Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), where they generate a persistent inflammatory response from microglia, the innate immune cells of the brain. The immune modulatory cyclooxygenase/prostaglandin E2 (COX/PGE2) pathway has been implicated in preclinical AD development, both in human epidemiology studies1 and in transgenic rodent models of A...

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the pathophysiologic links between prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) and osteoarthritis (OA) by characterizing the catabolic effects of PGE(2) and its unique receptors in human adult articular chondrocytes. METHODS Human adult articular chondrocytes were cultured in monolayer or alginate beads with and without PGE(2) and/or agonists of EP receptors, antagonists of EP receptor...

PURPOSE To examine the expression of prostaglandin (PG) receptors EP2, EP4, and FP in a human lens epithelial cell line (HLE-B3) at molecular and pharmacologic levels. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) were performed with total RNA preparations from HLE-B3 cells using sense and antisense primers for each of the three prostaglandin receptors. The PCR products we...

A high degree of homology between the four Gs-coupled prostaglandin (PG) receptors [EP2, EP4, prostacyclin (IP), PGD2 (DP)] and the four Gq/Gi-coupled receptors [EP1, EP3, PGF2alpha (FP), thromboxane A2 (TP)] suggests that prostaglandin receptors evolved functionally from an ancestral EP receptor before the development of distinct binding epitopes. If so, ligand selectivity should be determined...

The glycoside hydrolase LXYL-P1-2 from Lentinula edodes can specifically hydrolyze 7-β-xylosyltaxanes to form 7-β-hydroxyltaxanes for the semi-synthesis of paclitaxel. In order to improve the catalytic properties of the enzyme, we performed error-prone PCR to construct the random mutant library of LXYL-P1-2 and used the methanol-induced plate method to screen the mutants with improved catalytic...

BACKGROUND Prostaglandins are important for female reproduction. Prostaglandin-E2 acts via four different receptor subtypes, EP1, EP2, EP3 and EP4 whereas prostaglandin-F2alpha acts through FP. The functions of prostaglandins depend on the expression of their receptors in different uterine cell types. Our aim was to investigate the expression of EPs and FP in rat uterus and to identify the regu...

Background Successful transplantation of haematopoetic stem cells (HSC) is often limited by low transplantation efficiency. This may be enhanced by pharmacological means. In fact, HSCs require a Gas-transduced signal to re-populate the bone marrow [1]. Pretreatment with prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) enhances engraftment via activation of Gascoupled EP2 and EP4 receptors [2]. Treprostinil is a stable ...

The effects of early thermal environment on growth, age at maturity, and sexual size dimorphism in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) are investigated. This study is a 654-day long rearing trial split into two sequential experimental phases termed EP1 EP2 lasting 315 339 days, respectively. started the end yolk sac stage when fish were divided three groups reared different target temperatures (7...

Performance of primary and secondary beam lines of the KEK 12 GeV Proton Synchrotron (KEK-PS) will be described. -The KEK-PS is the first accelerator constructed at KEK and is still serving physicists with excellent beams. Now two experimental halls, i.e. the North Hall and the East Hall are ready for counter experiments using proton beams slowly extracted from the KEK-PS. Several target statio...