Articles

Computational analysis of the effect of the type of LVAD flow on coronary perfusion and ventricular afterload

Authors: Ki Moo Lim, In Su Kim, Seong Wook Choi, Byung Goo Min, Yong Soon Won, Heon Young Kim and Eun Bo Shim

High levels of circulating angiotensin II shift the open-loop baroreflex control of splanchnic sympathetic nerve activity, heart rate and arterial pressure in anesthetized rats

Although an acute arterial pressure (AP) elevation induced by intravenous angiotensin II (ANG II) does not inhibit sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) compared to an equivalent AP elevation induced by phenylephri...

Authors: Toru Kawada, Atsunori Kamiya, Meihua Li, Shuji Shimizu, Kazunori Uemura, Hiromi Yamamoto and Masaru Sugimachi

Effects of adrenaline on glycogenolysis in resting anaerobic frog muscles studied by ³¹P-NMR

The effects of adrenaline (also called epinephrine) on glycogenolysis in living anaerobic muscles were examined based on time-dependent changes of ³¹P-NMR spectra of resting frog skeletal muscles with and without...

Authors: Kimio Kikuchi, Takenori Yamada and Haruo Sugi

Myofiber apoptosis occurs in the inflammation and regeneration phase following eccentric contractions in rats

Eccentric contractions (ECC) induce myofibrillar collapse, edema, and inflammation in muscle cells. Although apoptosis of myonuclei following ECC is activated during the inflammatory phase, the apoptosis respo...

Authors: Mizuki Sudo and Yutaka Kano

Neural mechanism of localized changes in skeletal muscle blood flow caused by moxibustion-like thermal stimulation of anesthetized rats

Moxibustion-like thermal stimulation (MTS) was applied to the gastrocnemius muscle to measure local muscle blood flow (MBF) in the stimulated region and the change in the MBF in the region, and its mechanism w...

Authors: Eitaro Noguchi, Hideo Ohsawa and Kentaro Takagi

Adenovirus-mediated hypoxia-inducible factor 1α double-mutant promotes differentiation of bone marrow stem cells to cardiomyocytes

The hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) regulates transcriptional genes involved in cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation. Under normoxia, HIF-1α has a short half-life (t _½ ≈ ...

Authors: Yesong Wang, Chong Feng, Jiaojie Xue, Aijiao Sun, Jun Li and Juekan Wu

Endocrine profile and testicular histomorphometry in adult rat offspring of diabetic mothers

This investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of maternal diabetes on fetal testicular structure and function, and reproductive hormones levels. Sixteen female rats were divided into two groups. Diab...

Authors: Gholamali Jelodar, Zabiholah Khaksar and Mohammad Pourahmadi

Dexamethasone decreases the transmesothelial electrical resistance of the parietal and visceral pleura

The effect of dexamethasone on the transmesothelial electrical resistance (R _TM) of sheep pleura was investigated by Ussing chamber experiments. Our results show that dexamethasone decreas...

Authors: Sotirios Zarogiannis, Triantafyllia Deligiorgi, Ioannis Stefanidis, Vassilios Liakopoulos, Konstantinos Gourgoulianis, Paschalis Adam Molyvdas and Chrissi Hatzoglou

Factors affecting SOCE activation in mammalian skeletal muscle fibers

Enzymatically dissociated mouse FDB muscle fibers, loaded with Fura-2 AM, were used to study the effect of mitochondrial uncoupling on the capacitative Ca²⁺ entry, SOCE. Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca²⁺ stores we...

Authors: Pura Bolaños, Alis Guillén, Reinaldo DiPolo and Carlo Caputo

An exploratory study of gold wire implantation at acupoints to accelerate ulnar fracture healing in rats

By causing long-term stimulation, gold wire implantation at acupoints has been used empirically to prolong the effects of acupuncture. This study shows that subcutaneous gold wire implantation at acupoints has...

