A research team has discovered that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a major omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil, directly ...

A new molecular pathway has been identified that is critical for maintaining the smooth muscle tone that allows the passage of materials through the digestive system. Researchers at UMass Medical ...

The contraction of smooth muscle is an essential process underpinning diverse physiological functions ranging from gastrointestinal motility to vascular regulation. At its core, smooth muscle ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 105, No. 47 (Nov. 25, 2008), pp. 18614-18618 (5 pages) ...

The mechanism of skeletal muscle contraction is a process that relies on calcium signaling. However, the physiological role of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) through the ryanodine receptor ...

Researchers engineered mice with a mutation (E3896A) in the RyR1 calcium-binding site, eliminating calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) without affecting depolarization-induced calcium release. The ...

A new study by researchers at Yale and Johns Hopkins University has discovered how asthmatic bronchial spasms — muscle contractions in the airway that cause difficulty breathing in asthma patients— ...

Colonic motility disorders, especially problems associated with constipation and diarrhea, are common in adults and children, greatly impacting quality of life. A new study in The American Journal of ...

IT is generally believed that the process which initiates contraction in striated muscle is the depolarization of the excitable membrane of the muscle fibre, although the mechanism by which membrane ...

As the gestation period nears completion, the uterus grows to a length of 12 inches (from 3 inches) and the weight increases to 1,100 g (from 30–40 g). The uterus has 5 liters of fluid, and together ...

A research team led by Dr. Keisuke Obara, Dr. Kento Yoshioka, and Professor Yoshio Tanaka from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Toho University has revealed that ferulic acid (FA), a ...

Research team from the Department of Chemical Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University — including ...