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Query: UNIPROT:P56851 (epididymal)
 11,273 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The effects of Ca2+ and calmodulin inhibitors on lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine, caffeine and ACTH in rat epididymal adipose tissue were investigated. 1. Omission of Ca2+ from the incubation medium slightly depressed lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine and ACTH. Lipolysis induced by caffeine was significantly depressed. 2. Lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine, caffeine and ACTH was strongly depressed when Ca2+-deficient tissue was incubated in Ca2+-free Ringer solution. 3. In Ca2+-deficient tissue, the addition of 0.75mM Ca2+ apparently restored lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine and ACTH, whereas that by caffeine was restored to only approximately 89%. 4. The addition of La3+ markedly inhibited lipolysis induced by each agonist. 5. The Ca2+ antagonists such as verapamil and diltiazem dose-dependently inhibited lipolysis induced by each agonist. 6. The specific calmodulin inhibitors such as chlorpromazine, trifluoperazine and W-7 markedly inhibited lipolysis induced by each agonist. These results strongly support the possible key role that the redistribution and influx of Ca2+ may play in lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine, caffeine and ACTH, and further suggest that calmodulin may affect lipolysis.
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PMID:[Effects of Ca2+ and calmodulin inhibitors on lipolysis induced by epinephrine, norepinephrine, caffeine and ACTH in rat epididymal adipose tissue]. 630 33

Mechanical responses to noradrenaline (NA) were investigated in the rat vas deferens exposed to Ca-free solution containing 0.5 mM-EGTA. A tonic response was produced in Ca-free solution at the epididymal portion, while almost no response could be observed at the prostatic portion. In most experiments NA (10(-4) M) was applied for 4 min, every 20 min. The absolute tension development in Ca-free solution was usually 60-80% of the control tonic response in the presence of 2.4 mM-Ca. The response could be produced repeatedly, even after exposure to Ca-free solution for more than 20 hr, without a significant decrease. During the first hour of exposure to Ca-free solution, the rate of rise and the magnitude of the NA contraction increased and then remained constant, though the relaxation became slow. Transient treatment with 2.4 mM-Ca slightly suppressed the subsequent NA response in Ca-free solution. Similarly, the NA response was smaller during readmission of 0.2-0.5 mM-Ca than that obtained before Ca readmission. A high concentration of verapamil (2 X 10(-4) M) reversibly reduced the NA response by about 70% after 30 min. Theophylline (10 mM) and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (10(-4) M) also reversibly suppressed the NA response, the suppression being about 80%. None of these substances produced a tension change by themselves. The suppressing effect may be mediated via an increase of intracellular cyclic AMP which reduces phosphorylation of myosin. Caffeine (10 mM) and dibutyryl cyclic GMP (10(-4) M) had similar but much weaker effects than theophylline and dibutyryl cyclic AMP. A calmodulin antagonist, N-(6-aminohexyl)-5-chloro-1-naphthalene sulphonamide (W-7) slowly reduced the NA response. The block was nearly complete after 30 min treatment with 3 X 10(-4) M-W-7, and the recovery was very poor after prolonged exposure. This effect of W-7, which is the same in the presence and absence of Ca, suggests that a Ca-calmodulin reaction is involved in the NA response in Ca-free solution. Fluoride at a concentration higher than 3 mM increased the muscle tone in the absence of external Ca, and transiently potentiated the NA response. In the presence of F-, the relaxation of the NA response was incomplete and the muscle tone increased stepwise after each NA application. When the muscle tone became higher than the NA response in the absence of F-, the NA response was abolished. The action of several metabolic inhibitors (2,4-dinitrophenol, carbonylcyanide chlorophenyl hydrazone, NaCN, monoiodoacetate) was similar to that of F-, suggesting that they release Ca from mitochondria, causing tension development. The observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the contraction of the vas deferens caused by NA in the absence of external Ca depends on the availability of intracellular Ca, stored in mitochondria and released by NA.
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PMID:Mechanical response to noradrenaline in calcium-free solution in the rat vas deferens. 630 44

