Myofibroblasts generate the contractile force responsible for wound healing and pathological tissue contracture. In this paper the stress-relaxed collagen lattice model was used to study lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)-promoted myofibroblast contraction and the role of the small GTPase Rho and its downstream targets Rho kinase and myosin light chain phosphatase (MLCPPase) in regulating myofibroblas...

Calcium channel blockers are widely used for treatment of hypertension, because they decrease peripheral vascular resistance through inhibition of voltage-gated calcium channels. Animal studies of renal vasculature have shown expression of several types of calcium channels that are involved in kidney function. It was hypothesized that human renal vascular excitation-contraction coupling involve...

metabolic alkalosis is characterized by high hco3- as it is seen in chronic respiratory acidosis, but ph differentiates the two disorders. there is no characteristic symptom or sign. orthostatic hypotension may be encountered. weakness and hyporeflexia occur if serum k+ is markerdly low. tetany and neuromuscular irritability occur rarely. we report the results of retrospective data analysis of ...

Calcium channel blockers are widely used for treatment of hypertension, because they decrease peripheral vascular resistance through inhibition of voltage-gated calcium channels. Animal studies of renal vasculature have shown expression of several types of calcium channels that are involved in kidney function. It was hypothesized that human renal vascular excitation-contraction coupling involve...

Introduction: It was shown in a previous study, that MCPIP, a cilostamide derivative, increased atrial contraction force without changing contraction rate. To improve this property, two new derivatives of cilostamide were synthesized and their effects on PDE3 activity and isolated rat atria contraction were investigated. Methods: The inhibitory effect of each compound on PDE3 enzyme was dete...

Functional performance of lower limb muscles and contractile properties of chemically skinned single muscle fibers were evaluated before and after 8 wk of maximal effort stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) exercise training. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis of eight men before and after the training period. Fibers were evaluated regarding their mechanical properties and subseq...

Two essential tasks in managing description logic knowledge bases are eliminating problematic axioms and incorporating newly formed ones. Such elimination and incorporation are formalised as the operations of contraction and revision in belief change. In this paper, we deal with contraction and revision for the DL-Lite family through a model-theoretic approach. Standard description logic semant...