Two mouse monoclonal antibodies generated against human placental homogenate were found to react specifically with human complement component C3. In immunofluorescence of human tissues, these antibodies gave a bright linear staining outlining the glomerular basement membrane of the adult kidney and the trophoblast basement membrane of placenta. An identical staining pattern was observed with a ...

The effect of the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose on retinal capillary basement membrane thickening was examined in the spontaneously diabetic BB/W-rat. Four months of diabetes resulted in significant thickening of the basement membranes of both the superficial and deep capillary nets of the retina. This characteristic change of the retinal microvasculature in diabetes was completely preve...

The basement membrane of the living chick embryo epiblast has been labelled with ultrastructural markers in order to study the movement and turnover of this structure during gastrulation. Two problems were addressed in these experiments. Firstly, to what extent does the basement membrane move medially with the epiblast during morphogenesis? Secondly, what is the relationship to the basement mem...

cate that Shh signalling controls Laminin gene expression, a critical step in the formation of the myotomal basement membrane, and that Laminin-111 has specific and essential role in myotomal basement membrane assembly. Together, our data reveal a novel role for Shh signalling in the control of basement membrane assembly and provide a framework for understanding the complex interactions between...

cate that Shh signalling controls Laminin gene expression, a critical step in the formation of the myotomal basement membrane, and that Laminin-111 has specific and essential role in myotomal basement membrane assembly. Together, our data reveal a novel role for Shh signalling in the control of basement membrane assembly and provide a framework for understanding the complex interactions between...

Spontaneously occurring anterior corneal opacities were present in related, juvenile American Dutch belted rabbits. Slit lamp biomicroscopy revealed focal opacities of epithelium, basement membrane, and subepithelial corneal stroma. Lesions were characterized histologically by thin and disorganized surface epithelium, thickened and intensely staining epithelial basement membrane, fimbriated and...

Ferritin-conjugated antibody has been used to identify by electron microscopy the sites at which nephrotoxic globulins localize in rat kidney during acute experimental glomerulonephritis. Antibody was concentrated in the glomerular basement membrane and in basement membrane-like material contained in distended cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum. These data confirm and amplify, at the ultras...

Basement membranes are composed of ordered arrays of characteristic extracellular matrix proteins, but little is known about the assembly of these structures in vivo. We have investigated the function of dystroglycan, a cell-surface laminin receptor expressed by cells contacting basement membranes in developing and adult tissues. We find that dystroglycan is required for the formation of a base...

The matricellular glycoprotein SPARC (secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine), also termed osteonectin, has been found to regulate the invasive behaviour of several tumour types by interacting with basement membrane constituents. Brain invasive meningiomas are supposed to disrupt the pial-glial basement membrane. In the present study we aimed at determining the relationship of basement m...