background: acanthamoeba keratitis develops by pathogenic acanthamoeba such as a. pal­es­tinen­sis . indeed this species is one of the known causative agents of amoebic keratitis in iran. mannose binding protein (mbp) is the main pathogenicity factors for developing this sight threatening disease. we aimed to characterize mbp gene in pathogenic acanthamoeba isolates such as a. palestinensis . m...

Decorin, an interstitial small proteoglycan, was shown to interact with fibronectin via its core protein. In a solid-phase assay, both high-affinity (KD values between 10 and 20 nM) and low-affinity (KD values between 110 and 130 nM) binding sites were found. The central position of decorin core protein is made up of several repeats containing NKISK in positions 85-89 and similar sequences in o...

M proteins are major virulence factors of group A streptococci which enable the bacteria to resist phagocytic attack. Their binding capacity for different plasma proteins seems to be one reason for the antiphagocytic activity of M protein. In the present study we demonstrate that M3 protein, isolated from the streptococcal culture supernatant of strain 4/55, and the recombinant form (rM3), puri...

Background: Bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSC) are appropriate source of multipotent stem cells that are ideally suited for use in various cell-based therapies. It can be differentiated into neuronal-like cells under appropriate conditions. This study examined the effectiveness of co-stimulation of creatine and retinoic acid in increasing the differentiation of BMSC into GABAergic neuron-lik...

An expression vector pTF7520-Col-V-In, which encodes a fusion protein of the cell-binding domain of fibronectin (C277) and the insulin- and heparin-binding domain of the alpha 1 chain of human type V collagen, was constructed. E. coli transfected with this plasmid synthesized a 50-kDa fusion protein. This fusion protein, C277-V, was purified from the crude extract by a single step heparin HPLC....

The possible role of a 140K membrane-associated protein complex (140K) in fibronectin-cytoskeleton associations has been examined. The 140K was identified by the monoclonal antibody JG22E. Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to the 140K showed identical patterns of binding to the cell membranes of fixed and permeabilized chicken embryonic fibroblasts; localization was diffuse, but with marked ...

PURPOSE To identify host-tissue amoeba interactions that may be important in the pathogenesis of Acanthamoeba keratitis, the ability of the opportunistic pathogen Acanthamoeba polyphaga to bind various components of the extracellular matrix (collagen type IV, laminin, or fibronectin) was examined in vitro. METHODS A polyphaga, isolated from a case of human amoebic keratitis, was used in the s...