Recombinant activated factor VII attenuates major arterial bleeding in noncoagulopathic rabbits.

Background And Objective: Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa), which is used off-label as an adjuvant therapy for uncontrolled and life-threatening bleeding, might also attenuate intractable bleeding related to macrovascular arterial lesions. Here we evaluated the efficacy of rFVIIa in sealing a large arterial wound in haemostatically competent rabbits.

Methods: Sixty male New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into vehicle control and 80 and 200 μg kg⁻¹ rFVIIa groups (n = 20 animals each).

Comparison of the metabolic and ventilatory response to hypoxia and H2S in unsedated mice and rats.

Hypoxia alters the control of breathing and metabolism by increasing ventilation through the arterial chemoreflex, an effect which, in small-sized animals, is offset by a centrally mediated reduction in metabolism and respiration. We tested the hypothesis that hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) is involved in transducing these effects in mammals. The rationale for this hypothesis is twofold.

Lipolysis stimulated lipoprotein receptor: a novel molecular link between hyperlipidemia, weight gain, and atherosclerosis in mice.

The lipolysis-stimulated lipoprotein receptor, LSR, is a multimeric protein complex in the liver that undergoes conformational changes upon binding of free fatty acids, thereby revealing a binding site (s) that recognizes both apoB and apoE. Complete inactivation of the LSR gene is embryonic lethal in mice. Here we show that removal of a single LSR allele (LSR(-/+)) caused statistically significant increases in both plasma triglyceride and cholesterol levels, a 2-fold increase in plasma triglyceride changes during the post-prandial phase, and delayed clearance of lipid emulsions or a high fat meal.

H2S induced hypometabolism in mice is missing in sedated sheep.

On the basis of studies performed in mice that showed H(2)S inhalation decreasing dramatically the metabolic rate, H(2)S was proposed as a means of protecting vital organs from traumatic or ischemic episodes in humans. Hypoxia has in fact also long been shown to induce hypometabolism. However, this effect is observed solely in small-sized animals with high VO2 kg(-1), and not in large mammals.

Benzo[a]pyrene impairs beta-adrenergic stimulation of adipose tissue lipolysis and causes weight gain in mice. A novel molecular mechanism of toxicity for a common food pollutant.

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a common food pollutant that causes DNA adduct formation and is carcinogenic. The report of a positive correlation between human plasma B[a]P levels and body mass index, together with B[a]P's lipophilicity, led us to test for possible adverse effects of B[a]P on adipose tissue. In ex vivo experiments using primary murine adipocytes, B[a]P rapidly (within minutes) and directly inhibited epinephrine-induced lipolysis (up to 75%) in a dose-dependent manner.