BACKGROUND Lithium and valproate (VPA) are used for treating bipolar disorder. The mechanism of mood stabilization has not been elucidated, but the role of inositol has gained substantial support. Lithium inhibition of inositol monophosphatase, an enzyme required for inositol recycling and de novo synthesis, suggested the hypothesis that lithium depletes brain inositol and attenuates phosphoino...

BACKGROUND The first identified susceptibility gene for Crohn's disease, NOD2, acts as a sensor for the bacterial-wall peptidoglycan fragment muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and activates the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). Upon NF-κB activation, intestinal macrophages (IMACs) induce expression of macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-3α to attract memory T lymphocytes. We therefore inv...

Dendritic cells (DC) are the most potent APCs and the principal activators of naive T cells. We now report that chemokines can serve as activating agents for immature DC. Murine bone marrow-derived DC respond to the CC chemokine RANTES (10-100 ng/ml) by production of proinflammatory mediators. RANTES induces rapid expression of transcripts for the CXC chemokines KC and macrophage inflammatory p...

We previously described an animal model of Helicobacter pylori-induced follicular gastritis in neonatally thymectomized (nTx) mice. However, it is still not clear whether antigen-presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in the stomach have a role in the development of secondary follicles in H. pylori-infected nTx mice. We investigated the distribution of DC subsets using this model and examined their r...

A gene encoding a novel fifth type of major intrinsic protein (MIP) in plants has been identified in the moss Physcomitrella patens. Phylogenetic analyses show that this protein, GlpF-like intrinsic protein (GIP1;1), is closely related to a subclass of glycerol transporters in bacteria that in addition to glycerol are highly permeable to water. A likely explanation of the occurrence of this bac...

Both connexin 50 (Cx50) and aquaporin 0 (AQP0) have important roles in lens development and homeostasis, and their mutations are associated with human congenital cataracts. We have previously shown that Cx50 directly interacts with AQP0. Here, we demonstrate the importance of the Cx50 intracellular loop (IL) domain in mediating the interaction with AQP0 in the lens in vivo. AQP0 significantly i...

Aquaporins facilitate the diffusion of water across cell membranes. We previously showed that acid pH or low Ca(2+) increase the water permeability of bovine AQP0 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. We now show that external histidines in loops A and C mediate the pH dependence. Furthermore, the position of histidines in different members of the aquaporin family can "tune" the pH sensitivity toward a...

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of ubiquitous membrane channels that conduct water and solutes across membranes. This review focuses on AQP0 and AQP4, which in addition to forming water channels also appear to play a role in cell adhesion. We discuss the recently determined structures of the membrane junctions mediated by these two AQPs, the mechanisms that regulate junction formation, and evide...

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) has been applied in gene therapy and research to screen for transgene expression, progression of infection, tumor growth and metastasis, and transplantation. It enables real-time and relatively noninvasive localization and serial quantification of biological processes in experimental animals. In diabetes research, BLI has been employed for the quantification of β-c...