Cigarette smoking is an environmental risk factor associated with a variety of pathologies including cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and cancer development. Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic inflammatory bladder disease with multiple etiological contributors and risk factors associated with its development, including cigarette smoking. Previously, we determ...

1. Platelet-activating factor (PAF), an inflammatory mediator, plays an important role in mediating intestinal injury. However, it remains unclear whether PAF has a function in the intestine. The production of PAF by normal intestine and by unstimulated intestinal epithelial cell lines suggests that PAF may have a regulatory function in the normal bowel. 2. In this study we investigated the rol...

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) acetylhydrolase has been recognized as an enzyme that inactivates PAF. We developed a convenient and reproducible method for determining human serum PAF acetylhydrolase activity. The assay was based on measurement of [14C]acetate produced from 1-O-alkyl-2-[14C]-acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine upon precipitation of the complex of radioactive substrate and albu...

In this study, we demonstrate the presence of a transacetylase activity in human plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that transfers short-chain fatty acids from platelet-activating factor (PAF) and its close ether- and ester-linked analogues to ether/ester-linked lysophospholipids (lyso-PL). We show evidence that both PAF acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) and transacetylase activities are inhibited to ...

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a critical mediator of severe inflammatory diseases such as pneumonia, and the PAF-receptor (PAFR) is known to be an anchor for Streptococcus pneumoniae attachment to lung epithelial cells. We conducted a DNA microarray analysis to detect critical factors that mediate fulminant pneumonia due to influenza virus and S. pneumoniae co-infection in mice. Among the...

Cardiovascular and respiratory responses to a 2 h intravenous constant infusion of PAF (5 and 10 ng/kg per min) were studied in strain 13 guinea pigs. PAF decreased arterial blood pressure, left systolic ventricular pressure, and cardiac output (CO). These cardiovascular changes were dose-dependent. The PAF-induced hypotension returned to a pre-infusion level spontaneously with increased total ...

The effects of inhaled PAF on the guinea pig nasal mucosa were investigated. Intranasal pressure (INP) was recorded as an index of intranasal resistance. To access the capillary premeability of nasal mucosa, exudation of Evans blue into the nasal lavage fluid was determined. Inhalations of histamine and PAF markedly and significantly increased INP and dye exudation into the nasal cavities. The ...

During development, Dictyostelium discoideum cells produce platelet activating factor (PAF). When cells are stimulated with external cAMP pulses, PAF is transiently synthesized. To determine whether PAF is involved in signal transduction, we have tested the effect of PAF on some cellular responses which are regulated by cAMP, such as spontaneous light-scattering oscillations of suspended cells,...

BACKGROUND Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is one of the most potent biological mediators of tissue injury. PAF acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) is a recently isolated naturally occurring enzyme that hydrolyzes PAF and renders it inactive. We hypothesize that inhibition of PAF with PAF-AH will reduce myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in vivo. METHODS AND RESULTS The coronary ligation mode...

Since we have previously shown a direct inhibitory effect of platelet-activating factor (PAF) on Cl reabsorption in the medullary thick ascending limb of Henle's loop (TAL), the aim of this study was to extend this effect to the whole TAL and to further investigate the signaling pathway involved. In microperfused cortical TALs, PAF significantly decreased Cl reabsorption by 50.3±6.5%. On the on...