA)) was measured at the middle cerebral artery (MCA) with transcranial Doppler ultrasonography. Mean arterial blood pressure (ABP) was meas...

OBJECTIVE Silent corticotroph adenomas (SCAs) are rare pituitary tumours immunoreactive for ACTH, but without clinical evidence of Cushing's disease. We characterized SCAs based on clinical, hormonal and molecular data, and compared the characteristics of these tumours with those of macro (MCA)- and micro (mCA)-ACTH adenomas with Cushing's disease. METHODS Fifty ACTH adenomas (14 SCAs, 15 MCA...