A lysosophosphatidic acid (LPA)-hydrolysing lysophospholipase was purified from rat brain and characterized. This membranebound lysophospholipase was solubilized by using n-octyl glucoside and purified by sequential cation, hydrophobic and gel-filtration chromatography. The purified protein has a mass of 80 kDa as assayed by SDS/PAGE. This lysophospholipase catalysed the hydrolysis of a variety...

The synthesis of racemic 1,2-dioleoyl and 1 -oleoyl-2-stearoyl glycerol-3-phosphoryl serine was achieved by the phosphorylation of unsaturated diglycerides with phosphorus oxychloride, and combination with the phthalimidomethyl ester of carbo-t-butoxy-DL-serine. The synthetic phosphatidyl serines were tested in blood clotting systems in vitro. They have activity qualitatively similar to that of...

A key and highly regulated enzyme that is required for the biosynthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids is stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), which catalyzes the D(9)-cis desaturation of a range of fatty acyl-CoA substrates. The preferred substrates are palmitoyl- and stearoyl-CoA, which are converted into palmitoleoyl- and oleoyl-CoA respectively. Oleate is the most abundant monounsaturated fatty a...

A loss-of-function mutation in the Arabidopsis SSI2/FAB2 gene, which encodes a plastidic stearoyl-acyl-carrier protein desaturase, has pleiotropic effects. The ssi2 mutant plant is dwarf, spontaneously develops lesions containing dead cells, accumulates increased salicylic acid (SA) levels, and constitutively expresses SA-mediated, NPR1-dependent and -independent defense responses. In parallel,...

Applications of siRNA for cancer therapy have been spotlighted in recent years, but the rational design of efficient siRNA delivery carriers is still controversial, especially because of possible toxicity of the carrier components. Previously, a cationic polyaspartamide derivative, poly{N-[N-(2-aminoethyl)-2-aminoethyl]aspartamide} (PAsp(DET)), was reported to exert high transfection efficacy f...

In this work we obtain the thermodynamic properties of mixed (1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) PC and (1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-l-serine (sodium salt)) PS monolayers. Measurements of compressibility (isotherms, bulk modulus, and excess area per molecule) and surface potential show that the properties of monolayers at the air-water interface depend on the concentr...