Authors: Hee-Young Kim, Boo-Yong Sohn, Un-Kyo Seo, Hyejung Lee, Dae-Hyun Hahm and Insop Shim

Computational analysis of the effect of the type of LVAD flow on coronary perfusion and ventricular afterload

We developed a computational model to investigate the hemodynamic effects of a pulsatile left ventricular assist device (LVAD) on the cardiovascular system. The model consisted of 16 compartments for the cardi...

Authors: Ki Moo Lim, In Su Kim, Seong Wook Choi, Byung Goo Min, Yong Soon Won, Heon Young Kim and Eun Bo Shim

Typical dipole locations can be estimated using averaged somatosensory-evoked potentials and a standard brain model

It is reasonable to hypothesize that dipoles estimated from grand averaged event-related potentials based on summed-up data obtained from multiple subjects and standard head models could correspond to typical ...

Authors: Yuri Masaoka, Hiroyoshi Yajima, Miho Takayama, Akiko Kawase, Nobuari Takakura and Ikuo Homma

Spinal cholinergic mechanism of the relieving effects of electroacupuncture on cold and warm allodynia in a rat model of neuropathic pain

This study was performed to determine whether spinal cholinergic systems mediate the relieving effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on cold and warm allodynia in a rat model of neuropathic pain. For neuropathic ...

Authors: Jung Hyuk Park, Sun Kwang Kim, Ha Neul Kim, Boram Sun, Sungtae Koo, Sun Mi Choi, Hyunsu Bae and Byung-Il Min

Endogenous angiotensin II has fewer effects but neuronal nitric oxide synthase has excitatory effects on renal sympathetic nerve activity in salt-sensitive hypertension-induced heart failure

The effects of endogenous angiotensin II (Ang II) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) on tonic sympathetic activity were studied in salt-sensitive hypertension-induced heart failure. Dahl salt-sensitive ...

Authors: Takehito Kemuriyama, Megumi Tandai-Hiruma, Kazuo Kato, Hiroyuki Ohta, Satoshi Maruyama, Yoshiaki Sato and Yasuhiro Nishida

Significant roles of microtubules in mature striated muscle deduced from the correlation between tubulin and its molecular chaperone αB-crystallin in rat muscles

To elucidate the significance of cytoskeletal microtubule networks in striated muscles, we analyzed correlation between the content of tubulin (building block of microtubules) and αB-crystallin (a molecular ch...

Authors: Hyunseok Jee, Takashi Sakurai, Shigeo Kawada, Naokata Ishii and Yoriko Atomi

CaMKII phosphorylates a threonine residue in the C-terminal tail of Cav1.2 Ca²⁺ channel and modulates the interaction of the channel with calmodulin

We have previously found that both CaMKII-mediated phosphorylation and calmodulin (CaM) binding to the channels are required for maintaining basal activity of the Cav1.2 Ca²⁺ channels. In this study, we investiga...

Authors: Wu-Yang Wang, Li-Ying Hao, Etsuko Minobe, Zahangir Alam Saud, Dong-Yun Han and Masaki Kameyama

β-Phorbol ester-induced enhancement of exocytosis in large mossy fiber boutons of mouse hippocampus

β-Phorbol esters (BPE), synthetic analogues of diacylglycerol (DAG), induce the potentiation of transmission in many kinds of synapses through activating the C₁ domain-containing receptors. However, their effects...

Authors: Takuya Hikima, Rikita Araki, Toru Ishizuka and Hiromu Yawo

Inhomogeneous distribution of action potential characteristics in the rabbit sino-atrial node revealed by voltage imaging

The sino-atrial node (SAN) is the natural pacemaker of the heart. Mechanisms of the leading pacemaker site generation and dynamic pacemaker shifts in the SAN have been so far studied with an electrophysiologic...

Authors: Haruko Masumiya, Yoshitaka Oku and Yasumasa Okada

Human astrocytes and aortic endothelial cells actively convert the oxidized form of albumin to the reduced form: reduced albumin might participate in redox regulation of nerve and blood vessel systems

Human serum albumin (HSA) is a mixture of mercaptalbumin (HMA, reduced form) and nonmercaptalbumin (HNA, oxidized form), i.e., a protein-thiol redox couple in the extracellular fluid (ECF), and it might have a...

