Smooth muscle specific Rac1 deficiency induces hypertension by preventing p116RIP3-dependent RhoA inhibition.

Background: Increasing evidence implicates overactivation of RhoA as a critical component of the pathogenesis of hypertension. Although a substantial body of work has established that Rac1 functions antagonize RhoA in a broad range of physiological processes, the role of Rac1 in the regulation of vascular tone and blood pressure is not fully elucidated.

Methods And Results: To define the role of Rac1 in vivo in vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMC), we generated smooth muscle (SM)-specific Rac1 knockout mice (SM-Rac1-KO) and performed radiotelemetric blood pressure recordings, contraction measurements in arterial rings, vSMC cultures and biochemical analyses.

Identification of large families in early repolarization syndrome.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify families affected by early repolarization syndrome (ERS) and to determine the mode of transmission of the disease.

Background: Early repolarization (ER) has recently been linked to idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. Familial inheritance of the disease has been suggested but not demonstrated.

Development of the serotonergic cells in murine raphe nuclei and their relations with rhombomeric domains.

The raphe nuclei represent the origin of central serotonergic projections. The literature distinguishes seven nuclei grouped into rostral and caudal clusters relative to the pons. The boundaries of these nuclei have not been defined precisely enough, particularly with regard to developmental units, notably hindbrain rhombomeres.

Early pretectal gene expression pattern shows a conserved anteroposterior tripartition in mouse and chicken.

A changing network of gene activity settles the molecular basis of regionalization in the nervous system. As a consequence, analysis of combined gene expressions patterns represents a powerful initial approach to decode the complex process that drives neurohistogenesis and generates distinct morphological features. We have started to do a comparative screening of molecular regionalization in the mouse and chicken pretectal region at selected developmental stages.