RATIONALE The incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease of newborns, is paradoxically rising despite medical advances. We demonstrated elevated bombesin-like peptide levels in infants that later developed BPD. In the 140-day hyperoxic baboon model of BPD, anti-bombesin antibody 2A11 abrogated lung injury. OBJECTIVES To test the hypothesis that bombesin-like peptide...

Intrathecal administration of the neurotoxin bombesin-saporin reduces or abolishes pruritogen-evoked scratching behavior. We investigated whether spinal neurons that respond to intradermal (ID) injection of pruritogens also respond to spinal superfusion of bombesin and vice versa. Single-unit recordings were made from superficial lumbar spinal dorsal horn neurons in anesthetized mice. We identi...

The effect of bombesin on external pancreatic secretion was studied in seven healthy volunteers and intwo patients with a two-thirds gastrectomy and a pancreatic fistula. After bombesin infusion (15 ng/kg/min), gastrin levels were significantly raised in all volunteers, but remained at basal levels in the gastrectomized patients. Bombesin was effective in stimulating pancreatic secretion in all...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aortic depressor nerve (ADN) transection, supranodosal vagi denervation (NG vagi cut) and adrenergic receptor blocker treatment on the cardiovascular responses evoked by systemic injection of bombesin. The cardiovascular effects were studied in spontaneously breathing rats that were (i) bilaterally, midcervically vagotomized (MC vag...

Recently, it was reported that bombesin/gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) have mitogenic effects on some human breast cancer cell lines. In this study, we investigated the effects of bombesin/GRP and its receptor antagonist (RC-3095) on the proliferation of three breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 MIII, and MCF-7. Stimulation by bombesin and inhibition by RC-3095 of cell growth were foun...

Bombesin is shown to be a potent mitogen for Swiss 3T3 cells. At nanomolar concentrations the peptide markedly enhances the ability of fresh serum to stimulate DNA synthesis in confluent and quiescent cultures of these cells. In the presence of a low concentration (3.5%) of serum, bombesin stimulates 3T3 cell proliferation. In serum-free medium, bombesin induces DNA synthesis in the absence of ...

We detected low level expression of the gastrin-releasing peptide and neuromedin-B receptor mRNAs in cultures of human bronchial epithelium from 4 of 6 individuals. Bombesin receptor subtype-3 mRNA was undetectable in these cells. An elevation of intracellular calcium concentration was observed in response to bradykinin (6 of 6) and neurotensin (1 of 5) but not to bombesin (0 of 6), vasopressin...

on cyclic AMP levels in the presence of 5 mM theophylline. By contrast, caerulein and secretin increased cyclic AMP levels by 27 and 208%, respectively. Bombesin, bombesin-NP, and litorin did not activate adenylate cyclase in a purified pancreatic plasma membrane preparation, whereas caerulein and secretin increased this activity 20 and 16-times, respectively. Calcium efflux was estimated in is...

The gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds, especially stomach and upper small intestine, contains bombesin-like peptides. This has been unequivocally demonstrated by radioimmunoassay and bioassay. Concentrations of bombesin-like activity may range from a few ng to 500-600 ng per g fresh tissue. Last values refer to the chicken proventriculus, which has been the object of a more thorough i...

To examine the biochemical basis for growth factor-induced responses in human lung cancer cells, we used the quin2 technique to study the effect of the amphibian peptide bombesin and its congeners including mammalian gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) on the intracellular free calcium level [Ca2+]i in small cell lung cancer cell lines. In five of eleven cell lines tested, Tyr4-bombesin or GRP elic...