Vascular smooth muscle reactivity in normotensive and hypertensive rats

Aortic strips from spontaneously hypertensive rats were less responsive than normal animals to the contractile effects of norepinephrine, serotonin, and potassium chloride but more reactive to the relaxant effects of the stimulant of beta receptors, isoproterenol. Thus, hypertension is not the result of an absence of beta receptor or a hypersensitivity of the vascular smooth muscle.     

Strophanthidin-sensitive transport of cesium and sodium in muscle cells

Uptake of cesium-134 ions into muscle cells is reduced to very low values by the presence of 10(-5)M strophanthidin in the Ringer solution. Cesium ions can induce extrusion of sodium from muscle cells in which the intracellular sodium content is elevated. The cesium-induced extra efflux of sodium-22 is inhibited by the external presence of 10(-5)M strophanthidin. The coupling between inward movement of cesium and outward movement of sodium appears to be chemical in nature. The evidence suggests that cesium ions are transported into muscle cells by a system of sites or carriers that requires a source of metabolic energy for ion turnover to occur.     

Cooperative critical thermal transition of potassium accumulation in smooth muscle

The steady-state levels of potassium and sodium of taenia coli of guinea are critically affected by varying temperature in the narrow range 12 degrees to degrees C. For the accumulation of both cations the critical temperature, T(c), is 13.8 degrees C the presence of millimolar external potassium. The value of T(c), decreases 10.0 degrees C when the external potassium is raised to 10 millimolar. Since, at a fixed Temperature, the potassium accumulation follows a cooperative mechanism, the results are compared with the quantitative predictions of this approach. The itical thermal transition behavior can be described in terms of the cooperative cumulation process.     

Cooperative control of potassium accumulation by ouabain in vascular smooth muscle

The effects of ouabain on potassium accumulation were studied in the dog carotid artery. It was confirmed that vascular smooth muscle lost potassium in the presence of ouabain greater than 10(-9) molar. This effect could be reversed by systematically increasing potassium in the external medium. The action of ouabain on ion accumulation was represented quantitatively with the application of a recent biophysical approach.     

Penicillin: effect on sodium and potassium transport in bacterial and protoplast forms of Sterptococcus faecalis

Streptococcus faecalis, incubated in osmotically stabiliz medium in the presence of 1000 units of penicillin per milliliter, accumulated rather than extruded sodium; they accumulated much less potassium than control cells did. These changes were not due to binding of sodium by cell-wall fragments of cells treated with penicillin. Because penicillin had no effect on cation concentrations in stable protoplasts and nongrowing bacterial cells, this effect appeared to be related to the production of the penicillin-induced lesions of the cell wall.     

Cooperative thermal effects on the accumulation of potassium and sodium in frog muscle

Sodium-rich frog muscles are found to extrude sodium and reaccumulate potassium at 0 degrees C. The uptake of potassium by these muscles is studied at three different temperatures as a function of external potassium concentration, K(ex). The steady-state potassium content of the tissue is related to K(ex). by a sigmoidal cooperative curve at all temperatures. These results are compared with findings on a mammalian smooth muscle.     

Arachidonic acid and other fatty acids directly activate potassium channels in smooth muscle cells

Arachidonic acid, as well as fatty acids that are not substrates for cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase enzymes, activated a specific type of potassium channel in freshly dissociated smooth muscle cells. Activation occurred in excised membrane patches in the absence of calcium and all nucleotides. Therefore signal transduction pathways that require such soluble factors, including the NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 pathway, do not mediate the response. Thus, fatty acids directly activate potassium channels and so may constitute a class of signal molecules that regulate ion channels.     

Effects of lairage after transport on post mortem muscle glycolysis,protein phosphorylation and lamb meat quality

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of lairage after transport on post mortem muscle glycolysis, protein phosphorylation and lamb meat quality. Two preslaughter animal treatments, transport for 3 h and lairage for 0 h (T3L0) and transport for 3 h and then lairage for 12 h (T3L12), were compared with a control treatment of 0 h transport and 0 h lairage. Data obtained showed that preslaughter transport had a significant effect on lamb meat quality. Loins from lambs of the T3L0 treatment showed higher (P=0.026) pH_{24 h} and higher (P=0.021) pH_{48 h} values, but lower (P<0.001) drip loss and lower (P<0.05) glycolytic potential at 0 h post mortem than those of the T3L12 and control groups. Muscle samples of the T3L0 group showed higher (P=0.046) shear force and lower (P=0.005) b* value than those of the T3L12 group. Muscle glycogen concentration at 0, 2, 4 h post mortem were lower (P<0.05) in the T3L0 group than in control. No significant difference (P>0.05) in most meat quality parameters was determined between the T3L12 group and control, showing lairage for 12 h allowed lambs to recover from the effects of transport for 3 h and resulted in similar meat quality characteristics compared to no transport. Lairage after transport did not affect most meat quality indices in comparison with control, but increased the meat drip loss and b* value of lambs possibly through decreasing glycogen concentration and glycolytic potential.     

Contraction of granulation tissue in vitro: similarity to smooth muscle

Strips of granulation tissue from three different experimental models contract in vitro when treated with substances that induce contraction of smooth muscle. Because the fibroblasts in such tissues have some ultrastructural features typical of smooth muscle, our findings indicate that fibroblasts are able to modulate toward a cell type that is morphologically and functionally close to smooth muscle.     

