Spatiotemporal optical vortices with arbitrary orbital angular momentum orientation by astigmatic mode converters.

We generate a spatiotemporal optical vortex (STOV) with tunable orbital angular momentum (OAM) orientation by a simple lens system. We utilize a cylindrical lens system, which is an astigmatic mode converter, to add longitudinal angular momentum to tilt the purely transverse OAM in an arbitrary direction. The amount of tilt is tunable by adjusting the lens system, and thus the OAM direction is continuously adjustable.

Outcome prediction values of soluble human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 extracellular domain in metastatic breast cancer.

Background: HER-2 overexpression is an independent predictor for poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. Recently, extracellular domain of HER-2 (ECD) was found detectable in the serum of breast cancer patients. In this prospective study, we wonder whether ECD levels predict the clinical outcome of metastatic breast cancer patients.

Role of reverse mode Na+/Ca2+ exchanger in the cardioprotection of metabolic inhibition preconditioning in rat ventricular myocytes.

This study determined the role of the reverse mode Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger (NCX) in cardioprotection of metabolic inhibition preconditioning in isolated ventricular myocyctes. Activity of the reverse mode NCX was assessed by changes of [Ca(2+)](i) upon withdrawal of extracellular Na(+). [Ca(2+)](i) was measured by spectrofluorometry, using Fura-2 as Ca(2+) indicator.

Physiologically tolerable insulin reduces myocardial injury and improves cardiac functional recovery in myocardial ischemic/reperfused dogs.

This study was designed to examine whether physiologically tolerable insulin, which maintains lower blood glucose, can protect the myocardium against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in a preclinical large animal model. Adult dogs were subjected to 50 minutes of myocardial ischemia (80% reduction in coronary blood flow) followed by 4 hours of reperfusion and treated with vehicle, glucose-insulin-potassium (GIK; glucose, 250 g/L; insulin, 60 U/L; potassium, 80 mmol/L), GK, or low-dose insulin (30 U/L) 10 minutes before reperfusion. Treatment with GIK exerted significant cardioprotective effects as evidenced by improved cardiac function, improved coronary blood flow, reduced infarct size, and myocardial apoptosis.

U50,488H depresses pulmonary pressure in rats subjected to chronic hypoxia.

In this study, we determined the effect of U50,488H (a selective kappa-opioid receptor agonist) on pulmonary artery in rats and investigated its prevention and treatment effects on hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH). Isolated pulmonary arterial rings were superfused and the tension of the vessel was measured. The model of HPH was developed and indexes for hemodynamics and right ventricular hypertrophy were measured.

Vasorelaxing effect of U50,488H in pulmonary artery and underlying mechanism in rats.

Aim: To investigate the relaxation effect and underlying mechanism of U50,488H (a selective kappa-opioid receptor agonist) in pulmonary artery in the rat.

Methods: Isolated pulmonary artery ring was perfused and the tension of the vessel was measured.

Results: U50,488H relaxed the pulmonary artery ring in a dose-dependent manner and the effect was abolished by nor-binaltorphimine, a selective kappa-opioid receptor antagonist.

Prevalence of human parvovirus B19 DNA in cardiac tissues of patients with congenital heart diseases indicated by nested PCR and in situ hybridization.

Background: Infection with parvovirus B19 (B19) was reported to be correlated with myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, and kawasaki disease. But no information is available about the relationship between inutero B19 infection and congenital heart disease (CHD).

Objective: To explore whether there is relationship between B19 infection and CHD.

Ca2+ sparks evoked by depolarization of rat ventricular myocytes involve multiple release sites.

Aim: To investigate the fundamental nature of calcium release events (Ca2+ "sparks") evoked in rat ventricular myocytes during excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling.

Methods: High-resolution line-scan confocal imaging with the fluorescent calcium indicator and patch-clamp techniques were used to study the spontaneous Ca2+ sparks and sparks evoked by depolarization.

Results: 1) Line scans oriented along the length of the cell showed that both spontaneous sparks and sparks evoked by depolarization to -35 mV appeared to arise at single sites spacing about 1.

An electrophysiological study on the anti-ventricular arrhythmic effect of adenosine in the guinea pig.

Using whole-cell patch clamp technique this study investigated the effects of adenosine (Ado) on action potential, L-type calcium current (I(Ca.L)), delayed afterdepolarizations (DADs), and transient inward current (I(ti)) induced by isoproterenol (Iso) in guinea pig isolated single ventricular myocytes. The results showed: (1) Ado alone had no significant direct effects on action potential and I(Ca.

[Different effects of acetylcholine on the action potential and force contraction in guinea pig atrial and ventricular myocardium].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the different effects of ACh on the action potential and force contraction in guinea pig atrial and ventricular myocardium by using standard microelectrodes and force transducer. The results showed that the duration of the action potential (APD) of atrial myocardium was shortened from 208.57+/-36.

[Effect of extracellular chloride concentration on deactivation kinetics of rat ClC-1 chloride channel].

The gating mechanism of ClC-1 chloride channel was studied in this paper by heteroexpression of rat wild type ClC-1 gene in Xenopus oocytes and by two-electrode voltage clamping technique. The deactivation gating kinetic parameters were obtained by applying two exponential fitting of the deactivating currents at various extracellular chloride concentrations. It was found that decrease in extracellular chloride concentration increased the fractional amplitude of fast deactivating component, and depressed the fractional amplitude of slow deactivating component accompanied by a decrease in fast and slow deactivating time constants.