We recently reported that vasa vasorum expansion occurs in the pulmonary artery (PA) adventitia of chronically hypoxic animals and that extracellular ATP is a pro-angiogenic factor for isolated vasa vasorum endothelial cells (VVEC). However, the sources of extracellular ATP in the PA vascular wall, as well as the molecular mechanisms underlying its release, remain elusive. Studies were undertak...

Increased hydrostatic pressure can damage neurons, although the mechanisms linking pressure to neurochemical imbalance or cell injury are not fully established. Throughout the body, mechanical perturbations such as shear stress, cell stretching, or changes in pressure can lead to excessive release of ATP. It is thus possible that increased pressure across neural tissues triggers an elevated rel...

The precise assembly of neuronal circuits requires that the correct number of pre- and postsynaptic neurons form synaptic connections. Neuronal cell number is thus tightly controlled by cell death during development. Investigating the regulation of cell number in the retina we found an ATP gated mechanism of neuronal death control. By degrading endogenous extracellular ATP or blocking the P2X(7...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Modulation of extracellular adenine nucleotide and adenosine concentrations is one potential mechanism by which docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may exert beneficial effects in critically ill patients. This study assessed DHA effects on extracellular adenine purines. METHODS Experiments used human pulmonary endothelial cells (HPMEC) and umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) treat...