Authors: Yukie Matsuyama, Tomoya Hayashi, Hiroyuki Terawaki, Tsuneo Negawa, Tomoyoshi Terada, Yukio Okano and Seiichi Era

Dimethyl amiloride, a Na⁺–H⁺ exchange inhibitor, and its cardioprotective effects in hemorrhagic shock in in vivo resuscitated rats

Stimulation of the Na⁺–H⁺ exchanger plays an important role in the pathway of myocardial dysfunction and injury following hemorrhagic shock. Inhibition of the Na⁺–H⁺ exchanger appears to be a new pharmacological ...

Authors: Mona Soliman

Systems biology, the Physiome Project and oriental medicine

Systems biology, particularly at the higher levels that are the domain of the Physiome Project, offers a more promising basis for constructive dialogue with traditional oriental medicine than does reductive mo...

Authors: Denis Noble

The opposite roles of nNOS in cardiac ischemia–reperfusion-induced injury and in ischemia preconditioning-induced cardioprotection in mice

The role of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in cardiac ischemia–reperfusion (IR) and ischemia preconditioning (IP) is still controversial. Here, we focused on the possible roles of nNOS in cardiac IR and...

Authors: Xiao-Mei Lu, Guo-Xing Zhang, Yan-Qiu Yu, Shoji Kimura, Akira Nishiyama, Hiroko Matsuyoshi, Juichiro Shimizu and Miyako Takaki

Late Na⁺ current produced by human cardiac Na⁺ channel isoform Na_v1.5 is modulated by its β₁ subunit

Experimental data accumulated over the past decade show the emerging importance of the late sodium current (I _NaL) for the function of both normal and, especially, failing myocardium, in w...

Authors: Victor A. Maltsev, John W. Kyle and Albertas Undrovinas

Monopolar surface electromyography: a better tool to assess motoneuron excitability upon passive muscle stretching

Bipolar and monopolar surface electromyography (sEMG) are known procedures to measure the H-reflex. However, signal cancellation is a potential experimental problem of bipolar sEMG. The results of our study sh...

Authors: Hikmat Hadoush, Yoshiko Tobimatsu, Akiyoshi Nagatomi, Hiroaki Kimura, Yoshihiro Ito and Hiroshi Maejima

Low [NaCl]-induced neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression and NO generation are regulated by intracellular pH in a mouse macula densa cell line (NE-MD)

Changes in the luminal NaCl concentration ([NaCl]) at the macula densa (MD) modulate the tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF) responses via an affect on the release of nitric oxide (NO). This study was performed in...

Authors: Hideaki Kawada, Yukiko Yasuoka, Hidekazu Fukuda and Katsumasa Kawahara

Short-term effects of electrically induced tachycardia on antioxidant defenses in the normal and hypertrophied rat left ventricle

Increased oxidative stress resulting from enhanced production of reactive oxygen species and/or inadequate mechanisms of antioxidant defenses has been recognized as an important factor contributing to the init...

Authors: Barbara Kłapcińska, Ewa Sadowska-Krępa, Sławomir Jagsz, Andrzej Sobczak, Małgorzata Żendzian-Piotrowska, Jan Górski and Józef Langfort

17β-Estradiol-induced enhancement of estrogen receptor biosynthesis via MAPK pathway in mouse skeletal muscle myoblasts

The skeletal muscle is one of the important target tissues for the actions of estrogen via both nuclear and extranuclear (non-genomic) pathways. However, there is a paucity of information about the receptor (E...

Authors: J. Hatae, N. Takami, Hai Lin, Akira Honda and R. Inoue

Compression on trigger points in the leg muscle increases parasympathetic nervous activity based on heart rate variability

Massotherapy, the therapeutic use of massage, is used to treat various chronic pain syndromes. One type of massotherapy, pressure stimulus applied over trigger points (TPs), is reported to have excellent thera...

