Ezetimibe restored the acetylcholine-induced increase in [Ca2+](i) in endothelial cells and improved endothelium-dependent NO-mediated relaxation in the vein graft. Our results suggest that ezetimibe enhances the function of endothelial NO through an increase in endothelial [Ca2+](i), thus reducing vein graft intimal hyperplasia. (J Vasc Surg 2012;56:1689-97.)”
“Combinatorial libraries offer an attractive approach towards exploring protein sequence structure and function Although several strategies introduce sequence diversity the likelihood of identifying proteins
with novel functions is increased when the library of genes encodes for folded and soluble structures Here we present the first application of the binary patterning approach of combinatorial protein library design to the unique central linker region of the highly-conserved protein calmodulin (CaM) We show that this high quality GSK2879552 clinical trial approach translates very well to the CaM protein scaffold All library members over-express and are functionally diverse having a range of conformations in the presence and absence of calcium as determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy Collectively these data support that the binary patterning approach when applied to the highly-conserved
protein fold can yield large Z-VAD-FMK order collections of folded soluble and highly-expressible proteins (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved”
“Objective: Extracellular matrix dysregulation in the aortic media has been considered as the intrinsic factor for the formation of Selleck Erlotinib thoracic aortic dissection. However, the mechanisms of extracellular matrix disorders in the dissected aortic media remain unclear. This study was designed to investigate the relevance between smooth muscle cell phenotypes and extracellular matrix disorders in the dissected media.
Their interaction may account for the pathogenesis of thoracic aortic dissection.
Methods and Results: Thoracic aortic samples were collected from 10 patients with thoracic aortic dissection and 10 controls. Primary cultures of aortic medial smooth muscle cells were obtained with optimized explant technique. In this study, alpha-smooth muscle actin, smooth muscle myosin heavy chain 2, and smoothelin were applied as the contractile phenotypic markers and osteopontin was applied as the synthetic marker. Compared with controls, immunostaining and immunoblotting demonstrated that in vivo expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin, smooth muscle myosin heavy chain 2, and smoothelin were significantly decreased in the dissected media, whereas that of osteopontin was elevated (P < .01 for all). In vitro expression of the phenotypic markers showed the similar patterns. Furthermore, smooth muscle cells derived from the dissected media exhibited enhanced proliferation (P < .01), increased collagens I and III synthesis (2.6- and 4.4-fold, respectively; P < .