Publications by authors named "Megan D Montgomery"

Objective: The use of telemedicine has increased and may enhance the care of children during medical transport. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of synchronous telemedicine connectivity before interfacility transport of critically ill children by a pediatric transport team.

Methods: We performed a prospective, observational feasibility study of the introduction of synchronous telemedicine into an established pediatric transport team from 2019 to 2020.

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Introduction: Alpha-1-adrenergic receptors (α1-ARs) are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) with three highly homologous subtypes (α1A, α1B, and α1D). Of these three subtypes, only the α1A and α1B are expressed in the heart. Multiple pre-clinical models of heart injury demonstrate cardioprotective roles for the α1A.

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Rationale: It is unknown whether every ventricular myocyte expresses all 5 of the cardiac adrenergic receptors (ARs), β1, β2, β3, α1A, and α1B. The β1 and β2 are thought to be the dominant myocyte ARs.

Objective: Quantify the 5 cardiac ARs in individual ventricular myocytes.

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Alpha-1 adrenergic receptors mediate adaptive effects in the heart and cardiac myocytes, and a myocyte survival pathway involving the alpha-1A receptor subtype and ERK activation exists in vitro. However, data in vivo are limited. Here we tested A61603 (N-[5-(4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-2-hydroxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalen-1-yl]methanesulfonamide), a selective imidazoline agonist for the alpha-1A.

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Background: Translation of preclinical findings could benefit from a simple, reproducible, high throughput human model to study myocardial signaling. Alpha-1A-adrenergic receptors (ARs) are expressed at very low levels in the human heart, and it is unknown if they function.

Objectives: To develop a high throughput human myocardial slice culture model, and to test the hypothesis that alpha-1A- ARs are functional in the human heart.

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Rationale: Induction of the fetal hypertrophic marker gene β-myosin heavy chain (β-MyHC) is a signature feature of pressure overload hypertrophy in rodents. β-MyHC is assumed present in all or most enlarged myocytes.

Objective: To quantify the number and size of myocytes expressing endogenous β-MyHC by a flow cytometry approach.

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Alpha-1-adrenergic receptors (α1-ARs) regulate coronary arterial blood flow by binding catecholamines, norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (EPI), causing vasoconstriction when the endothelium is disrupted. Among the three α1-AR subtypes (α1A, α1B, and α1D), the α1D subtype predominates in human epicardial coronary arteries and is functional in human coronary smooth muscle cells (SMCs). However, the presence or function of α1-ARs on human coronary endothelial cells (ECs) is unknown.

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Although major metabolites of some antidepressant drugs are known to be active, their pharmacological effects are poorly characterized. Two of the most selective antidepressants, desipramine (selectively inhibits norepinephrine reuptake) and citalopram (selectively inhibits serotonin reuptake) are frequently used in animal studies of antidepressant action, as well as being useful therapeutically. The primary aim of this study was to determine the affinity of desmethyldesipramine, an active metabolite of desipramine, for the rat norepinephrine and serotonin transporters, as well as for the rat alpha(2)-adrenoceptor.

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