After the last concentration level of bitter taste receptor agonists or relaxants, the maximum relax ation of each segment was evaluated by the addition of 3 mM theophylline. In this set of experiments, Enzalutamide clinical each com pound was tested on a bronchial ring from each patient. In a second set of experiments, the signalling pathways involved in the relaxation observed with chloroquine and phenanthroline were investigated. After an initial equilibration period, bronchi were incubated for 30 min in the presence of modulators of potassium channels, calcium signalling, Na K ATPase, protein kinase A, exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP, phosphoinositide 3 kinases, cyclooxygenases or nitric oxide syn thetase prior to pre contraction with 10 uM histamine and then the step wise addition of increasing concentrations of TAS2R agonists.

In a third second set of experiments designed to assess the epitheliums role in the relaxation caused by bitter taste receptor agonists, the bronchial epithelium was stripped from bronchial rings from each patient by carefully scraping the luminal surface with a cotton Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries pad soaked Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries in Krebs solution. The relax ation induced by TAS2R agonists was compared Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries with the relaxation of segments from the same bronchi without epithelium stripping. Each of the latter experiments was performed in duplicate. Statistical analysis Values in the text and figures are expressed as the arith metic mean the standard error of the mean from experiments with bronchi from n independent do nors. Changes in muscle tone were expressed as a percentage of the relaxation obtained with 3 mM theo phylline.

Emax corresponds to the E value obtained with the highest agonist concentration tested. The potency of agonists was defined as the negative logarithm Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries of the molar concentration of agonist producing 50% of the maximal effect and was calculated from the concentration response curves. Sigmoidal concentration response curves were plotted and analysed with GraphPad Prism software by non linear regression. The quantitative data obtained from RT qPCR experi ments was expressed as relative expression, where Ct is the difference between the target gene Ct and the mean Ct of the reference genes. Data were evaluated statistically in an analysis of variance and Dunnetts post test. A difference was considered statis tically significant when the probability value p was below 0.

Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries 05. In the Figures, the statistical significance of a given comparison is indicated by the symbol Results Expression of bitter ABT-888 taste receptor gene transcripts in human bronchi Bronchial expression of the gene transcripts of the B2 adrenoreceptor and sixteen TAS2Rs is summarized in Figure 1. Transcripts of genes coding for bitter taste receptors were identified in the bronchi of all patients, except those of TAS2R9, 43 and 46 found in bronchi from 8/9, 9/14 and 8/9 patients only.