In this report, we examine the functional significance of the molecular microheterogeneity of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). In doing so, we have taken the direct approach of purifying the naturally occurring isomeric forms of fetal-derived AFP using a preparative anion exchange column linked to an automated fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) system followed by parallel testing of each isolate...

UDP-N-acetyl-L-fucosamine is a precursor to l-fucosamine in the lipopolysaccharide of Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O11 and the capsule of Staphylococcus aureus type 5. We have demonstrated previously the involvement of three enzymes, WbjB, WbjC, and WbjD, in the biosynthesis of UDP-2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxy-L-galactose or UDP-N-acetyl-L-fucosamine (UDP-l-FucNAc). An intermediate compound from ...

PURPOSE Helicobacter pylori is a widely distributed gram-negative bacterium that infects the human stomach and duodenum. HpaA is a H. pylori-specific lipoprotein that has been shown to be an effective protective antigen against H. pylori infection. HpaA of H. pylori as a vaccine antigen is fully competent for stimulation of immune responses. The aim of this project is cloning, expression, and p...

Neocarzinostatin, a highly toxic antitumor protein containing an essential nonprotein chromophore, can be isolated and purified from culture filtrates of Streptomyces carcinostaticus. Usually a lengthy procedure of up to 60 h is necessary for the isolation, including several chromatographic steps partly under conditions which favour inactivation of the drug by release of chromophore. We describ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to investigate LDL modifications by cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) from women smokers and non-smokers. METHODS Modifications of LDL by HUVEC were studied by determining the values of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and the percentage of the most electronegative oxidized LDL fraction (fraction C) by using an ion-exchan...

Two fast and simple methods for porcine haptoglobin (Hp) and ceruloplasmin (Cp) purification are described in this paper. Hp was purified by ammonium sulphate fractionation and a FPLC Superdex-200 gel chromatography. The protein obtained showed two bands with a M r (molecular mass) of about 44 kDa and 12.9 kDa corresponding to heavy (β) and light (α) chains of Hp respectively, on sodium dodecyl...

Eight phospholipidic classes from bovine brain cortex and soybean were prepared and purified by preparative high-performance and liquid chromatography, and their molecular species were identified by negative ion fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry using the 'surface precipitation' method. Its main advantages are: (i) clear-cut and abundant diagnostic ions for structural elucidation of the s...

BACKGROUND Peptides derived from brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) precursor (proBNP), BNP, and the N-terminal fragment of proBNP (NT-proBNP) are used as biomarkers of heart failure. It remains unclear which forms of these peptides circulate in blood and which forms are measured by assays for these natriuretic peptides. METHODS To design assays for immunodetection of proBNP, NT-proBNP, and BNP,...

this article describes a simple and fast high-performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of methotrexate (mtx) in plasma. samples were collocted from children receiving high-dose mtx at shafa hospital (ahvaz university of medical sciences, ahvaz, iran) at various times after the end of eachinfusion. plasma was deproteinized with trichloroacetic acid and the supernatant was i...

an accurate and sensitive reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatograph-ic method for determination of sertraline in human serum is described using 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan as pre-column derivatization agent. the drug and an internal standard (azithrimycin) were extracted from serum using a mixture of diethyl ether-chloroform and subjected to the pre-column derivatization with the re...