Partial agonist, but not pure antiestrogens stimulate doming, a marker of normal differentiation, in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.

Unlabelled: Abstract Background: The mechanisms by which tamoxifen inhibits breast tumor growth are not completely understood. Partial agonist antiestrogens such as tamoxifen may cause the estrogen receptor (ER) to interact with genes different from those activated by ER bound to estradiol. Doming is a property often associated with, and considered a marker of, differentiation in mammary epithelial cells in culture.

External urethral sphincter motor unit recruitment patterns during micturition in the spinally intact and transected adult rat.

In the rat, external urethral sphincter (EUS) activation during micturition consists of three sequential phases: 1) an increase in tonic EUS activity during passive filling and active contraction of the bladder (guarding reflex), 2) synchronized phasic activity (EUS bursting) associated with voiding, and 3) sustained tonic EUS activity that persists after bladder contraction. These phases are perturbed following spinal cord injury. The purpose of the present study was to characterize individual EUS motor unit (MU) patterns during micturition in the spinally intact and transected adult rat.

Quantification of external urethral sphincter and bladder activity during micturition in the intact and spinally transected adult rat.

The goal of this study was to determine the effect of chronic mid-thoracic spinal cord transection on the time course of external urethral sphincter (EUS) and bladder activity associated with micturition events in the rat. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats, either spinally intact or transected (T(9)-T(10)), were anesthetized with urethane and set up for continuous flow urodynamic recording of bladder intravesical pressure (BP) and EUS electromyography (EMG). Spinal transections were performed under isoflurane anesthesia 1-8 weeks prior to the terminal experiment.