The complement system has been shown to mediate renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the contribution of complement factor C5a to I/R injury, in particular in the kidney, remains to be established. In this study, we investigated the impact of blocking the C5aR pathway on the inflammatory response and on the renal function in a murine model of I/R injury. First, we analyzed C5aR exp...

Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) play a key role in the regulation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), which in turn mediates various cellular functions including learning and memory. We previously cloned and characterized three PDE4 isoforms (ApPDE4) from Aplysia kurodai. Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), we found that ApPDE4 isoforms are primarily expressed in the...

When a transient pair of antiparallel helices is formed (Fig. 5A, middle panel), 11 contacts are formed, and also 11 contacts are formed when a transient loop-hairpin structure is created. Both processes shorten the polypeptide chain by 2 nm and the structures are inherently unstable and can easily open due to thermal fluctuations. If H2 of R16 had refolded to the stack, it would have formed on...

Phospholamban (PLB) is a pentameric protein that plays an important role in regulating cardiac contractility via a reversible inhibitory association with the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ATPase (SERCA), the enzyme responsible for maintaining correct calcium homeostasis. Here we study the functional and biophysical characteristics of a PLB mutant associated with human dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM),...

AIM The current study was designed to determine whether intravitreal injection of tacrolimus (FK506) modulates the gene expression of neurotrophic factor-related molecules in the retina from eyes with induced experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) in rats. METHODS Rats were immunised with interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein peptide (R14) and given intravitreal injection of tacrol...

The high CO(2)-requiring mutants of Synechococcus PCC 7942, D4 and R14, were obtained by deletion or inactivation (respectively) of an open reading frame immediately downstream of rbc (the operon encoding the subunits of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase). These mutants exhibit photosynthetic characteristics similar to those of high CO(2)-grown wild type, unlike other cyanobacteri...

Fluctuations in housing prices are relevant to wealth accumulation, labor mobility, consumption, macroeconomic volatility, and financial market stability. However, it is ex ante difficult to know when housing price movements are due to fundamentals, such as changes in the user cost of capital, versus irrational exuberance. I propose combining the canonical urban economics Alonso-Muth-Mills mode...

We have demonstrated recently that incubation of the aminoglycoside gentamicin with an hepatic post-mitochondrial fraction produces a compound toxic to sensory cells from the inner ear in short-term culture; in contrast, the parent aminoglycoside was non-toxic in vitro (Huang MY and Schacht J, Biochem Pharmacol 40: R11-R14, 1990). In the present study, we investigated the subcellular distributi...

Neutrophils are key components of the inflammatory response and as such contribute to the killing of microorganisms. In addition, recent evidence suggests their involvement in the development of the immune response. The role of neutrophils during the first weeks post-infection with Leishmania donovani was investigated in this study. When L. donovani-infected mice were selectively depleted of ne...

We estimate a spatially explicit model of the forest clearance process among smallholder farmers in an agricultural frontier of southern Mexico. Our analysis takes as its point of departure a simple utility-maximising model that suggests many possible determinants of deforestation in an economic environment characterised by missing or thin markets. Hypotheses from the model are tested on a data...