Due to its central role in the generation af the nervous impulse, the sodium channel of nerve and muscle has been the most extensively studied of all voltage-gated ion channels. While most of the early work focused on functional properties using biiophysical techniques, more recent attention has been given to the molecular structure of the channel with the ultimate goal of understanding the mec...

The nature of hemolytic effect induced by ethylene glycol alkyl ethers was analyzed taking into account G-6-PDH activity, ATP, pyruvate and thiols levels in peripheral blood of rats treated with single doses of 2-ethoxyethanol and 2-butoxyethanol. In addition, the susceptibility to autoxidation of rat erythrocyte lipids was evaluated. A decrease of ATP level in a dose-dependent manner and an in...

We describe a case of allergy caused by ingestion of eggplant in an atopic subject. Symptoms included urticaria, itching of the throat, and hoarseness. Skin prick test (SPT) was positive with 4 varieties of eggplant; however, allergen-specific immunoglobulin E was not detected. SPT with fractions of green long eggplant extract obtained by dialysis and ultrafiltration suggested the allergen to b...

Conditional gene deletion in mice has contributed immensely to our understanding of many biological and biomedical processes. Despite an increasing awareness of nonprotein-coding functional elements within protein-coding transcripts, current gene-targeting approaches typically involve simultaneous ablation of noncoding elements within targeted protein-coding genes. The potential for protein-cod...

are both defenses against and potential markers of reactive oxygen metabolite injury during ischemia and reperfusion. We examined the alterations in GSH and other myocardial SH pools during reperfusion in anesthetized dogs exposed to brief (15 minutes, n=7) or prolonged (90 minutes, n=6) regional ischemia caused by occlusion of the left anterior descending artery. Ninety minutes of ischemia fol...

An experiment was conducted to study the biochemical and physicochemical changes with respect to improvement in tenderness of spent hen breast meat. Breast muscle obtained from freshly slaughtered spent hens (72 wk old) was divided into 5 equal lots and dipped in 1 mM NaN3 before being packed in low-density polyethylene pouches under aerobic conditions and stored at refrigeration temperature (4...

Fine fescue grasses displace neighboring plants by depositing large quantities of an aqueous phytotoxic root exudate in the soil rhizosphere. Via activity-guided fractionation, we have isolated and identified the nonprotein amino acid m-tyrosine as the major active component. m-Tyrosine is significantly more phytotoxic than its structural isomers o- and p-tyrosine. We show that m-tyrosine expos...