The smooth muscle pharmacology of maximakinin, a receptor-selective, bradykinin-related nonadecapeptide from the venom of the Chinese toad, Bombina maxima.

Structural homologues of vertebrate regulatory peptides found in defensive skin secretions of anuran amphibians often display enhanced bioactivity and receptor binding when compared with endogenous mammalian peptide ligands. Maximakinin, a novel N-terminally extended bradykinin (DLPKINRKGPRPPGFSPFR) from the skin venom of a Chinese toad (Bombina maxima), displays such activity enhancement when compared with bradykinin but is additionally highly selective for mammalian arterial smooth muscle bradykinin receptors displaying a 50-fold increase in molar potency in this smooth muscle type. In contrast, a 100-fold decrease in molar potency was observed at bradykinin receptors in intestinal and uterine smooth muscle preparations. Maximakinin has thus evolved as a “smart” defensive weapon in the toad with receptor/tissue selective targeting. Natural selection of amphibian skin venom peptides for antipredator defence, through inter-species delivery by an exogenous secretory mode, produces subtle structural stabilisation modifications that can potentially provide new insights for the design of selectively targeted peptide therapeutics.

Kit-positive interstitial cells in the rabbit urethra: structural relationships with nerves and smooth muscle.

OBJECTIVE: To identify interstitial cells (ICs) in the wall of the rabbit urethra using antibodies to the Kit receptor, and to examine their location, morphology and relationship with nerves and smooth muscle cells (SMCs), as studies of enzymatically isolated cells from the rabbit urethra have established that there are specialized cells that show spontaneous electrical activity and have morphological properties of ICs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Urethral tissues from rabbits were fixed, labelled with antibodies and examined with confocal microscopy. Some specimens were embedded in paraffin wax and processed for histology. Histological sections from the most proximal third and mid-third region of rabbit urethra were stained with Masson's Trichrome to show their cellular arrangement. RESULTS: Sections from both regions had outer longitudinal and inner circular layers of SM, and a lamina propria containing connective tissue and blood vessels; the lumen was lined with urothelial cells. The mid-third region had a more developed circular SM layer than the most-proximal samples, and had extensive inner longitudinal SM bundles in the lamina propria. Labelling with anti-Kit revealed immunopositive cells within the wall of the rabbit urethra, in the circular and longitudinal layers of the muscularis. Double-labelling with an antibody to SM myosin showed Kit-positive cells on the boundary of the SM bundles, orientated parallel to the axis of the bundles. Others were in spaces between the bundles and often made contact with each other. Kit-positive cells were either elongated, with several lateral branches, or stellate with branches coming from a central soma. Similar cells could be labelled with vimentin antibodies. Their relationship with intramural nerves was examined by double immunostaining with an anti-neurofilament antibody. There were frequent points of contact between Kit-positive cells and nerves, with similar findings in specimens double-immunostained with anti-neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). CONCLUSION: Kit-positive ICs were found within the SM layers of the rabbit urethra, in association with nerves, on the edge of SM bundles and in the interbundle spaces. The contact with nNOS-containing neurones might imply participation in the nitrergic inhibitory neurotransmission of the urethra. PMID: 17212607 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Gross anatomy of the muscle systems and associated innervation of Apatemon cobitidis proterorhini metacercaria (Trematoda: Strigeidea), as visualized by confocal microscopy.:Strigeidea), as visualized by confocal microscopy

The major muscle systems of the metacercaria of the strigeid trematode, Apatemon cobitidis proterorhini have been examined using phalloidin as a site-specific probe for filamentous actin. Regional differences were evident in the organization of the body wall musculature of the forebody and hindbody, the former comprising outer circular, intermediate longitudinal and inner diagonal fibres, the latter having the inner diagonal fibres replaced with an extra layer of more widely spaced circular muscle. Three orientations of muscle fibres (equatorial, meridional, radial) were discernible in the oral sucker, acetabulum and paired lappets. Large longitudinal extensor and flexor muscles project into the hindbody where they connect to the body wall or end blindly. Innervation to the muscle systems of Apatemon was examined by immunocytochemistry, using antibodies to known myoactive substances: the flatworm FMRFamide-related neuropeptide (FaRP), GYIRFamide, and the biogenic amine, 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). Strong immunostaining for both peptidergic and serotoninergic components was found in the central nervous system and confocal microscopic mapping of the distribution of these neuroactive substances revealed they occupied separate neuronal pathways. In the peripheral nervous system, GYIRFamide-immunoreactivity was extensive and, in particular, associated with the innervation of all attachment structures; serotoninergic fibres, on the other hand, were localized to the oral sucker and pharynx and to regions along the anterior margins of the forebody.

Cellular physiology of retinal and choroidal arteriolar smooth muscle cells.

Control of ocular blood flow occurs predominantly at the level of the retinal and choroidal arterioles. The present article provides an overview of the Ca2 + handling mechanisms and plasmalemmal ion channels involved in the regulation of retinal and choroidal arteriolar smooth muscle tone. Increases in global intracellular free Ca2 + ([Ca2 +]i) involve multiple mechanisms, including agonist-dependent release of Ca2 + from intracellular stores through activation of the inositol trisphosphate (IP3) pathway. Ca2 + enters by voltage-dependent L-type Ca2 + channels and novel dihydropyridine-sensitive store-operated nonselective cation channels. Ca2 + extrusion is mediated by plasmalemmal Ca2 +-ATPases and through Na+/Ca2+ exchange. Local Ca2 + transients (Ca2 + sparks) play an important excitatory role, acting as the building blocks for more global Ca2 + signals that can initiate vasoconstriction. K+ and Cl- channels may also affect cell function by modulating membrane potential. The precise contribution of each of these mechanisms to the regulation of retinal and choroidal perfusion in vivo warrants future investigation.

Muscle-specific mutations accumulate with aging in critical human mtDNA control sites for replication.

The recently discovered aging-dependent large accumulation of point mutations in the human fibroblast mtDNA control region raised the question of their occurrence in postmitotic tissues. In the present work, analysis of biopsied or autopsied human skeletal muscle revealed the absence or only minimal presence of those mutations. By contrast, surprisingly, most of 26 individuals 53 to 92 years old, without a known history of neuromuscular disease, exhibited at mtDNA replication control sites in muscle an accumulation of two new point mutations, i.e., A189G and T408A, which were absent or marginally present in 19 individuals younger than 34 years. These two mutations were not found in fibroblasts from 22 subjects 64 to 101 years of age (T408A), or were present only in three subjects in very low amounts (A189G). Furthermore, in several older individuals exhibiting an accumulation in muscle of one or both of these mutations, they were nearly absent in other tissues, whereas the most frequent fibroblast-specific mutation (T414G) was present in skin, but not in muscle. Among eight additional individuals exhibiting partial denervation of their biopsied muscle, four subjects >80 years old had accumulated the two muscle-specific point mutations, which were, conversely, present at only very low levels in four subjects <or =40 years old. The striking tissue specificity of the muscle mtDNA mutations detected here and their mapping at critical sites for mtDNA replication strongly point to the involvement of a specific mutagenic machinery and to the functional relevance of these mutations.