The bulbs of Lilium brownii var. viridulum (LB) are commonly used as both traditional Chinese medicines and popular functional food for many centuries in China. Previous studies reported that the extract of lily bulbs exhibited anti-inflammatory activity both in vivo and in vitro, but its active components and associated molecular mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, using bioassay-...

Baby hamster kidney (BHK) fibroblasts increase their cell capacitance by 25-100% within 5 s upon activating maximal Ca influx via constitutively expressed cardiac Na/Ca exchangers (NCX1). Free Ca, measured with fluo-5N, transiently exceeds 0.2 mM with total Ca influx amounting to approximately 5 mmol/liter cell volume. Capacitance responses are half-maximal when NCX1 promotes a free cytoplasmic...

BACKGROUND Lipases (EC 3.1.1.3) catalyze the hydrolysis of triacyl glycerol to glycerol and are involved in the synthesis of both short chain and long chain acylglycerols. They are widely used industrially in various applications, such as baking, laundry detergents and as biocatalysts in alternative energy strategies. Marine ecosystems are known to represent a large reservoir of biodiversity wi...

Lipases are the special kind of esterases belong to subclass 1 of hydrolytic enzyme class 3 and have been assigned subsub class 3.1.1 due to their specificity for carboxylic acid ester bonds. The biological function of lipase is to catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerols to give free fatty acid, diacylglycerols, mono-acylglycerols and glycerol. They constitute the most important group of bi...

Asian herb known as “Siberian Ginseng” or “Eleutherococcus senticosus” and used for rheumatism and prophylaxis of various diseases including chronic bronchitis, hypertension, and ischemia. The herb has also been known to effectively relieve stress or fatigue, and symptoms associated with diabetes, neuralgia, and cancer. Today this oriental herb is called “adatogen” in the U.S. The major active ...

Lipases and esterases (glycerol ester hydrolases, E.C. 3.1.1.-) are enzymes acting on the carboxyl ester bonds present in acylglycerols. They have been recognized as useful biocatalysts because of their wide-ranging versatility in industrial applications (2,5). However, the physical properties of lipids have caused a great difficulty in studying lipolytic enzymes (4). Traditionally, lipases hav...

A method is described for the assay of lipoprotein lipase, using a stable, radioactive substrate emulsion. Fatty acid-labeled trioleoylglycerol was emulsified by homogenization in glycerol with lecithin as detergent. This anhydrous emulsion was stable for at least six weeks. Substrate solutions for enzyme assay were prepared b y diluting the emulsion with buffer containing serum and albumin. Th...

The pathway for the adipokinetic hormone-stiniulated synthesis of sn-1,2-diacylglyceroIs in the adult Manducu sexta fat body was studied. Adult fat body lipids were labeled by feeding 5th instar larvae either with [9,10(n)-3H]oleic acid or [ 1 (3)-3H]glycerol and after 32 days insects at the adult stage were used. This long-term prelabeling led to labeled fat body acylglycerols in which triacyl...