Serotonin (5-HT) has been established as a regulator of ciliary beating in numerous systems. In early embryos of Helisoma trivolvis, a cilia-driven rotational movement is modulated by the release of endogenous serotonin from a pair of embryonic neurons, ENC1s, directly onto the ciliated epithelium. The present study was undertaken to examine the signal transduction mechanisms underlying seroton...

The major antimalarial drug quinine perturbs uptake of the essential amino acid tryptophan, and patients with low plasma tryptophan are predisposed to adverse quinine reactions; symptoms of which are similar to indications of tryptophan depletion. As tryptophan is a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT), here we test the hypothesis that quinine disrupts serotonin function. Quinine ...

Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and serotonin are both involved in food intake regulation. GLP-1 release is stimulated upon nutrient interaction with G-protein coupled receptors by enteroendocrine cells (EEC), whereas serotonin is released from enterochromaffin cells (ECC). The central hypothesis for the current study was that nutrient-induced GLP-1 release from EECs is modulated by serotonin t...

The serotonin 1A receptor is an important member of the G-protein coupled receptor family, and is involved in a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and developmental functions. None of the subtypes of G-protein coupled serotonin receptors have yet been purified to homogeneity from natural sources. We report here, for the first time, the solubilization of human serotonin(1A) receptors stably expre...

BACKGROUND Carcinoid tumors are associated with the carcinoid syndrome, a set of symptoms resulting from the peptide and amine products, including serotonin, secreted from the cancer cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) inhibitor PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten) a...

fluoxetine is a common antidepressant which selectively inhibits serotonin reuptake at synaptic level. some research findings have proposed the effect this drug on neurogenesis, neuronal survival as well as proliferation of the neural progenitor cells. endometrium is a part of uterus which harbors mesenchymal stem cells. this source of stem cells can be differentiated into neural cells which ma...

BACKGROUND Mucociliary clearance in the airways is driven by the coordinated beating of ciliated cells. Classical neuromediators such as noradrenalin and acetylcholine increase ciliary beat frequency and thus cilia-driven transport. Despite the fact that the neuromediator serotonin is ciliostimulatory in invertebrates and has been implied in releasing acetylcholine from the airway epithelium, i...

Serotonin is thought to contribute to the syncopal-like response that develops during severe blood loss by inhibiting presympathetic neurons of the rostroventrolateral medulla (RVLM). Here, we tested whether serotonin cells activated during hypotensive hemorrhage, i.e., express the protein product of the immediate early gene c-Fos, are critical for the normal sympathetic response to blood loss ...

Of the multiple neurotransmitters and neuropeptides expressed in the mammalian taste bud, serotonin remains both the most studied and least understood. Serotonin is expressed in a subset of taste receptor cells that form synapses with afferent nerve fibers (type III cells) and was once thought to be essential to neurotransmission (now understood as purinergic). However, the discovery of the 5-H...

The gastrointestinal tract is subdivided into regions with different roles in digestion and absorption. How this patterning is established is unknown. We now report that the pancreatic-duodenal homeobox 1 gene (pdx1) is also expressed in cells of the distal stomach. Positive cells include subpopulations of the three main endocrine (gastrin, somatostatin and serotonin) cell types of this region....