Decreased aortic contractile reaction to 5-hydroxytryptamine in rats with long-term hypertension induced by lead (Pb(2+)) exposure.

Male Wistar rats were exposed to 100ppm Pb(2+) in drinking water for 10 months. Tail blood pressure, serum 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), the expression of 5-HT(2B) receptor in the aorta, the aortic response to 5-HT, and the pathologic changes of aorta were examined. The systolic blood pressure of Pb(2+) exposed group was significantly increased after 2 months of Pb(2+) exposure.

Inhibition of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 reduces complex coronary atherosclerotic plaque development.

Increased lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) (Lp-PLA(2)) activity is associated with increased risk of cardiac events, but it is not known whether Lp-PLA(2) is a causative agent. Here we show that selective inhibition of Lp-PLA(2) with darapladib reduced development of advanced coronary atherosclerosis in diabetic and hypercholesterolemic swine. Darapladib markedly inhibited plasma and lesion Lp-PLA(2) activity and reduced lesion lysophosphatidylcholine content.

Direct effects of lead (Pb2+) on the relaxation of in vitro cultured rat aorta to acetylcholine.

Lead (Pb(2+)) exposure is related to increased blood pressure or hypertension of human or animals. Abnormal vascular relaxant responses of low level Pb(2+) exposed animals were reported by several studies. However, it is difficult to tell whether these effects were induced directly by Pb(2+) or not.

Influence of lead (Pb2+) on the reactions of in vitro cultured rat aorta to 5-hydroxytryptamine.

Although several studies demonstrated that lead induced abnormal vascular responses in low level lead exposed animals, investigations of the direct effects of lead on blood vessels are limited. In this study we tested the hypothesis that lead was able to directly affect the contractile reactivities of vessels. Male Wistar rat aortae were removed and cultured in PMRI 1640 with 1 ppm lead acetate for 0.

Discriminating the xanthones in an extract of Swertia franchetiana by retention parameters.

The quantitative structure--retention relationship is one of the most actively studied topics in the field of chromatography. In this paper, retention parameters of components were used to discriminate the xanthones in a methanol extract of Swertia franchetiana The extract was analysed by HPLC under two different multistage linear gradient conditions and the retention parameters calculated from these retention data. It was found that the retention parameters of xanthones are in a specific region in the plot of log k(w) vs.