In the Chagas disease vector, Rhodnius prolixus, two diuretic hormones act synergistically to dramatically increase fluid secretion by the Malpighian tubules (MTs) during the rapid diuresis that is initiated upon engorgement of vertebrate blood. One of these diuretic hormones is the biogenic amine, serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), which controls a variety of additional activities includin...

BACKGROUND Carcinoid tumors are associated with the carcinoid syndrome, a set of symptoms resulting from the peptide and amine products, including serotonin, secreted from the cancer cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) inhibitor PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten) a...

Serotonin is a critical regulator of bone mass, fulfilling different functions depending on its site of synthesis. Brain-derived serotonin promotes osteoblast proliferation, whereas duodenal-derived serotonin suppresses it. To understand the molecular mechanisms of duodenal-derived serotonin action on osteoblasts, we explored its transcriptional mediation in mice. We found that the transcriptio...

Depression is a common disorder with physical and psychological manifestations often associated with low serotonin. Since noninvasive diagnostic tools for depression are sparse, we evaluated the clinical utility of a novel ELISA for the measurement of serotonin in urine from depressed subjects and from subjects under antidepressant therapy. We developed a competitive ELISA for direct measuremen...

Serotonin plays an important role in the etiology of depression. Serotonin is also crucial for brain development. For instance, animal studies have demonstrated that early disruptions in the serotonin system affect brain development and emotion regulation in later life. A plausible explanation is that environmental stressors reprogram the serotonin system through epigenetic processes by alterin...

Endothelial cells isolated from bovine aortas without prior treatment with enzymes were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium containing 17% fetal calf serum and antibiotics. The endothelial cells at confluency (7 days) were similar to endothelium in situ or to freshly isolated endothelial cells from blood vessels as seen by light, scanning, and electron microscopy. Cultured and freshly isolated indothe...

The subfornical organ (SFO) receives significant serotonergic innervation. However, few reports have examined the functional effects of serotonin on SFO neurons. This study characterized the effects of serotonin on spontaneously firing SFO neurons in the rat brain slice. Of 31 neurons tested, 80% responded to serotonin (1-100 μM) with either an increase ( n = 15) or decrease ( n = 10) in sponta...

Abstract Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects brain function, is associated with cancer progression, thus making it potential biomarker. Despite the increasing efforts and ideas for gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based colorimetric detection over years, preparing AuNPs sensing targets are separate processes, this incurs more time to operate produces excess waste. Herein, we report simple, sensi...

Introduction: The aim of this review article was to analyze in details the mechanism drugs’ effects treatment and prevention a migraine attack, as well discuss hypotheses pathogenesis.
 Migraine attack agents: main agents for have an anti-nociceptive activity.
 Agents preventive treatment: β-blocker propranolol also has anti-serotonin analgesic activities, most drugs used prophylactic...

tryptophan depletion is often assumed to lead to a decrease in neuronal serotonin release in the brain. here we review the literature and show that only in animal studies in which either serotonin synthesis rate is already decreased or serotonin utilization is increased an effect of tryptophan depletion on serotonin release has been demonstrated. in the absence of convincing evidence for reduce...