In heart failure, β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR)-Gsα-cAMP-protein kinase A (PKA) signalling predisposes to delayed-afterdepolarisation-mediated arrhythmias. Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) hydrolyse cAMP, and PDE3 restrains β 1 -AR, β 2 -AR-mediated inotropic responses in failing hearts from β-blocker-treated patients. Whether these receptors provoke arrhythmias through ryanodine receptor (RyR2) dysregulation, and how PDE activity and...

Bovine mastitis causes enormous economic losses in the dairy industry with Streptococcus uberis as one of the most common bacterial pathogens causing clinical and subclinical variations. In most cases mastitis can be cured by intramammary administration of antimicrobial agents. However, the severity of the clinical manifestations can vary greatly from mild to severe symtoms. In this study, a comparative genomic analysis of 24...

Summary The natural habitats and potential reservoirs of the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii are poorly defined. Here, we put forth and tested the hypothesis of avian reservoirs of A . baumannii . We screened tracheal and rectal swab samples from livestock (chicken, geese) and wild birds (white stork nestlings) and isolated A . baumannii from 3% of sampled chicken ( n = 220), 8% of geese ( n = 40) and 25% of white...