AIM To investigate whether the emulsification of conventional silicone oils can be reduced by adding small amounts of silicone molecules of a very long chain length. METHODS Siluron 1000, Siluron 2000, Siluron 5000, Acri.Sil-Ol 5000, Oxane 5700, Densiron 68 LV, Densiron 68 and Densiron 68 HV (0.5 ml) were each tested along with either plasma or serum (0.5 ml) in a glass cuvette. Emulsificatio...

The folding of hirudin undergoes an initial stage of non-specific packing, followed by consolidation (re-organization) of partially packed intermediates to attain the native structure [Chatrenet and Chang (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 20988-20996]. Non-specific packing leads to the formation of scrambled hirudins as folding intermediates. A systematic study was carried out to search for conditions...

Background The major morbidity of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty is acute thrombosis and restenosis of the dilated lesion. Platelet-thrombus deposition occurs within minutes after injury, is primarily mediated by thrombin, causes acute occlusion, and contributes to late restenosis. Experimentally, specific thrombin inhibitors have prevented mural thrombosis. However, local thera...

Three different mechanisms have been detected for the aggregation of platelets by tumor cells in a homologous human system based on inhibition studies with apyrase, hirudin, and phospholipase D. In the major group, platelet aggregation induced by the SKBR3 (adenocarcinoma), SKNMC (neuroblas toma), HT29 (adenocarcinoma), and HT144 (melanoma) cell lines was inhibited by apyrase and phospholipase ...

The preclinical safety assessment of novel nanotechnology-based drug products frequently relies on in vitro assays, especially during the early stages of product development, due to the limited quantities of nanomaterials available for such studies. The majority of immunological tests require donor blood. To enable such tests one has to prevent the blood from coagulating, which is usually achie...

Hirudin is an anticoagulant agent of the salivary glands of the medicinal leech. Recombinant hirudin (r-Hir) displays certain drawbacks including bleeding and immunogenicity. To solve these problems, cysteine-specific PEGylation has been proposed as a successful technique. However, proper selection of the appropriate cysteine residue for substitution is a critical step. This study has, for the ...

The effect of iron concentration during growth on the physicochemical surface properties of the colonial variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been assessed by aqueous two-phase partitioning in a dextran-polyethyleneglycol system containing positively charged trimethylamino-polyethyleneglycol or hydrophobic polyethyleneglycol-palmitate. The complex effects of iron, in combination with other var...