Authors: Kohichi Takamoto, Shigekazu Sakai, Etsuro Hori, Susumu Urakawa, Katsumi Umeno, Taketoshi Ono and Hisao Nishijo

Abdominal expiratory muscle activity in anesthetized vagotomized neonatal rats

The pattern of respiratory activity in abdominal muscles was studied in anesthetized, spontaneously breathing, vagotomized neonatal rats at postnatal days 0–3. Anesthesia (2.0% isoflurane, 50% O₂) depressed breat...

Authors: Makito Iizuka

Interactive effects between isometric exercise and mental stress on the vascular responses in glabrous and nonglabrous skin

Cutaneous vascular responses to mental arithmetic (MA) and handgrip exercise (HG) were studied independently and combined at different local skin temperatures (T _loc). MA and HG induced (P

Authors: Fumio Yamazaki, Katsunori Kinoshita and Ryoko Sone

Water proton spin-lattice relaxation time during the apoptotic process in ultraviolet-irradiated murine erythroleukemia cells

Ultraviolet (UV) light-induced apoptosis has been extensively examined, but data on properties of intracellular water are insufficient. Thus, we examined the ¹H spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) of intracellular ...

Authors: Takeo Yamaguchi, Takayuki Koga and Satoshi Katsuki

Involvement of aquaporin-5 in differentiation of human gastric cancer cells

Litttle is known about the function of aquaporin (AQP) water channels in human gastric cancer. In the upper or middle part of human stomach, we found that expression level of AQP5 protein in intestinal type of...

Authors: Tomoko Watanabe, Takuto Fujii, Takeshi Oya, Naoki Horikawa, Yoshiaki Tabuchi, Yuji Takahashi, Magotoshi Morii, Noriaki Takeguchi, Kazuhiro Tsukada and Hideki Sakai

Sevoflurane and nitrous oxide exert cardioprotective effects against hypoxia-reoxygenation injury in the isolated rat heart

It is unclear whether nitrous oxide (N₂O) has a protective effect on cardiac function in vitro. In addition, little is known about the cardioprotective effect of anesthesia administered during hypoxia or ischemia...

Authors: Chunhong Jin, Seijiro Sonoda, Liu Fan, Makino Watanabe, Toyoki Kugimiya and Takao Okada

Region-specific sensitivity of the spinal cord to ischemia/reperfusion: the dynamic of changes in catalytic NOS activity

This study was designed in order to consider whether the release of neuronally derived nitric oxide (NO) in the lumbosacral spinal cord during ischemia/reperfusion is region-specific and whether changes in Ca²⁺-d...

Authors: D. Kolesár, M. Kolesárová, J. Pavel, A. Dávidová, J. Maršala and N. Lukáčová

Abstract

Authors:

Hemodynamic determinants of chronic hypotension and their modification through vasopressor application

Chronic low blood pressure is typically accompanied by symptoms such as fatigue, reduced drive, dizziness, headaches and cold limbs. Reduced cognitive performance, diminished cerebral blood flow and autonomic ...

Authors: Stefan Duschek, Heike Heiss, Boriana Buechner, Natalie Werner, Rainer Schandry and Gustavo A. Reyes del Paso

Reduced volume-regulated outwardly rectifying anion channel activity in ventricular myocyte of type 1 diabetic mice

The currents through the volume-regulated outwardly rectifying anion channel (VRAC) were measured in single ventricular myocytes obtained from streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice, using whole-cell volta...

Authors: Shintaro Yamamoto, Kunihiko Ichishima and Tsuguhisa Ehara

Spike sorting by a minimax reduced feature set based on finite differences

Spikes are classified according to their finite differences in various orders. The fundamental idea that makes it work is that finite differences can extract and isolate features from spikes. This method showe...

Authors: Chien-Chang Yen, Wei-Chang Shann, Chen-Tung Yen and Meng-Li Tsai

Association of Ala589Ser polymorphism of WNK4 gene with essential hypertension in a high-risk Chinese population

Recent studies on the association between particular single nucleotide polymorphisms of serine–threonine kinase with no lysine (K) 4 gene (WNK4) and essential hypertension have yielded controversial results. Her...

