In acute aminoglycoside ototoxicity of the unilateral inner ear, physical abnormalities, such as nystagmus and postural alteration, are relieved within a few days by neural compensation. To examine exploratory behavior over an extended period, behaviors of freely moving mice after unilateral kanamycin injection into the inner ear were recorded in a home cage environment. The tail was excluded from deep learning-mediated object detection because of its delayed movement relative to the body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotilin (MLN) is a peptide hormone originally isolated from the mucosa of the porcine intestine. Its orthologs have been identified in various vertebrates. Although MLN regulates gastrointestinal motility in tetrapods from amphibians to mammals, recent studies indicate that MLN is not involved in the regulation of isolated intestinal motility in zebrafish, at least in vitro.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFacial nerve injuries stem from trauma or tumor surgery, triggering neurodegeneration and neuronal cell death in the facial nucleus, consequently inducing irreversible nerve paralysis. Following facial nerve transection, glial cells are activated and undergo proliferation, facilitating motor neuron survival, repair, and regeneration. Clinical approaches, including nerve anastomosis and hypoglossal nerve grafting, require delicate microscopic techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClose contact between lactating rodent mothers and their infants is essential for effective nursing. Whether the mother's effort to retrieve the infants to their nest requires the vasopressin-signaling via V1b receptor has not been fully defined. To address this question, V1b receptor knockout (V1bKO) and control mice were analyzed in pup retrieval test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: This study aimed to develop a scale to screen for eating disorders in female athletes.
Methods: Preliminary survey: A total of 275 female athletes (mean age: 19.4 ± 1.
Specific receptors for the neurohypophyseal hormones, arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin, are present in the male reproductive organs. However, their exact roles remain unknown. To elucidate the physiological functions of pituitary hormones in male reproduction, this study first focused on the distribution and function of one of the AVP receptors, V1a.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the development of analgesic tolerance to morphine, the V1b vasopressin receptor has been proposed to bind to β-arrestin 2 and the µ-opioid receptor to enable their interaction. However, direct evidence of such a high-order complex is lacking. Using bioluminescent resonance energy transfer between a split Nanoluciferase and the Venus fluorescent protein, the NanoBit-NanoBRET system, we found that β-arrestin 2 closely located near the heteromer µ-V1b receptor in the absence of an agonist and moved closer to the receptor carboxyl-termini upon agonist stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder characterized by high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Because of underdiagnosis, acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is often the first clinical manifestation of FH. In Japan, there are few reports on the prevalence and diagnostic ratios of FH and the proportion of ACS among FH patients in clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe precise mechanisms of the reproductive physiological processes, such as labor initiation, are poorly understood. Oxytocin (OT) is one of the well-known uterotonics and is clinically adopted as a medication to facilitate childbirth. Vasopressin (VP), a posterior pituitary hormone similar to OT, has also been proposed to be involved in the reproductive physiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Antagonists of the V1a vasopressin receptor (V1aR) are emerging as a strategy for slowing progression of CKD. Physiologically, V1aR signaling has been linked with acid-base homeostasis, but more detailed information is needed about renal V1aR distribution and function.
Methods: We used a new anti-V1aR antibody and high-resolution microscopy to investigate Va1R distribution in rodent and human kidneys.
The locus coeruleus (LC) is a brainstem nucleus distinguished by its supply of noradrenaline throughout the central nervous system. Apart from modulating a range of brain functions, such as arousal, cognition and the stress response, LC neuronal excitability also corresponds to the activity of various peripheral systems, such as pelvic viscera and the cardiovascular system. Neurochemically diverse inputs set the tone for LC neuronal activity, which in turn modulates these adaptive physiological and behavioral responses essential for survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic morphine exposure upregulates adenylate cyclase signaling and reduces analgesic efficacy, a condition known as opioid tolerance. Nonopioid neurotransmitters can enhance morphine tolerance, but the mechanism for this is poorly understood. We show that morphine tolerance was delayed in mice lacking vasopressin 1b receptors (V1bRs) or after administration of V1bR antagonist into the rostral ventromedial medulla, where transcripts for V1bRs and μ-opioid receptors are co-localized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Study Aims: Topical peppermint oil prevents intestinal spasm, but can cause rebound spasm. Lidocaine hydrochloride, a local anesthetic, may work as an antispasmodic by blocking Na + channels. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of topical lidocaine on the inhibition of colonic spasm during colonoscopy, compared with peppermint oil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 71-year-old man with metastatic renal cell carcinoma presented with abdominal pain during treatment with axitinib. The diagnoses were axitinib-induced pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) and acute acalculous cholecystitis (AC). The patient's condition improved with antibiotics, bowel rest, and discontinuation of the axitinib therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReducing Na(+) in the extracellular environment may lead to two beneficial effects for increasing agonist binding to cell surface G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs): reduction of Na(+)-mediated binding block and reduce of receptor internalization. However, such combined effects have not been explored. We used Chinese Hamster Ovary cells expressing vasopressin V1b receptors as a model to explore Na(+) sensitivity in agonist binding and receptor internalization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The amount of urinary glycoprotein lipocalin 2 (LCN2) has been known to increase after kidney injury because of failed reabsorption by the proximal tubules or direct secretion from injured tissues. However, the relationship between urinary tract obstruction and the isoform diversity of LCN2 has not been examined.
Methods: The urinary levels of LCN2 isoforms were examined in male mice after an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or in a mouse model of unilateral ureter obstruction (UUO).
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
February 2016
Prostaglandins (PGs) play important roles in diverse physiological processes in the central nervous system. PGD2 is the most abundant PG in the brain and acts through specific receptors, DP1 and CRTH2. We investigated the effects of PGD2 on the morphology of the hypothalamic cell line mHypoE-N37 (N37).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe candidate tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A (Ras-association domain family 1, isoform A) is inactivated in many types of adult and childhood cancers. However, the mechanisms by which RASSF1A exerts tumor suppressive functions have yet to be elucidated. In this report, we sought to identify candidate proteins that interact with RASSF1A using proteomic screening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOnly limited information is available on agonist-dependent changes in the subcellular localization of vasopressin V1B receptors. Our radioligand binding study of membrane preparations and intact cells revealed that a large fraction of the V1B receptor is located in the cytoplasm in unstimulated CHO cells, which is in contrast to the plasma membrane localization of the V1A and V2 receptors. Moreover, when the affinity of radiolabeled arginine-vasopressin ([3H]AVP) was compared between membrane preparations and intact cells, the affinity of [3H]AVP to the cell surface V1B receptors, but not the V1A receptors, was significantly reduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA group of synthetic substance P (SP) antagonists, such as [Arg(6),D-Trp(7,9),N(Me)Phe(8)]-substance P(6-11) and [D-Arg(1),D-Phe(5),D-Trp(7,9),Leu(11)]-substance P, bind to a range of distinct G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family members, including V1a vasopressin receptors, and they competitively inhibit agonist binding. This extended accessibility enabled us to identify a GPCR subset with a partially conserved binding site structure. By combining pharmacological data and amino acid sequence homology matrices, a pharmacological lineage of GPCRs that are sensitive to these two SP antagonists was constructed.
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