Fecal Polyomavirus Excretion in Infancy.

Qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to determine the prevalence of fecal excretion of BK virus, JC virus, and simian virus 40 in 1-year-old infants. Overall, 17.8% of 321 specimens from 64.

Changes in GABAergic inputs in the paraventricular nucleus maintain sympathetic vasomotor tone in chronic heart failure.

The paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus is an important region of the brain involved in the regulation of sympathetic vasomotor tone. Accumulating evidence supports the idea that a change in hypothalamic γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic inhibitory and glutamatergic excitatory inputs contribute to the exacerbated sympathetic drive in chronic heart failure (HF). The purpose of this study was to determine whether a possible imbalance between glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs to the PVN contributes to increased sympathetic outflow in HF in two different sympathetic territories.

Cardioprotective effect of ornitho-kinin in an anesthetized, open-chest chicken model of acute coronary occlusion.

The generation of bradykinin (BK; Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Arg) in blood and kallidin (Lys-BK) in tissues by the action of the kallikrein-kinin system has received little attention in non-mammalian vertebrates. In mammals, kallidin can be generated by the coronary endothelium and myocytes in response to ischemia, mediating cardioprotective events. The plasma of birds lacks two key components of the kallikrein-kinin system: the low molecular weight kininogen and a prekallikrein activator analogous to mammalian factor XII, but treatment with bovine plasma kallikrein generates ornitho-kinin [Thr6,Leu8]-BK.