The role of glycogen as an oxidative substrate for vascular smooth muscle (VSM) remains controversial. To elucidate the importance of glycogen as an oxidative substrate and the influence of glycogen flux on VSM substrate selection, we systematically altered glycogen levels and measured metabolism of glucose, acetate, and glycogen. Hog carotid arteries with glycogen contents ranging from 1 to 11...

Although vascular smooth muscle (VSM) derives the majority of its energy from oxidative phosphorylation, controversy exists concerning which substrates are utilized by the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. We used 13C isotopomer analysis of glutamate to directly measure the entry of exogenous [13C]glucose and acetate and unlabeled endogenous sources into the TCA cycle via acetyl-CoA. Hog carotid ...

Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cell proliferation contributes to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, restenosis after angioplasty and vein graft disease. The regulation of genes involved in VSM cell proliferation, particularly by naturally occurring inhibitors, is therefore of some importance. We have investigated the role of the c-myc proto-oncogene in growth arrest of exponentially proliferati...

This paper presents developments of traditional value stream mapping (VSM) related to enhancing system and method competencies of both individuals and organisations. Since systematic immersions in traditional VSM – a highly accepted technique for improving production systems – are necessary, this paper describes from a production research point of view approaches for systematic productivity inc...

Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) growth is integral in the pathophysiology of blood vessel diseases, and identifying approaches that have capacity to regulate VSM growth is critically essential. Cyclic nucleotide signaling has been generally considered protective in cardiac and vascular tissues and has been the target of numerous basic science and clinical studies. In this project, the influence of...

The decompensatory phase of hemorrhage (shock) is caused by a poorly defined phenomenon termed vascular hyporeactivity (VHR). VHR may reflect an acute in vivo imbalance in levels of contractile and relaxant stimuli favoring net vascular smooth muscle (VSM) relaxation. Alternatively, VHR may be caused by intrinsic VSM desensitization of contraction resulting from prior exposure to high levels of...

We demonstrated previously that membrane depolarization and excitatory receptor agonists such as noradrenaline induce Ca2+-dependent Rho activation in VSM (vascular smooth muscle), resulting in MP (myosin phosphatase) inhibition through the mechanisms involving Rho kinase-mediated phosphorylation of its regulatory subunit MYPT1. In the present study, we show in de-endothelialized VSM strips tha...

This paper addresses the issue of motion-based description of video contents within the framework of the future MPEG7 standard. A family of velocity-based similarity measures (VSM) is first defined, involving a generic distance function which can be specified according to the query type. VSM computation complexity, spatio-temporal alignment problems and translational and homogenous motion compo...

The mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO)-mediated inhibition of vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cell proliferation are still obscure. Cyclins A and E in association with cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) serve as positive regulators for mammalian cell cycle progression through the G1/S checkpoint of the cell cycle and subsequent cell proliferation. Therefore, we have tested the effect of adenovirus-medi...