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Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) are directly involved in development of ischemic myocardial injury. Adhesion of PMN to endothelial cells is an initial step that triggers a sequential process leading to acute inflammatory responses. Interaction between P-selectin and its oligosaccharide ligand, sialyl Lewis x (sLex), plays an important role in the early stage of the adhesion. To examine the role of P-selectin in various animal disease models especially in rats, we have cloned rat E- and P-selectin cDNAs and established monoclonal antibodies against these rat selectins. In this report, we describe the generation and characterization of anti-rat P-selectin antibodies (ARPs). These antibodies detect cell surface P-selectin on thrombin-stimulated rat platelets. More importantly, intravenous administration of ARP2-4 reduced infarction developed after 30 min of ischemia followed by 24 h of reperfusion in a rat myocardial injury model. In addition, similar protective effect was also observed by administration of a sLex-oligosaccharide. These results indicate that cell adhesion mediated via P-selectin is involved in the development of ischemia and reperfusion injury in rat heart.

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The theory of inflation will be investigated as well as supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the nonperturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. We found an inflationary trajectory of a dilaton field and a condensate field which breaks supersymmetry at once. The model satisfies the slow-roll condition which solves the η-problem. When the particle rolls down along the minimized trajectory of the potential V (S, Y ) at a duality invariant point of T = 1, we can obtain the e-fold value ∼ 57. And then the cosmological parameters obtained from our model well match the recent WMAP data combined with other experiments. This observation suggests one to consider the string-inspired supergravity as a fundamental theory of the evolution of the universe as well as the particle theory.

Thiazoline-related innate fear-eliciting compounds (tFOs) orchestrate hypothermia, hypometabolism, and anti-hypoxia, which enable survival in lethal hypoxic conditions. Here, we show that most of these effects are severely attenuated in transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (Trpa1) knockout mice. TFO-induced hypothermia involves the Trpa1-mediated trigeminal/vagal pathways and non-Trpa1 olfactory pathway. TFOs activate Trpa1-positive sensory pathways projecting from trigeminal and vagal ganglia to the spinal trigeminal nucleus (Sp5) and nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), and their artificial activation induces hypothermia. TFO presentation activates the NTS-Parabrachial nucleus pathway to induce hypothermia and hypometabolism; this activation was suppressed in Trpa1 knockout mice. TRPA1 activation is insufficient to trigger tFO-mediated anti-hypoxic effects; Sp5/NTS activation is also necessary. Accordingly, we find a novel molecule that enables mice to survive in a lethal hypoxic condition ten times longer than known tFOs. Combinations of appropriate tFOs and TRPA1 command intrinsic physiological responses relevant to survival fate.