Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) takes place in 10-40% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and increases cardiovascular mortality. Enlargement of atrial chambers is associated with increased AF incidence, so patients with higher central venous pressure (CVP) are expected to have larger atrial distension, which increases AF incidence. Objective: To compare post-C...

Estradiol increases cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the female rodent but it is not known whether the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER), a membrane receptor, is involved in this process, nor whether there are regional differences in estradiol's effects on cell proliferation. Thus, we investigated whether estradiol exerts its effects on cell proliferation in the dorsal and ve...

Transfer RNA (tRNA) canonically has the clover-leaf secondary structure with the acceptor, D, anticodon, and T arms, which are folded into the L-shaped tertiary structure. To strengthen the L form, posttranscriptional modifications occur on nucleotides buried within the core, but the modification enzymes are paradoxically inaccessible to them in the L form. In this study, we determined the crys...

Identified and cloned in 1996 for the first time, G protein-coupled oestrogen receptor (ER) 30 (GPR30/GPER) has been a hot spot in the field of sex hormone research till now. In the present study, we examined the effects of low-dose oestradiol (E2) combined with G15, a specific antagonist of GPR30 on ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis in rats. Female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats undergoing OVX ...

Protocatechuic aldehyde (PCA), a phenolic aldehyde, has therapeutic potency against atherosclerosis. Although PCA is known to inhibit the migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and intravascular thrombosis, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of PCA on endothelial cells and injured vessels in vivo in association wit...

Article history: Received 1 June 2013 Received in revised form 11 March 2015 Accepted 12 March 2015 Available online 21 March 2015 JEL classification: F21 F41 G15

The biphasic pattern of glucose-induced insulin secretion is altered in type 2 diabetes. Impairment of the first phase is an early sign of β-cell dysfunction, but the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. Their identification through in vitro comparisons of islets from diabetic and control subjects requires characterization and quantification of the dynamics of insulin secretion by normal is...