Vitamin K is essential for the synthesis of proteins belonging to the Gla-protein family. To the members of this family belong four blood coagulation factors, which all are exclusively formed in the liver. The importance of vitamin K for hemostasis is demonstrated from the fact that vitamin K-deficiency is an acute, life-threatening condition due to excessive bleeding. Other members of the Gla-...

Interaction between the Gla-domain of coagulation proteins and negatively charged phospholipid membranes is essential for blood coagulation reactions. The interaction is calcium-dependent and mediated both by electrostatic and hydrophobic forces. This report focuses on the electrostatic component of factor IX activation via the extrinsic pathway. Effective charges during the reaction are measur...

Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) is known to have selective tumoricidal action. It is also reported that GLA may increase the cytotoxic activity of cancer chemotherapeutic agents in some cancer cells. The present study examined whether GLA pretreatment could modulate the response of multidrug-resistant K562/ADM leukemic cells to anticancer drugs. The cell viability assay results showed that GLA at 10...

BACKGROUND Hemophilia is caused by deficiencies in coagulation factor VIII or IX, resulting in direct blockade of the intrinsic tenase complex and indirect blockade of the extrinsic tenase complex which is rapidly inhibited upon binding of factor Xa to tissue factor pathway inhibitor. We evaluated the ability of Gla-domainless factor Xa, a truncated form of factor Xa devoid of procoagulant prop...

In a series of recent publications (most notably Boersma (1998); see also Boersma and Hayes (2001)), Paul Boersma has developed a stochastic generalization of standard Optimality Theory in the sense of Prince and Smolensky (1993). While a classical OT grammar maps a set of candidates to its optimal element (or elements), in Boersma’s Stochastic Optimality Theory (StOT for short) a grammar defin...

Borage (Borago officinalis L.) seed oil has been used as a treatment for various degenerative diseases. Many useful properties of this oil are attributed to its high gamma linolenic acid content (GLA, 18:3 ω-6). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the safety and suitability of the use of borage seed oil, along with one of its active components, GLA, with respect to DNA integrity, and t...

Synthetic monosaccharide lipid A analogs with alkyl-branched acyl substituents instead of the usual ester-branched acyl substituents were investigated for their biological activities. The activities were compared with those of a representative synthetic monosaccharide lipid A analog with an ester branch (GLA-60) and synthetic complete lipid A (506) to estimate the role of the attaching mode of ...

AIM Postprandial release of intact proinsulin (IP) is an independent marker for beta-cell dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes. This open-label, parallel-group, two-arm, pilot study compared the beta-cell protective effect of adding insulin glargine (GLA) vs. NPH insulin to ongoing metformin. MATERIAL AND METHODS Overall, 28 insulin-naive type 2 diabetes subjects (mean +/- SD age, 61....

INTRODUCTION Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a progressive disease, and many patients eventually require insulin therapy. This study examined real-world outcomes of switching basal insulin analogs among patients with T2DM. METHODS Using two large United States administrative claims databases (IMPACT(®) and Humana(®)), this longitudinal retrospective study examined two cohorts of adult pati...

Studies showed that gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and its derivatives have the potential to be anti-cancer molecules. In vitro, in vivo and limited clinical studies showed that GLA has selective tumoricidal action with little or no side effects. The mechanism of its action appears to be by inducing apoptosis of tumor cells by augmenting free radical generation only in the tumor cells but not norma...