BACKGROUND Endothelin (ET)-1 contributes to raising blood pressure (BP) and inducing cardiovascular disease by vasoconstriction and potent stimulation of aldosterone secretion. In the rat this latter effect occurs via ET(B) receptors; in humans in vitro studies implicated both ET(A) and ET(B) receptors, but there is no conclusive evidence in vivo. METHODS We recruited 13 consenting hypertensi...

Background: Vegetation (food stuff) is grown in soil that contains many radioactive elements such as 238U (uranium), 232Th (thorium) and 40K (potassium), which may get deposited either due to radioactive fallout or/and by absorption from the soil and can pose serious health hazards. Materials and Methods: Natural radioactivity, radiological hazards and annual effective dose assessment was carri...

The aim of our study was to investigate mechanism of action of endothelins 1, 2 and 3 on spontaneous activity, tone and intraluminal pressure of human ureter. Both longitudinal tension and intraluminal pressure were recorded from the isolated segments of proximal human ureter. Endothelins 1, 2 and 3 (5.35x10(-11) M - 5.05x10(-8) M) produced concentration-dependent tonic contraction and sustaine...

The activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides namely 238Ra, 232Th and 40K are measured for soil samples collected from different locations of Faridkot and Mansa districts of Punjab. HPGe detector, based on high-resolution gamma spectrometry system is used for the measurement of activity concentration. The range of activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil from the s...

The effect of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition and endothelin-A (ETA)-receptor blockade on neural sympathetic control of vascular tone in the gastrocnemius muscle was examined in anesthetized dogs under conditions of constant flow. Muscle perfusion pressure (MPP) was measured before and after NOS inhibition (Nomega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester; L-NAME) and ETA-receptor blockade [cyclo-(D...

A direct Pd-catalyzed C-H functionalization of benzoquinone (BQ) can be controlled to give either mono- or disubstituted BQ, including the installation of two different groups in a one-pot procedure. BQ can now be directly functionalized with aryl, heteroaryl, cycloalkyl, and cycloalkene groups and, moreover, the reaction is conducted in environmentally benign water or acetone as solvents.

Evidence suggests that urinary excretion of endothelin-1 (ET-1) reflects renal ET-1 production and is independent of systemic ET-1 activity. The influence of ET receptors on urinary ET-1 excretion has not been studied in humans, yet peritubular ETB receptors are abundant within the kidney. We have studied the effects of acute ETA and ETB receptor blockade with BQ-123 and BQ-788, respectively, o...

In vivo studies could not detect a positive inotropy of endothelin (ET)-1 as described in in vitro experiments. ET-induced direct positive inotropy, which seems to be mediated by ETB receptors, may be antagonized in vivo by an indirect cardiodepressive effect owing to an ET-induced coronary vasoconstriction via ETA receptors. This study compares the effects of a dose of 1 nmol/kg ET-1 alone on ...