Crude papaya latex (CPL) and its proteinases, papain (PPN) and chymopapain (CPN). are strong uterine eontractants. The current study was carried out to examine possible mechanisms of the uterine stimulating activity of the proteinases. Inaetivation of the enzymatic activity of papaya proteinases reversibly abolished their uterinestimulating effect, suggesting that enzymatic activity of the prot...

The corpus luteum is a temporary endocrine structure in mammals that plays an important role in the female reproductive cycle and is formed from a ruptured and ovulated follicle with rapid angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is thought to be vital in normal and abnormal angiogenesis in the ovary, but the molecular regulation of luteal VEGF expression during corpus luteum dev...

Thrombin, the factor 2a (F2a) of blood coagulation, physiologically transforms soluble fibrinogen (F1) into insoluble glue-like fibrin at local areas of injured vessels. Thrombin is a 36000 Dalton-sized arginine-specific serine protease, i.e. a trypsin-like protease with an active catalytic Ser....His...Asp centre (ACC) in its B-chain (Fig. 1) [1]. The B-chain contains also the two major bindin...

Background—It has been suggested that oxidant stress may play a role in the pathophysiology of heart failure. However, no definitive information is available because most previous approaches used to measure oxidant stress are nonspecific, inaccurate, and unreliable. Methods and Results—To evaluate oxidant stress in the heart, we measured pericardial fluid levels of 8-iso-prostaglandin F2a (8-is...

Polycistronic vectors linked by self-processing 2A peptides have been successfully used in cellular reprogramming. The expression of these vectors has yet to be well documented in embryonic stem cells. In the present study, we generated expression cassettes containing combinatorial arrangements of 3 pancreatic transcriptions factors (Pdx1, Nkx2.2 and Ngn3) together with an eGFP reporter, all li...

The concentration of prostaglandin F2o (PGF2<I) was measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) obtained by lumbar puncture in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage and compared to control values. The level of this prostaglandin was elevated at some time in most patients during the course of their illness. However, this could not be correlated with the severity of neurological deficits observed. The ...

Experimental Study on the Genesis of Cerebral Vasospasm • The cerebral vasospasm produced by blood, fractions of blood, and blood-borne agents administered intracisternally was studied arteriographically to attain a better understanding of the genesis of vasospasm. The results indicate this phenomenon is multifarious in origin, involving a number of spasmogens. Whole blood, platelets, platelet ...

The present study has identified the metabolites of arachidonic acid (AA) formed by the isolated frog cornea and has shown that this tissue is capable of the biosynthesis of both lipoxygenase and cyclo-oxygenase pathway metabolites. The cyclo-oxygenase (CO) metabolites found in greatest abundance were the prostaglandins E2 and F2a (PGE2 and PGF2a). The major lipoxygenase (LO) pathway metabolite...