The motility characteristics and the behaviour of caput spermatozoa were investigated. After dilution in B2 medium the majority of spermatozoa presented head-to-head agglutination and a twisted flagellum. Only a small population of these spermatozoa developed an anarchic motility pattern. The addition of crude bovine epididymal fluid forward motility protein (FMP) to the incubation medium suppressed flagellar angulation and agglutination. The addition of FMP to caffeine-activated spermatozoa induced a slow-swimming progressive movement in about 10% of the spermatozoa. In order to establish an hypothetical role of FMP in the regulation of calcium transport a calmodulin inhibitor, fluphenazin, was tested. When added to caffeine-activated spermatozoa at a rate of 10(-5) M, it induced about 15% of progressive spermatozoa with flagellar angulations. The trajectories of these spermatozoa were similar to those observed in samples of spermatozoa from the cauda epididymidis. It is concluded that during epididymal maturation a calcium-dependent mechanism might be involved in the transformation of an irregular movement into a progressive movement.
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PMID:Motility induction in hamster spermatozoa from caput epididymidis: effects of forward motility protein (FMP) and calmodulin inhibitor. 636 51

Washed ejaculated boar sperm and sperm from the cauda epididymis bind to the zona pellucida of fixed porcine eggs in large numbers. Sperm incubated in the presence of dextran sulfate (8 K daltons or 500 K daltons) or fucoidan and then washed no longer bind to eggs. Other acid carbohydrates (heparin, chondroitin sulfates, inositol hexasulfate, carboxymethylcellulose) fail to block sperm-egg binding even when added directly to sperm-egg suspensions. Seminal plasma and the seminal vesicle secretion contain basic proteins which bind tightly to sperm and bind reversibly to eggs preventing sperm from binding to eggs. When dextran sulfate or fucoidan are mixed with the vesicular secretion, from which seminal plasma basic proteins originate (Hunt et al., '83), the secretion loses the capacity to prevent sperm from binding to eggs; this suggests that seminal vesicle proteins can bind to the same site on zonae as do sperm and thus seminal plasma may modify sperm-egg interactions. Corpus and cauda epididymal sperm also bind in large numbers to the zona pellucida of isolated eggs but high concentrations of caput sperm, which exhibit high motility in the presence of caffeine, bind only in few numbers. Thus a component that enhances sperm-zona binding is apparently formed on the plasma membranes of uncapacitated sperm during passage through the epididymis. This finding, and an earlier observation that antibodies raised against uncapacitated sperm plasma membranes block sperm-egg binding in vivo (Peterson et al., '83) suggest that this component may be involved in sperm zona interaction in vivo.
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PMID:Evidence for specific binding of uncapacitated boar spermatozoa to porcine zonae pellucidae in vitro. 647 Jun 46

The motility of spermatozoa from the head and tail of the epididymis in bulls was studied. Qualitatively and quantitatively, the motility of spermatozoa from the cauda was distinctly better than that from the caput. It was possible to achieve a highly significant increase in the motility of epididymal spermatozoa from the caput as well as the cauda area using caffeine or a caffeine-kallikrein mixture. Above all, motility stimulants improved the local motility of the epididymal spermatozoa as compared to twitching and progressive motility. The motility of caudal spermatozoa was increased by 100%, corresponding to local movement of 59% of the total number of sperm cells. It was possible to demonstrate an increase in the almost totally absent motility of the caput spermatozoa to 27% local motility. Application of kallikrein without addition of kininogens led to no significant change in spermatozoa motility. By the addition of caffeine, it was possible to increase the motility of minipig epididymal spermatozoa taken by puncture from alloplastic spermatoceles significantly. In 23 aspirates, a prompt increase in the percentage of locally motile "spermatocele spermatozoa" from 12% to 23.5% was observed.
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PMID:How to increase the motility of spermatozoa from the epididymis of bulls and alloplastic spermatoceles in minipigs. 656 56

