Calretinin (CR) is a neuronal EF-hand protein previously characterized as a calcium (micromolar affinity) binding protein. CR-containing neurons are spared in some neurodegenerative diseases, although it is as yet unconfirmed how CR plays an active role in this protection. Higher levels of some metal cations (e.g. copper and zinc) are associated with these diseases. At the same time, metals suc...

Macrophages play a key role in iron metabolism by recycling iron through erythrophagocytosis. Ferroportin-1 (FPN1) is a transporter protein that is known to mediate iron export from macrophages. Since divalent metals often interact with iron metabolism, we examined if divalent metals could regulate the expression of FPN1 in macrophages. J774 macrophage cells were treated with copper, manganese,...

Brain extracellular concentrations of amino acids (e.g. aspartate, glutamate, taurine) and divalent metals (e.g. zinc, copper, manganese) are primarily regulated by astrocytes. Adequate glutamate homeostasis is essential for the normal functioning of the central nervous system (CNS). Glutamate is of central importance for nitrogen metabolism and, along with aspartate, is the primary mediator of...

Recognizing the similarities between Huntington's disease (HD) pathophysiology and the neurotoxicology of various metals, we hypothesized that they may exhibit disease-toxicant interactions revealing cellular pathways underlying neurodegeneration. Here, we utilize metals and the STHdh mouse striatal cell line model of HD to perform a gene-environment interaction screen. We report that striatal ...

Preparation of hair specimens for trace-metal analyses is routinely done by wet- or dry-ashing. Wet-ashing is more time consuming than dry-ashing and can be dangerous. We wished to determine if dry-ashing was a suitable alternative to wet-ashing with HClO4:HNO3 or HNO3 alone in preparing hair for measurement of zinc, copper, iron, and manganese by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Concentrations ...

in this study, the concentrations of heavy metals (ca, zn, cu, fe, mn, ni) in thesediment of shavoor river in khuzestan province in iran has been investigated. after the library studies and field studies, six samples of water and sediment were taken from the river in order to evaluate heavy metal pollution in sediments. to determine the geochemical phases of metals in sediment samples the 5-ste...

concentrations of heavy metals were determined in muscles of kutum (rutilus frisii kutum) collected from the central part of the southern end of the caspian sea during february 2011. except for silver (ag) and nickel (ni) which were below the limits of detection, the average levels of arsenic (as), cadmium (cd), copper (co), chromium (cr), copper (cu), iron (fe), manganese (mn), lead (pb), sele...

to evaluate the correlations of the serum concentrations of trace elements with lipids and lipoproteins in water buffalo (bubalus bubalis), the serum concentrations of cholesterol, triglyceride, total lipids, very low density lipoproteins (vldl-cholesterol), low density lipoproteins (ldl-cholesterol) and high density lipoproteins (hdl-cholesterol) and their correlations with serum concentration...

In previous publications, one of us demonstrated that variation in paramagnetic-ion contents is a major contributing factor to the different NMR relaxation times, T1 and T2, of water protons among normal mouse tissues; and between normal tissues and cancer cells. The nature of the paramagnetic ions involved was not determined. In the present communication, we report results of analysis of the c...

Oxalate oxidase (E.C. 1.2.3.4) catalyses the conversion of oxalate and dioxygen to carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide (for reviews see [ 1-31). Oxalate oxidase activity has been detected in a number of organisms but the best biochemically characterised enzymes are from barley and wheat. The plant enzyme is isolated as a glycosylated homopentamer which is remarkably resistant to heat, SDS and ...