BACKGROUND Existing in Permanent-wave solutions (PWS), thioglycolic acid (TGA) is widely used in hairdressing industry for its contribution to hair styling. However, the toxicity of TGA, especially its reproductive toxicity, gradually calls the attention of more and more researchers. METHOD In this work, xenopus oocytes were pretreated with different concentration of TGA, and then activated b...

Macrophages produce various arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites which may either enhance or suppress inflammatory processes. We investigated AA metabolite production by alveolar macrophages (AMs) from 11 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and 9 normal volunteers. We assessed the production of both cyclooxygenase products (prostaglandin (PG) E2, thromboxane B2 (TXB2), PGF2 alpha, and 6-keto-PGF1 ...

The potential involvement of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of indomethacin induced ulceration of the gastric antrum in the re-fed rat was studied. Indomethacin was associated with a time dependent increase in the extent and severity of ulceration, blood neutrophilia, neutrophil infiltration into the gastric antrum, and calcium ionophore induced immunoreactive leukotriene B4 (LTB4) release fro...

Stimulation of phosphatidylinositol metabolism by neurotransmitters produces diacylglycerol, an activator of protein kinase C, which may be involved in hormone-mediated contractions. We studied the effect of a tumor-promoting phorbol ester, 12-deoxyphorbol 13-isobutyrate 20-acetate (DPBA), on contraction of caudal artery rings of Wistar-Kyoto control (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (S...

In mouse-human heterokaryons, the lateral diffusion of major histocompatibility (MHC) antigens in the plasma membrane is enhanced by treatment of parent cells with ouabain. Ouabain treatment is ineffective if the medium lacks calcium ion, or if Verapamil, a blocker of calcium channels, is present. The divalent ionophore A23187 also enhances lateral diffusion of MHC antigens, to the same extent ...

Genes in human chromosomes that normally require induction by alpha-interferon are activated after calcium phosphate (CaPO4) transfection, but not after DEAE-dextran transfection. The c-fos gene and genes stimulated by gamma-interferon also are affected by CaPO4-DNA precipitates, but the calcium ionophore A23187 stimulates only c-fos among this group. These results suggest caution not only in c...

Flow cytometry was utilized to measure the influx of calcium into fresh and frozen-thawed equine and bovine spermatozoa that had been treated with either dilauroyl-phosphatidylcholine ( PC-12) or the calcium ionophore A23187 (A23187) to initiate sperm capacitation. Sperm suspensions were stained with the fluorescent calcium indicator, Fluo-3, to measure intracellular calcium concentrations and ...

The mechanism by which glucocorticoids (GC) inhibit IL-4 gene expression is currently unknown. In T lymphocytes, IL-4 gene expression is regulated at the level of transcription by increases in intracellular calcium concentration and by the calcium-activated phosphatase calcineurin. In this paper we report that dexamethasone (Dex) inhibits calcium ionophore-induced activation of the human IL-4 p...