Heparan sulphate proteoglycans have been implicated in the binding and presentation of several growth factors to their receptors, thereby regulating cellular growth and differentiation. To investigate the role of heparan sulphate proteoglycans in mouse spinal neurulation, we administered chlorate, a competitive inhibitor of glycosaminoglycan sulphation, to cultured E8.5 embryos. Treated embryos...

Pretreatment methods for measuring stable sulphur (δ(34)S) and oxygen (δ(18)O) isotope ratios of dissolved sulphate from watersheds have evolved throughout the last few decades. The current study evaluated if there are differences in the measured stable S and O isotope values of dissolved sulphate from forested watersheds when pretreated using three different methods: Method 1 (M1): adsorb sulp...

BACKGROUND Animal studies have shown that neuroactive steroids modulate the activity of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A/benzodiazepine receptor complex and that these steroids display anxiolytic or anxiogenic activity depending on their positive (e.g. allopregnanolone) or negative allosteric modulation (e.g. dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate) of this receptor. This study compared plasma levels...

Receptor-mediated endocytosis of decorin depends on its core-protein-mediated interaction with a 51 kDa membrane protein, which, in addition to its core-protein-binding site, carries a binding site for glycosaminoglycan chains. Membrane-associated heparan sulphate as well as heparin are known to have an inhibitory effect on decorin endocytosis by cultured skin fibroblasts. In this study, struct...

It has been reported that the disaccharide composition of dermatan sulphate shows transient changes after epicutaneous application of the hapten 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene to mouse skin, and that these changes are most conspicuous in healing skin on day 15 after chemical insult [Kuwaba, Nomura, Irie and Koyama (1999) J. Dermatol. Sci. 19, 23-30]. In the present study it was found that the molecul...

INTRODUCTION Vanadium compounds are insulin like drugs which are accompanied with nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity as their major side effects. Aerobic exercise is well known as an approach to reduce the side effects of many drugs. OBJECTIVES This study was designed to determine the role of aerobic exercise against vanadyl sulphate induced nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in male rats. MA...

Proteoglycans of 300 000 mol.wt. were isolated from dispersed rat basophil tumour cells after labelling of the sulphated mucopolysaccharides with 35S in vitro:90% of the 35S-labelled mucopolysaccharides were extracted at high salt concentration. Alkali degradation of the 35S-labelled proteoglycans yielded glycosaminoglycan chains of 40 000 mol.wt. The composition of the salt-extracted 35S-label...

Relati ve viscosities of some mineral salts viz; sodium sulphate, potassium sulphate, ammon ium sulpha te and magnes iu m sulphate, at di ffe rent concentrations have been determined in binary aqueous solutions of urea (mole-frac tions of urea, XII!""" = 0.0 10, 0.025 , 0. 040, 0.055 and 0.070) at 308. 15K and in XII!""" = 0.025 at di fferent temperatures. The data have been evaluated using l o...

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate is one of the most important neurosteroids. In the present paper, we studied the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate on persistent sodium currents and its mechanism and functional consequence with whole-cell patch clamp recording method combined with a pharmacological approach in the rat medial prefrontal cortex slices. The results showed that dehydroepiand...