BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Highly vascularized ovarian carcinoma secretes the putative endocannabinoid and GPR55 agonist, L-α-lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI), into the circulation. We aimed to assess the involvement of this agonist and its receptor in ovarian cancer angiogenesis. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Secretion of LPI by three ovarian cancer cell lines (OVCAR-3, OVCAR-5 and COV-362) was tested by ...

Asthma is characterized by leukocytic infiltration and tissue remodeling with structural changes including subepithelial fibrosis and ASM cells proliferation. The Hippo pathway is a key regulatory point involved in cell proliferation, fibroblasts, and smooth muscle cell differentiation. In order to disclose the relation between asthma and the Hippo pathway, expression of the Yes-associated prot...

Edema Factor (EF) is a component of Bacillus anthracis toxin essential for virulence. Its adenylyl cyclase activity is induced by complexation with the ubiquitous eukaryotic cellular protein, calmodulin (CaM). EF and its complexes with CaM, nucleotides and/or ions, have been extensively characterized by X-ray crystallography. Those structural data allowed molecular simulations analysis of vario...

The identities of some of the constituents of the hair-cell transduction apparatus have been elucidated only recently. The molecular motor myosin-1c (Myo1c) functions in adaptation of the hair-cell response to sustained mechanical stimuli and is therefore an integral part of the transduction complex. Recent data indicate that Myo1c interacts in vitro with two other molecules proposed to be impo...

Despite intensive in vitro studies, little is known about the regulation of caldesmon (CaD) by Ca(2+)-calmodulin (Ca(2+)-CaM) in vivo. To investigate this regulation, a mutant was generated of the C-terminal fragment of human fibroblast CaD, termed CaD39-AB, in which two crucial tryptophan residues involved in Ca(2+)-CaM binding were each replaced with alanine. The mutation abolished most CaD39...

OBJECTIVE To test the effects of a continuous medium flow inside DegraPol scaffolds on the reepithelialization and revascularization processes of a tissue-engineered trachea prosthesis. METHODS In this proof-of-principle study a continuous medium flow was maintained within a tubular DegraPol scaffold by an inserted porous catheter connected to a pump system. The impact of the intra-scaffold m...

Ca2+ transport in red blood cell ghosts was monitored with fura2 or quin2 incorporated as the free acid during resealing. This is the first report of active transport monitored by the fluorescent intensity of the chelator dyes fura2 (5-50 microM) or quin2 (250 microM) in hemoglobin-depleted ghosts. Since there are no intracellular compartments in ghosts and the intracellular concentrations of a...

A novel plant gene CFLl was cloned from cotton (GossJPium hirsutum L.) fibers by expressed se­ quence tag (EST) database searching and 5'-RACE (rapid amplification of eDNA ends). This gene shows sequence homology with FKSl which has been identified as the putative catalytic subunit of the yeast fi-1,3-glucan syn­ thase. It encodes a protein (CFLlp) of 219 kDa with 13 deduced transmembrane helic...

A new series of pyrazole derivatives were designed by docking into vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) kinase active site. The designed compounds were synthesized and evaluated for in vitro antiproliferative activity against HT-29 colon and PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines, and angioinhibitory activity in chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. Based on the obtained antiprolife...