Catecholamines are among the first molecules that displayed a kind of response to prolonged or repeated stress. It is well established that long-term stress leads to the induction of catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes such as tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) in adrenal medulla. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of ginseng on TH and DBH mRNA expre...

Electroacupuncture (EA) is a modified form of acupuncture that utilizes electrical stimulation. We previously showed that EA stimulated rats were divided into responders that were sensitive to EA and non-responders that were insensitive to EA based on the tail flick latency (TFL) test. The dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene was more abundantly expressed in the hypothalamus of responder rats t...

Dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) converts dopamine (DA) to norepinephrine (NE) in noradrenergic/adrenergic cells. DBH deficiency prevents NE production and causes sympathetic failure, hypotension and ptosis in humans and mice; DBH knockout (Dbh -/-) mice reveal other NE deficiency phenotypes including embryonic lethality, delayed growth, and behavioral defects. Furthermore, a single nucleotide poly...

Woodlands provide valuable ecosystem services, and it is important to understand their dynamics. To predict the way in which these might change, we need process-based predictive ecological models, but these are necessarily very data intensive. We tested the ability of existing datasets to provide the parameters necessary to instantiate a well-used forest model (SORTIE) for a well-studied woodla...

Haplotype probabilities have been implemented in association analyses performed between three candidate genes and the preweaning survival of F2 Iberian x Meishan piglets, under a categorical proportional hazard model. The additive effect of substitution of each haplotype was estimated using information of parental genotypes for non-genotyped piglets. Analysed loci were the bone morphogenetic pr...

Cholinergic differentiation factors (CDFs) suppress noradrenergic properties and induce cholinergic properties in sympathetic neurons. The CDFs leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) bind to a LIFR.gp130 receptor complex to activate Jak/signal transducers and activators of transcription and Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinases signaling pathways. Little is know...

The promoter region of the human dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene was analyzed in transgenic mice to identify DNA sequences responsible for the tissue- and cell-specific expression of the gene. Transgenic mice were generated that carried the Escherichia coli lacZ gene under control of DBH promoter fragments between 0.6 and 5.8 kilobases (kb) in length. Sequences required for expression in a...

Migraine is a common neurological disorder with a significant genetic component. Although a number of linkage and association studies have been undertaken, the number and identity of all migraine susceptibility genes has yet to be defined. The existence of dopaminergic hypersensitivity in migraine has been recognised on a pharmacological basis and some studies have reported genetic association ...

The dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene is expressed selectively in noradrenergic and adrenergic neurons and neuroendocrine cells in the nervous system. A cAMP response element (CRE) residing at -181 to -174 bp from the transcription start site of the human DBH gene seems to be essential for DBH transcription. Potential cis-regulatory motifs such as AP1 and YY1 occur proximal to and overlap th...

Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) catalyzes the conversion of dopamine to noradrenaline and is selectively expressed in noradrenergic and adrenergic neurons and neuroendocrine cells. Recent data from this laboratory showed that a paired-like homeodomain (HD) protein, Phox2a, interacts with the HD-binding site residing within a composite promoter of the human DBH gene, designated domain IV, in a c...