Objective(s): Carthamus tinctorius L. (CT) or saffloweris widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. This study investigated the effects of CT extract (CTE) on ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) brain injury and elucidated the underlying mechanism. Materials and Methods: The I/R model was conducted by occlusion of both common carotid arteries and right middle cerebral artery for 90 min followed by 24...

BACKGROUND Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been reported to increase the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) in the brain and can lead to loss of cerebrovascular tone; however, the sources, amounts, and consequences of excess NO on the cerebral vasculature are unknown. Our objective was to elucidate the mechanism of decreased cerebral artery tone after TBI. METHODS AND RESULTS Cerebral arteri...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Conventional contrast-enhanced angiography is the gold standard for visualization of the vascular tree supplied by the major cerebral arteries and assessment of collateral flow. Thus far, however, no methods are available to assess the actual flow territories of the individual cerebral arteries. In the present study, we evaluate a noninvasive arterial spin labeling MRI me...

Recently, we reported that, whereas in cerebral arteries of the adult a majority of norepinephrine (NE)-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) comes from release of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ stores, in the fetus the SR Ca2+ stores are relatively small, and NE-induced increase in [Ca2+]i results mainly from activation of plasma membrane L-type Ca2+ channels (20...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Transcranial color-coded sonography is a new development in noninvasive cerebral vascular imaging. Reference data using this technique are described. METHODS Blood velocities and pulsatility and resistance indices were determined in the anterior cerebral, middle cerebral, posterior cerebral, vertebral, and basilar arteries in 115 volunteers after correction for the angl...