The present investigation was designed to test the ability of caffeine ingestion to enhance the reduction of body fat with exercise. Mature male rats (average weight of 442 g) were assigned to four grouping combinations of the two treatment variables: caffeine ingestion (caf, no caf) and exercise training (ex, sed). Two groups trained by swimming 90 min, 5 d/wk (caf-ex, no caf-ex) while two groups served as untrained controls (caf-sed, no caf-sed). Forty-five minutes prior to swimming, doses of saline only or of caffeine dissolved in saline (5 mg caffeine/kg body weight) were administered to the no caffeine and caffeine groups, respectively. After 9 wk of training, body weight and epididymal and retroperitoneal fat-pad weights were significantly reduced in the caffeine groups and in the exercise groups (P less than 0.05). Epididymal fat-cell size was significantly reduced by caffeine treatment, and exercise training reduced fat-cell diameters in both epididymal and retroperitoneal fat-pads (P less than 0.05). The additional 22% reduction in body weight, 25% reduction in epididymal fat-cell size, and 5 and 6% reductions in epididymal and retroperitoneal fat-pad weights, respectively, in the caf-ex group beyond the no caf-ex group support the hypothesis that fat loss with aerobic exercise can be increased when caffeine is ingested prior to the training sessions.
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PMID:The effects of caffeine and exercise on body weight, fat-pad weight, and fat-cell size. 713 51

Hamster spermatozoa, collected from the caput and the cauda of the epididymis, are known to differ in their motility. They do not normally acquire fertilizing ability until they reach the proximal portion of the cauda epididymidis. The aim of the present investigation was to test the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa from the caput epididymis after initiation. Sperm cells were incubated by adding 10 mM caffeine and 20-30 p. 100 epididymal plasma to the culture medium. Superovulated females were inseminated in utero and the eggs recovered 14 h after ovulation. In these conditions, 22 p. 100 of the ova were fertilized. The possibility that the increased motility of the caput epididymal spermatozoa might reflect an increase in fertilizing ability is discussed.
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PMID:In vivo fertilization after initiation of sperm motility in the hamster epididymis. 715 93

The effect of acute (600 mg/kg body wt) and chronic (15 mg/kg body wt/day for 45 days) 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis (p-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT) treatments of albino rats on the lipolytic activity of the adipose tissue was studied. There was no effect on the rate of glycerol release on incubation of isolated epididymal fat pads of the treated animals when compared to that of controls. Similarly, in vitro addition of DDT (10-4M) (35.4 ppm) to the fat pads did not alter their lipolytic response. Noradrenaline (NA) stimulated lipolysis, in fat pads, was also unaffected by in vitro addition of DDT. Basal as well as NA or caffeine stimulated lipolysis in isolated fat cells also remained unchanged in the presence of DDT over a range of concentrations from 10-8 M to 10-4 M.
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PMID:Effect of DDT on adipose tissue lipolysis in rat. 725 87

The effect of acute (600 mg/kg body wt) and chronic (15 mg/kg body wt/day for 45 days) DDT treatments of albino rats on the lipolytic activity of the adipose tissue was studied. There was no effect on the rate of glycerol release on incubation of isolated epididymal fat pads of the treated animals when compared to that of controls. Similarly, in vitro addition of DDT (10(-4) M) to the fat pads did not alter their lipolytic response. Noradrenaline stimulated lipolysis, in fat pads, was also unaffected by in vitro addition of DDT. Basal as well as noradrenaline or caffeine stimulated lipolysis in isolated fat cells also remained unchanged in the presence of DDT over a range of concentrations from 10(-8) M to 10(-4) M.
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PMID:Effect of DDT on adipose tissue lipolysis in rat. 726 87

Azoospermia is frequently due to an obstruction of genital pathways. In this work, concerning 22 patients submitted to surgical investigation for sterility, we made a systematic histological investigation of the lesions, and we studied the motility of epididymal spermatozoa. We observed with an unexpected frequency abnormalities of junctions either between seminiferous tubules and efferents ducts - leading to disappearance of rete testis - or between efferent ducts and epididymis. In each case a fibrosis of the epididymis was discovered, the consequence was either an interruption or, more frequently a simple narrowing of the lumen of the epididymal duct. The presence of spermiophages which destroyed all spermatozoa, was also systematically observed. The origin of the lesions (congenital, inflammatory, ischemic... ) could not be determined by simple histological study. Motility of spermatozoa was generally observed in the initial portion of the epididymal duct, but motile spermatozoa were sometimes still observed in the efferent tubules. Motility could be initiated by caffeine while other compounds as albumin, seminal plasma and different organic substrates, had no effects.
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PMID:[Congenital or acquired obstructions of the human epididymis: study of the motility of the spermatozoa above the obstruction]. 732 73


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