OBJECTIVE The present study aims to compare the presence and localization of collagen type IV in the prenasal tissue of fetuses with and without Down syndrome (DS). METHODS Products of conception were obtained from mid-gestation uterine evacuations of 14 DS fetuses and 15 unaffected controls. Microdissection of the prenasal area and an analysis of the prenasal tissue specimens were performed ...

A series of rat 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma cell clones and subclones of various lung metastatic potentials were examined for their abilities to degrade rat lung subendothelial matrix and purified basement membrane type IV collagen. Metastatic potentials were simultaneously determined based on the ability to form "spontaneous" lung metastases after s.c. injection or "experimental" lung metas...

Collagens constitute nearly 30% of all proteins in our body. Type IV collagen is a major and crucial component of basement membranes. Collagen chains undergo several posttranslational modifications that are indispensable for proper collagen function. One of these modifications, prolyl 3-hydroxylation, is accomplished by a family of prolyl 3-hydroxylases (P3H1, P3H2, and P3H3). The present study...

Adhesin-mediated binding to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins is thought to be a crucial step in the pathogenic process of many bacterial infections. We have previously reported conditional adherence of most Enterococcus faecalis isolates, after growth at 46 degrees C, to ECM proteins collagen types I and IV and laminin; identified an E. faecalis-specific gene, ace, whose encoded protein has ...

We have studied the attachment of two murine metastatic cell lines and of a transformed, nonmetastatic sarcoma cell line to type IV (basement membrane) collagen. The metastatic cells attached preferentially to type IV collagen, whereas the nonmetastic cells attached best to type I collagen. Laminin increased both the rate and the number of metastatic cells attaching to type IV collagen, while f...

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for the genes involved in phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog (PI3K/AKT) pathway.Data on mRNA expression of 341 genes in lymphoblastoid cell lines of 373 Europeans recruited by the 1000 Genomes Project using Illumina HiSeq2000 were utilized. We used t...