Authors: Zhi-Jun Sun, Yan Li, Jing-Yu Lu, Qian Ding, Yu Liang, Jing-Pu Shi, Jesse Li-Ling and Yan-Yan Zhao

A new beginning for The Journal of Physiological Sciences: a message from the editor-in-chief

Authors: Yasuo Sakuma

Mode of frequency distribution of external work efficiency of arrhythmic beats during atrial fibrillation remains normal in canine heart

The external work (EW) efficiency of individual arrhythmic beats of the left ventricle (LV) cannot directly be obtained since LV O₂ consumption (VO₂) of each beat cannot directly be measured under beat-to-beat va...

Authors: Juichiro Shimizu, Satoshi Mohri, Haruo Ito, Miyako Takaki and Hiroyuki Suga

Increased O₂ consumption in excitation–contraction coupling in hypertrophied rat heart slices related to increased Na⁺–Ca²⁺ exchange activity

The goal of our study was to evaluate the origin of the increased O₂ consumption in electrically stimulated left ventricular slices of isoproterenol-induced hypertrophied rat hearts with normal left ventricular p...

Authors: Juichiro Shimizu, Daisuke Yamashita, Hiromi Misawa, Kiyoe Tohne, Satoshi Matsuoka, Bongju Kim, Ayako Takeuchi, Chikako Nakajima-Takenaka and Miyako Takaki

The maxi-anion channel: a classical channel playing novel roles through an unidentified molecular entity

The maxi-anion channel is widely expressed and found in almost every part of the body. The channel is activated in response to osmotic cell swelling, to excision of the membrane patch, and also to some other p...

Authors: Ravshan Z. Sabirov and Yasunobu Okada

Gene structures, biochemical characterization and distribution of rat melatonin receptors

G-protein coupled receptors for the pineal hormone melatonin have been partially cloned from rats. However, insufficient information about their cDNA sequences has hindered studies of their distribution and ph...

Authors: Hirotaka Ishii, Nobuyuki Tanaka, Momoko Kobayashi, Masakatsu Kato and Yasuo Sakuma

Age-related changes in two- and three-dimensional morphology of type-identified endplates in the rat diaphragm

To examine the age-related morphological changes in the motor endplate of type-identified muscle fibers, 20 male Wister rats were divided into 2-month-, 10-month-, 24-month- and 30-month-old groups (n = 5 in each...

Authors: Toshimi Suzuki, Akio Maruyama, Takao Sugiura, Shuichi Machida and Hirofumi Miyata

Prognostic value of end-tidal CO₂ pressure during exercise in patients with left ventricular dysfunction

We compared the prognostic power of end-tidal CO₂ pressure (PETCO₂) during exercise, an index of arterial CO₂ pressure, with those of established respiratory gas indexes during exercise testing in patients with l...

Authors: Masayo Hoshimoto-Iwamoto, Akira Koike, Osamu Nagayama, Akihiko Tajima, Takeya Suzuki, Tokuhisa Uejima, Hitoshi Sawada and Tadanori Aizawa

Indirect measures of human vagal withdrawal during head-up tilt with and without a respiratory acidosis

Human ECG records were analyzed during supine (SUP) rest and whole body 80° head-up tilt (HUT), with a respiratory acidosis (5%CO₂) and breathing room air (RA). HUT increased heart rate in both conditions (RA_SUP ...

Authors: S. J. Brown, T. Mundel, M. Barnes and J. A. Brown

Gastric acid secretion in cholecystokinin-1 receptor, -2 receptor, and -1, -2 receptor gene knockout mice

Gastrin is important for stimulating acid secretion as well as differentiating gastric mucosal cells via cholecystokinin-2 receptors (CCK-2Rs). In turn, CCK acts preferably via CCK-1R to release somatostatin, ...

Authors: Setsuko Kanai, Hiroko Hosoya, Saeko Akimoto, Minoru Ohta, Toshimitsu Matsui, Soichi Takiguchi, Akihiro Funakoshi and Kyoko Miyasaka