Proliferation of vascular pericytes (PCs), smooth muscle-like cells found in the distal microvasculature, contributes to vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension. The factors controlling lung PC quiescence in normal states are poorly understood. We demonstrate that exogenous heparin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans inhibit rat lung PC proliferation in vitro as does pulmonary vascular sube...

Endothelin, a 21-amino acid vasoactive peptide, is among the most potent positively inotropic agents yet described in mammalian heart. Having demonstrated that endothelin's inotropic effect is due, in part, to an apparent sensitization of cardiac myofilaments to intracellular calcium, we determined whether this could be due to a rise in intracellular pH (pHi). In isolated adult rat ventricular ...

The Rhesus factor protein, Rh C glycoprotein (Rhcg), is an ammonia transporter whose expression in the collecting duct is necessary for normal ammonia excretion both in basal conditions and in response to metabolic acidosis. Hypokalemia is a common clinical condition associated with increased renal ammonia excretion. In contrast to basal conditions and metabolic acidosis, increased ammonia excr...

The exact pathway whereby the initial catabolism of the adenine nucleotides proceeds from AMP and the possibility of a recycling of adenosine were investigated in human erythrocytes. Adenine nucleotide catabolism, reflected by the production of hypoxanthine, is very slow under physiologic conditions and can be greatly increased by suppression of glucose or alkalinization of the medium. Experime...

The subversion of microbicidal functions of macrophages by intracellular pathogens is critical for their survival and pathogenicity. The replication of Coxiella burnetii, the agent of Q fever, in acidic phagolysosomes of nonphagocytic cells has been considered as a paradigm of intracellular life of bacteria. We show in this study that C. burnetii survival in THP-1 monocytes was not related to p...

Phosphoinositide hydrolysis is an integral step in the activation of vascular smooth muscle by angiotensin II. Sequential phospholipase C-mediated hydrolysis of the polyphosphoinositides and phosphatidylinositol in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells stimulated with angiotensin II results in a coordinated series of biochemical events: a transient formation of inositol trisphosphate associated...

The effect of elevating cytoplasmic Ca2+ [( Ca2+]i) on the intracellular pH (pHi) of thymic lymphocytes was investigated. In Na+-containing media, treatment of the cells with ionomycin, a divalent cation ionophore, induced a moderate cytoplasmic alkalinization. In the presence of amiloride or in Na+-free media, an acidification was observed. This acidification is at least partly due to H+ (equi...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on acute toxic exposure in children, excluding envenomations. SOURCES OF DATA MEDLINE review (emphasis on the past decade), including the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and the European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists position statements and position papers (peer-reviewed information based on scientific evidence and broad co...

Experiments were carried out in vitro with three viscous polysaccharides (guar gum, pectin, and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) of similar initial viscosity submitted to conditions that mimic events occurring in the stomach and duodenum, and their viscosity in these situations was compared to their actions on postprandial hyperglycemia in normal human subjects. Guar gum showed greater viscosity th...

Excitatory synaptic transmission stimulates brain tissue glycolysis. This phenomenon is the signal detected in FDG-PET imaging and, through enhanced lactate production, is also thought to contribute to the fMRI signal. Using a method based on Förster resonance energy transfer in mouse astrocytes, we have recently observed that a small rise in extracellular K(+) can stimulate glycolysis by >300%...