Purpose Acupuncture or electroacupuncture (EA) is increasingly being accepted as a viable therapy in the United States and may serve as an alternative treatment to drug therapy in patients with mild to moderate hypertension. We have demonstrated that EA acts through an opioid mechanism in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (rVLM) to inhibit sympathoexcitatory reflexes induced by gastric distenti...

In contrast to supramaximal CCK8 or caerulein, acute or prolonged supraphysiological levels of endogenous cholecystokinin (CCK58) do not cause pancreatitis. Compared to CCK8, CCK58 is a much stronger stimulant of pancreatic chloride and water secretion, equivalent to maximally effective secretin, but with a chloride to bicarbonate ratio characteristic of acinar fluid. Because supraphysiological...

Myenteric plexus neurons derived from neonatal guinea pigs, when exposed to serum, demonstrated a characteristic pattern of growth, including a proliferating outgrowth zone of glial cells, peripheral extension of dendritic processes, and progressive dendritic growth. Serum effects upon dendritic growth, measured morphometrically, was strongly dose- and temporally dependent. Dendritic density wa...

The concentration in pancreatic tissue and the total pancreatic content of three xenobiotic metabolising enzymes has been determined in two models of experimental pancreatic growth namely, cholecystokinin-octapeptide injections and soy flour feeding. No significant change in pancreatic concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase or glucuronyl transferase was detected. In both models of pancrea...