Preterm birth remains the largest single cause of neonatal death and morbidity. Infection and/or inflammation are strongly associated with preterm delivery. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is known to be a crucial mediator of inflammation homeostasis. The aims of this study were to determine the effect of spontaneous human labour in foetal membranes and myometrium on GSK3α/β expression, and t...

The conjugation of polypeptides from a designed set to the small molecule ligand 3,5-bis[[bis(2-pyridylmethyl)amino]methyl]benzoic acid, which in the presence of Zn(2+) ions binds inorganic phosphate, has been shown to provide a polypeptide conjugate that binds α-casein, a multiply phosphorylated protein, with a dissociation constant K(D) of 17 nM. The measured affinity is more than three order...

A chimera of the nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor, TrkA, and green fluorescent protein (GFP) was engineered by expressing GFP in phase with the carboxyl terminus of TrkA. TrkA-GFP becomes phosphorylated on tyrosine residues in response to NGF and is capable of initiating signaling cascades leading to prolonged MAPK activation and differentiation in PC12 nnr5 cells. TrkA constructs, progressiv...

INTRODUCTION Chemerin is a chemotactic peptide which directs leukocytes expressing the chemokine-like receptor ChemR23 towards sites of inflammation. ChemR23 is a G protein-coupled receptor which binds several different ligands, and it is also expressed by other cell types such as adipocytes. In addition to chemotaxis, recent reports suggest that ChemR23 is capable of mediating either inflammat...

allergic asthma is a complex and chronic inflammatory airway disease. interleukin-17 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which plays critical role in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. it has been reported that β-arrestin2 regulated the development of allergic asthma at a proximal step in the inflammatory cascade. in this study, the influence of β-arrestin2 on interleukin-17 production and express...

Background: Fully grown mammalian oocyte utilizes transcripts synthetized and stored during earlier development. In the mouse oocyte there are three forms of cap-dependent translational repressors: 4E-BP1, 4E-BP2, and 4E-BP3. The dominant form, 4E-BP1, inhibits cap-dependent translation by binding to the eIF4E translation initiation factor. Hyperphosphorylation of 4E-BP1 disrupts this inhibitor...