Cranial kinesis was studied in two species of gekkonid lizard, Gekko gecko and Phelsuma madagascariensis, using cineradiography and electromyography. The skull of these geckoes showed the three types of kinesis described by Versluys at the beginning of this century: streptostyly, mesokinesis and metakinesis. In accordance with the later model of Frazzetta, the skull of these animals can be mode...

Sodium-activated potassium (K(Na)) channels have been suggested to set the resting potential, to modulate slow after-hyperpolarizations, and to control bursting behavior or spike frequency adaptation (Trends Neurosci 28:422-428, 2005). One of the genes that encodes K(Na) channels is called Slack (Kcnt1, Slo2.2). Studies found that Slack channels were highly expressed in nociceptive dorsal root ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) elicits neuronally mediated cerebral arteriolar vasodilation that is reduced by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). This sequence has been preserved by pretreatment with the ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channel opener aprikalim, although the mechanism was unclear. In the heart, mitochondrial K(ATP) channels (mitoK(ATP)) are involved in the ischemic...

The voltage-gated potassium channels of the KV7 family (KV7.1-5) play important roles in controlling neuronal excitability and are therefore attractive targets for treatment of CNS disorders linked to hyperexcitability. One of the main challenges in developing KV7 channel active drugs has been to identify compounds capable of discriminating between the neuronally expressed subtypes (KV7.2-5), a...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have implicated mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels in the cardioprotective effects of ischemic preconditioning. The present study used a model of prolonged cold heart storage to assess whether the mitochondrial K(ATP) opener diazoxide could reproduce the protection conferred by ischemic preconditioning. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty-four isolated rat...

BACKGROUND The effect of ketamine on vasodilation mediated by adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive K(+) channels has not been studied. The present study was designed to determine whether ketamine might stereoselectively affect vasorelaxation induced by an ATP-sensitive K(+) channel opener in the isolated rat aorta. METHODS Rings of the rat aorta with or without endothelium were suspended fo...

a b s t r a c t introduction: even today there is no effective drug therapy to prevent neuronal loss after brain stroke. in the present study we studied the effect of mitochondrial katp channel regulators on neuronal ultrastructure after ischemia reperfusion in the rat. materials & methods: rats temporarily subjected to four vessels occlusion for 15 minutes followed by 24 hours reperfusion with...