The role of S-nitrosated hemoglobin (SNO-Hb) in the regulation of blood flow is a central and controversial question in cardiopulmonary physiology. In the present study, we investigate whether intact human red blood cells (RBCs) synthesized to contain high SNO-Hb levels are able to export nitric oxide bioactivity and vasodilate the pulmonary circulation, and whether SNO-Hb dependent vasodilatio...

Tumor stroma drives the growth and progression of cancers. A heparin-binding epidermal growth factor–like growth factor, HB-EGF, is an EGF receptor ligand that stimulates cell growth in an autocrine or paracrine fashion. While elevated expression of HB-EGF in cancer cells and its contribution to tumor progression are well documented, the effects of HB-EGF expression in the tumor stroma have not...

Hemoglobin (Hb) is a major protein involved in transport of oxygen (O2). It consists of Hb-α and Hb-β subunits, which are normally expressed by cells of erythroid lineage. However, till recently, it was not known whether non-erythroid cells like vaginal cells synthesize Hb and whether it has any functional significance. Therefore, we designed the following objectives: (1) to establish in-vitro ...

It is known that most of the oxygen-linked carbamate which is formed in normal adult human hemoglobin (Hb A) is confined to the /3 subunits rather than to the LY subunits. In order to find out if similar differences exist in the isolated protomers of Hb A we have measured the effect of various pressures of carbon dioxide (pcoJ on the oxygen affinity in the following heme pigments: isolated (Y a...

Background: Different studies have demonstrated that a small proportion of healthy individuals receiving the hepatitis B (HB) vaccine do not produce protective levels of anti-HB antibody, a phenomenon which could be linked to certain human leukocyte an-tigen (HLA) class-II alleles or haplotypes. Objectives: The present study was under-taken to determine the frequency of HLA class-II alleles in ...

Various laboratory and patient-related factors can result in falsely high or low glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) measurements, and haemoglobin (Hb) variants that interfere with laboratory readings is an important cause of this. We report a case of a rare Hb variant, Hb Santa Juana, manifesting as a falsely high HbA1c in a 62-year-old patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The patient presented wit...

Fetal hemoglobin was studied in 50 unselected patients with polycythemia vera with chemical determinations of Hb F and measurements of F-cell levels using fluorescent anti-Hb F antibodies. Although in the majority of the patients Hb F production did not differ from that in normal controls, in 20% of the patients F-cell values were above the normal range. There was no correlation between F-cell ...

Two types of embryonic hemoglobins (Hb) containing zeta chains have been identified in the blood of several neonates of Chinese origin with homozygous alpha-thalassemia. In addition to Hb Portland I (zeta 2 gamma 2) which was previously reported, another embryonic hemoglobin has been detected and found to contain zeta chains and beta chains. It is being designated Hb Portland II and has the for...

The clinical value of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of anti-HBc IgM was evaluated by testing 202 sera from acute viral hepatitis B (AVHB), hepatitis B (HB), chronic hepatitis (CAH), chronic liver disease (CLD), cirrhosis, primary hepatoma, HBsAg carrier, acute viral hepatitis A (AVHA), hepatitis A (HA), non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis and miscellaneous conditions ...

BACKGROUND The usual criteria for analysis of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) are detection of HBsAg and result confirmation by antibody neutralization. We observed that with the Immulite 2000 HBsAg assay [Diagnostics Product Corporation (DPC)] a relatively high percentage of weakly reactive (WR) samples did not pass the neutralization step. METHODS For each of 3 lots of Immulite 2000 HBs...