the use of manometry, i.e. the recording of pressures within hollow viscera, after being successfully applied to the study of esophageal and anorectal motor dysfunctions, has also been used to investigate physiological and pathological conditions of the small bowel. by means of this technique, it has been possible to understand better the normal motor functions of the small intestine, and their...

A protein with a molecular mass of 42 kDa (P42) from Mycoplasma mobile, one of several mycoplasmas that exhibit gliding motility, was shown to be a novel NTPase (nucleoside triphosphatase). Although the P42 protein lacks a common ATP-binding sequence motif (Walker A), the recombinant proteins expressed in Escherichia coli certainly hydrolysed some nucleoside triphosphates, including ATP. The re...

Although many studies have demonstrated the physiological action of motilin on the migrating motor complex, the precise mechanisms remain obscure. To obtain new insights into the mechanisms, we focused on the house musk shrew (Suncus murinus, suncus used as a laboratory name) as a small model animal for in vivo motilin study, and we studied the physiological characteristics of suncus gastrointe...

CONTEXT There are reports showing that gender has an influence on swallowing and on the contractions of the distal esophageal body. OBJECTIVE In this investigation we studied the effect of gender on proximal esophageal contraction. METHODS We studied 20 men (22-68 years old, median 39 years) and 44 women (18-61 years old, median 41 years) without symptoms and without gastrointestinal or res...

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether the psychological stress related to a short war (26 June–7 July, 1991) in Slovenia induced changes in fertility, sex ratio at birth and semen quality characteristics. METHODS: Sex ratios [i.e. males/(males females)] for 4966 births in the general population of Slovenia and separately for 1565 births in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, from January–March 1992...

Background: Sperm cryopreservation has been associated with over production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Buffalo spermatozoa are susceptible to ROS inducing damages due to insufficient level of cytoplsmic antioxidant along with high amount of poly unsaturated fatty acids composition in membrane structure. Therefore, appropriate antioxidant in buffalo cryopreservation extender would reduce ...

Because poorly motile sperm samples can often be stimulated by treatments that increase intracellular levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), it has been supposed that such samples are unable to maintain an adequate supply of the cyclic nucleotide with which to activate protein kinase A (PKA). To investigate this hypothesis, we incubated boar sperm samples with bicarbonate (a stimulato...