BACKGROUND While the N-terminal pro-brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) at rest is known to be associated with prognosis in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), it is unclear if the NT-proBNP response to exercise (ΔNT-proBNP) can contribute to a better assessment of disease severity. METHODS We investigated the association of NT-proBNP values at rest and during peak exercise with hem...

Primary cultures of cortical neurons were employed to investigate the modulatory effects of neurotensin on glutamate excitotoxicity and the possible neuroprotective actions of the neurotensin receptor antagonist SR48692. NT(1-13) and its biologically active fragment NT(8-13) at 10 nM (30 min) increased endogenous glutamate levels. The inactive fragment NT(1-7) (10-100 nM; 30 min) was ineffectiv...

Background: To evaluate the association of increased fetal nuchal translucency( NT) and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Materials and Methods: In a prospective study, 2221 women who were conceived after Assisted Conception were investigated by sonography independent of multiplicity between 11 and 13 weeks' gestation. We performed 2899 NT examinations during the study period(21 March 2010 to 21...

The detection of an elevation in neurotensinlike immunoreactivity in peripheral plasma for several hours after a meal has been confirmed and shown to be primarily due to the presence of aminoterminal fragments of neurotensin (NT) rather than to NT itself. We have developed a procedure to separate and characterize these N-terminal cross-reacting substances, and to estimate the contributions of t...

OBJECTIVE To produce anti-19-Nortestosterone (NT) monoclonal antibodies and identify their immunological characteristics. METHODS Hybridomas were prepared by fusing NS0 mouse myeloma cells with splenocytes isolated from immunized BALB/c mice. Noncompetitive and competitive indirect ELISA were employed to screen positive cell clones. A caprylic acid ammonium sulphate (CAAP) method was used to ...

Some animals, including songbirds, vocalize at high rates when alone or in large groups. In songbirds, vocal behavior in these contexts is important for song learning and group cohesion. It is not obviously targeted at any particular individual and is described as 'undirected'. Studies suggest a role for dopamine (DA) in undirected song. The neuropeptide neurotensin (NT) can enhance dopaminergi...

We used a simple and efficient method to construct a bicistronic eukaryotic expression vector pIRES2-LIF-NT-3. The leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) genes were obtained from the genomic DNA of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells by polymerase chain reaction. The LIF cDNA fragment was inserted into the multiple cloning sites of a vector containing internal ribosome ...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a gene-silencing mechanism by which a ribonucleoprotein complex, the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and a double-stranded (ds) short-interfering RNA (siRNA), targets a complementary mRNA for site-specific cleavage and subsequent degradation. While longer dsRNA are endogenously processed into 21- to 24-nucleotide (nt) siRNAs or miRNAs to induce gene silencing, RN...

BACKGROUND N-terminal pro-brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is currently used as a surrogate marker for disease severity in pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, NT-proBNP tends to have a high variability and may insufficiently correlate with hemodynamics and exercise capacity. METHODS To investigate the association of NT-proBNP with hemodynamics and cardio-pulmonary exercise testing...