Background: An increased external knee adduction moment has been identified as a factor contributing to the progression of medial knee osteoarthritis. Interventions that reduce knee adduction moment may help prevent knee osteoarthritis onset and progression. While exercise interventions have been commonly used to treat knee osteoarthritis, whether exercises can modulate knee adduction moment in knee osteoarthritis patients remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapsaicin causes a burning or spicy sensation when this vanilloid compound comes in contact with trigeminal neurons of the tongue. This compound has low solubility in water, which presents difficulties in examining the psychophysical properties of capsaicin by standard aqueous chemosensory tests. This report describes a new approach that utilizes edible strips for delivering precise amounts of capsaicin to the human oral cavity for examining threshold and suprathreshold amounts of this irritant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
June 2007
Mice deficient in the G-protein alpha subunit G(i)alpha(2) spontaneously develop colitis and colon cancer. IL-11 is a pleiotropic cytokine known to protect the intestinal epithelium from injury in animal models of colitis and is produced by subepithelial myofibroblasts in response to inflammatory mediators including TGF-beta, IL-1beta, and PGE(2). Arachidonic acid release and subsequent PGE(2) production is significantly decreased in the colonic mucosa of G(i)alpha(2)-/- mice, and we hypothesized that this would affect mucosal IL-11 production.
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