39 The extracellular signal which triggers activation of rho-associated kinase (RhoA/ROCK), the major 40 molecular determinant of basal internal anal sphincter (IAS) smooth muscle tone in humans, is not 41 known. Using human IAS tissues, the presence of the biosynthetic machineries for Ang II, TXA2 and 42 PGF2α were identified. These end products of the renin-angiotensin system (Ang II) and ara...

Distension-evoked reflex of rectorectal (R-R) contractions and rectointernal anal sphincter (R-IAS) relaxations can be generated in guinea pigs through an extrinsic sacral excitatory neural pathway (pelvic nerves) as well as intrinsic cholinergic excitatory and nitrergic inhibitory pathways. The aim of the present study was to create intrinsic R-R and R-IAS reflex models by pithing (destruction...

Because there is a great difference between the toxicity of inorganic arsenic (As) and organic As in food, the JECFA has set a PTWI value for inorganic As (iAs) rather than for total As. The difference in As toxicity makes it necessary to extract iAs completely from food samples for toxicological analysis, but complete extraction of As from most foods including seaweed has not been achieved to ...

Insulin immunization in animal models induces T-helper (Th) 2-like antibody subclass responses to insulin and other beta-cell antigens. The aim of this study was to determine whether exposure to insulin in humans resulted in a similar subclass bias of the humoral immune response. Levels of IgG subclass antibodies to insulin (IAs), GAD, and IA-2 were measured before and after treatment with insu...

Because of its critical importance in rectoanal incontinence, we determined the feasibility to reconstruct internal anal sphincter (IAS) from human IAS smooth muscle cells (SMCs) with functional and molecular attributes similar to the intact sphincter. The reconstructs were developed using SMCs from the circular smooth muscle layer of the human IAS, grown in smooth muscle differentiation media ...

Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is an established transplacental agent known to affect fetal development in animal studies. However, iAs has not been adequately studied in the general population with respect to iAs exposure during pregnancy and its impact on the health status of newborns. The aims of this study were to 1) elucidate the association between arsenic exposure and oxidative/methylated DNA d...

Dmytro Grytskyy, Markus Diesmann, 3 and Moritz Helias 3 Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany Department of Physics, Faculty 1, RWTH...

P. Castillo, Research Nematologist, Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAS-CSIC), Apdo. 4084, 14080-Córdoba, Spain; N. Vovlas, Research Nematologist, Istituto di Nematologia Agraria, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. Amendola 165/a, 70126-Bari, Italy; A. I. Nico, Graduate Student, IAS-CSIC; and R. M. Jiménez-Díaz, Professor, IAS-CSIC a...

The rapid increase in fatty liver disease (FLD) incidence is attributed largely to genetic and lifestyle factors; however, environmental toxicants are a frequently overlooked factor that can modify the effects of more common causes of FLD. Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) is associated with liver disease in humans and animal models, but neither the mechanism of action nor the combina...

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes is characterized by glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. Obesity is the leading cause of type 2 diabetes. Growing evidence suggests that chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) also produces symptoms consistent with diabetes. Thus, iAs exposure may further increase the risk of diabetes in obese individuals. OBJECTIVES Our goal was to characterize diabetog...