Myogenic tone is an important determinant of vascular tone and blood flow in small resistance arteries of certain vascular beds. The role of the endothelium in myogenic responses is unclear. We hypothesized that endothelium-derived NO release modulates myogenic constriction in small resistance arteries and that mesenteric small arteries from mice with targeted disruption of the gene for endothe...

5-Hydroxytryptamine(1B) (5-HT(1B)) receptors have been implicated in mediating arterial contraction to 5-HT. Additionally, the 5-HT(1B) receptor has been reported to be "unmasked" by depolarizing stimuli. We hypothesized that 5-HT(1B) receptors in arteries from hypertensive animals, arteries reported to have a depolarized resting membrane potential in smooth muscle cells, are unmasked and parti...

Renal vasculatures variations was normally found. Awareness of these variation was useful in many clinical fields procedures. During the routine dissection of posterior abdominal wall of approximately a 67 year old male formaldehyde cadaver. The left kidney present with arterial variation. An accessory renal artery was detected arising from the lateral aspect of the abdominal aorta at level dis...

The study, done on 100 corpses from the dissection rooms of anatomy laboratory, hinted the morphological variability of the colic arteries and their territories. Morphological variability of the colic branches derived from the mesenteric arteries (superior right colic artery -- 98%; middle right colic artery -- 88%; inferior right colic artery -- 100%; middle colic artery - 36%; superior left c...

Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome arises from a reduction in the angle formed between the SMA and the aorta, thereby compressing the third portion of the duodenum. This phenomenon may be caused by a number of factors, one of which being acute weight loss. We report a case of a female patient presenting with abdominal pain and vomiting who developed superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndr...

The epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) have been identified as endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factors. Metabolism of the EETs to the dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids is catalyzed by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). Administration of urea-based sEH inhibitors provides protection from hypertension-induced renal injury at least in part by lowering blood pressure. Here, we investigated the hypothes...

Acute mesenteric ischemia is a life-threatening vascular emergency that requires early diagnosis and intervention to adequately restore mesenteric blood flow and to prevent bowel necrosis and patient death. While, almost always superior and inferior mesenteric arteries are involved, we report a 57-year-old male with an unusual celiac artery trunk thrombosis leading to gastero-duodenal and hepat...

We investigated the effect of atorvastatin on cyclooxygenase (COX) contribution to endothelial dysfunction in spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) mesenteric resistance arteries. Atorvastatin (10 mg/kg per day, oral gavage) or its vehicle was administered for 2 weeks to male SHR or Wistar-Kyoto rats. Endothelial function of mesenteric arteries was assessed by pressurized myograph. In Wistar-Kyo...

The aim of this study was to examine the morphological and functional changes in rabbit mesenteric arterial tissue cultured with fetal bovine serum. In the endothelium-denuded arteries cultured under a serum-free condition for one week (serum-free arteries), morphology of the smooth muscle layer was intact. In the serum-free arteries, high K+ -induced contraction did not change but norepinephri...