Radiological Examination of Postoperative Cervical Alignment and Stability in Patients with Dialysis-Associated Spondylosis Excluding Destructive Spondyloarthropathy: Comparison with Patients with Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy.

Introduction: Several reports have demonstrated the surgical treatment strategy for patients with dialysis-associated spondylosis in the cervical spine (CDAS) with destructive spondyloarthropathy (DSA). However, studies focusing on the clinical outcome of patients with CDAS without DSA remain scarce. We aimed to review the treatment strategy of patients with CDAS but without DSA.

Rac1 regulation of surface expression of protease-activated receptor-1 and responsiveness to thrombin in vascular smooth muscle cells.

Objective: Protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR1) mediates the thrombin-induced proliferation and hypertrophy of vascular smooth muscle cells. A role of Rac1 in the regulation of PAR1 expression was investigated.

Methods And Results: Treatment with simvastatin, a hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor, for 24 hours attenuated the transient [Ca2+]i elevation induced by thrombin.

Physiology and pathophysiology of proteinase-activated receptors (PARs): regulation of the expression of PARs.

The level of receptors expressed on the cell surface determines the cellular responsiveness to agonists. Proteinase-activated receptors (PARs) have been reported to be either up-regulated or down-regulated in response to various types of stimulation and pathological situations. In addition, the transcriptional regulation plays a major role in the alteration of the expression of PARs under pathological conditions, while post-translational mechanisms such as phosphorylation, arresting-binding, internalization, and lysosomal degradation, which desensitize activated PARs and terminate intracellular signaling, also play an important role in regulating the expression of PARs and the cellular responsiveness to the agonists.