Crayfish muscle: permeability to sodium induced by calcium depletion

Membrane of crayfish muscle fibers becomes selectively permeable to sodium when the calcium concentration of the bathing medium is reduced. Removal of calcium or its reduction below 1 or 2 millimole per liter causes large transient depolarizations up to 70 millivolts in amplitude. They resemble pro longed action potentials and occur only in the presence of sodium. The responses are abolished when tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane or lithium is substituted for sodium, and are blocked by tetrodotoxin even in the presence of sodium.     

Vascular smooth muscle: quantitation of cell thickness in the wall of arterioles in the living animal in situ

The wall of microarterial vessels, in the living animal in situ, was examined at magnification up to x 6500 on the television screen. The optical resolution af the cell components of the wall was sufficiently clear to permit image formation and splitting for permanent recording and quantitation. Thickness of single smooth muscle cells at rest was estimated to be 2.08 microns (S.D. +/- 0.24 micron) and 2.78 microns (S.D. +/- 0.59 micron) by two different approaches. Changes in cell thickness during activity were also recorded and quantitated.     

Intestinal calcium transport: the role of sodium

The role of sodium in intestinal calcium transport was investigated in everted rat intestine. Ethacrynic acid, but not ouabain, inhibited calcium transport. However, ouabain did inhibit net water transport and, therefore, sodium transport, establishing the dissociation of the two transport processes. In addition to a magnesium-dependent adenosine triphosphatase (activated by sodium and potassium), a phosphatase dependent on sodium and calcium was localized to the lateral and basal membrane fractions of the mucosal cell. Activity of the latter phosphatase, similar to calcium transport in intact tissue, was inhibited by ethacrynic acid and not by ouabain. Sodium, therefore, may participate in the calcium transport process by activating an enzyme complex, dependent on adenosine triphosphate, that mediates calcium transport.     

Large volcanic aerosol load in the stratosphere linked to Asian monsoon transport

The Nabro stratovolcano in Eritrea, northeastern Africa, erupted on 13 June 2011, injecting approximately 1.3 teragrams of sulfur dioxide (SO(2)) to altitudes of 9 to 14 kilometers in the upper troposphere, which resulted in a large aerosol enhancement in the stratosphere. The SO(2) was lofted into the lower stratosphere by deep convection and the circulation associated with the Asian summer monsoon while gradually converting to sulfate aerosol. This demonstrates that to affect climate, volcanic eruptions need not be strong enough to inject sulfur directly to the stratosphere.     

Cochlear function and sodium and potassium activated adenosine triphosphatase

The maintenance of the cation gradients between endolymph and perilymph in the cochlea requires the operation of a cation pump. An adenosine triphosphatase system activated by sodium and potassium is present in high activity in the cochlear membranes (tegmentum vasculosum and stria vascularis). The cochlear microphonic potential is inhibited by perilymphatic perfusion of ouabain and erythrophleine. Since the microphonic potential depends on the high concentration of potassium ions in the endolymph, our findings strongly suggest the operation of an adenosine triphosphatase cation pump system activated by sodium and potassium, in the generation of cochlear cation gradients.     

Soot carbon and excess fine potassium: long-range transport of combustion-derived aerosols

During a cruise from Hamburg to Montevideo, aerosol samples representing air masses from Europe, the Sahara, tropical Africa, South America, and open oceanic regions were collected. They showed significant amounts of soot carbon over large areas of the remote Atlantic, often similar to concentrations in rural continental areas. Back-trajectories and the ratios of soot carbon to total fine (less than 1.7 micrometers in diameter) carbon and of excess fine potassium (the portion not attributable to soil dust or sea salt) to soot carbon indicate that biomass burning in tropical regions is an important source of soot carbon to the world atmosphere. The ratio of excess potassium to soot carbon in the fine fraction of aerosols is proposed as an indicator of the relative contributions of biomass and fossil-fuel burning to soot carbon aerosols. The ratio of soot carbon to fine carbon suggests that most of the particulate organic carbon over the Atlantic is of continental origin.     

Concentration oscillations and efficiency: glycolysis

The oscillations observed in glycolysis are analyzed from the point of view of efficiency of free energy conversion. It is suggested that the mechanisms generating these oscillations may have evolved in order to reduce the dissipation of free energy.     

NaCl胁迫对苹果砧木K+和Na+吸收的影响及其与耐盐性的关系

试验以生根试管苗为材料,采用水培的方法,研究了小金海棠和M7两种苹果砧木在NaCl胁迫下的形态特征、叶片和根系中Na+和K+含量、叶面积扩展速率以及株高增长率的变化规律.试验结果表明小金海棠在各盐浓度下伤害程度均小于M7;两种砧木在盐胁迫下叶片和根系中Na+均随盐浓度的升高而迅速增加,但叶片中Na+增加幅度明显小于根系中的增加幅度,而K+含量变化则不明显.水培条件下表现耐盐性较强的小金海棠叶片中Na+增加幅度明显小于M7,而RSNa,K值显著高于M7.2种苹果砧木在盐胁迫下株高增长率和叶面积扩展率均随盐胁迫强度的增加而下降,但各盐浓度下小金海棠受抑程度均小于M7.