It is well known that type II restriction enzyme activities and specificities can be modulated by altering solution conditions. The addition of co-solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), alcohols and polyols can promote star activity, which is the cleavage of non-cognate sequences. While neutral detergents are often used to control protein aggregation, little is known about the effect of ne...

growth medium. Growth was not appreciably affected by the detergents (0.0001 %) except for dodecyl and octadecyl sulfate, which showed some inhibition. It is apparent that enzymatic activity decreases as the number of carbons in the alkyl chain is increased. Equivalent concentrations are without effect on preformed penicillinase. However, the same pattern of inhibition occurred when the deterge...

BACKGROUND Methylisothiazolinone (MI) contact allergy is severely affecting consumers with allergic contact dermatitis, owing to its presence in cosmetics, household detergents, and water-based paints, in particular. Data on the true isothiazolinone concentrations in these products are scarce, and labelling may be incorrect. OBJECTIVES To report on the MI concentrations in such products marke...

Recently, we found that sphingomyelin bound and activated hepatitis C virus (HCV) 1b RNA polymerase (RdRp), thereby recruiting the HCV replication complex into lipid raft structures. Detergents are commonly used for resolving lipids and purifying proteins, including HCV RdRp. Here, we tested the effect of detergents on HCV RdRp activity in vitro and found that non-ionic (Triton X-100, NP-40, Tw...

Today cytochrome P450 (P450) research is accepted as an integral part of drug development and discovery. Work leading to this point included biochemical studies on P450 in experimental animal models and application to human systems. The development of recombinant expression systems has been an important part of the progress, and in this article we describe some recently developed bacterial syst...

MANY laboratory and clinical observations have implicated altered lipid metabolism as a contributor to membrane dysfunction, electrophysiological derangements, malignant arrhythmia, and cellular injury in ischemic myocardium. Amphipathic metabolites, moieties with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, are capable of exerting deleterious effects on biological membrane systems through mult...

Solubilization of the human erythrocyte membrane by seven detergents is described. Components released into the supernatant or retained in the residue were identified by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. Two non-ionic detergents exhibiting little u.v. absorption were more efficient than u.v.-absorbing Triton X-100. Evidence is presented of an interchange between protei...

The aquatic risk of 2-sulfonato fatty acid methyl ester sodium salt (MES) used in household detergents was assessed. The environmental exposure assessment expressed as predicted environmental concentration (PEC) was determined on the basis of monitoring results from the seven sites of four rivers in the urban area in Tokyo and Osaka. The 95 percentile as well as geometric mean of the MES concen...

MANY laboratory and clinical observations have implicated altered lipid metabolism as a contributor to membrane dysfunction, electrophysiological derangements, malignant arrhythmia, and cellular injury in ischemic myocardium. Amphipathic metabolites, moieties with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, are capable of exerting deleterious effects on biological membrane systems through mult...

The structure and function of basement membranes have been the subject of extensive investigation. The present study takes advantages of a new experimental procedure to yield ultrastructurally pure basement membranes and applies this methodology to Descemet's membrane, a highly specialized ocular basement membrane. Rabbit Descemet's membranes and associated endothelial cells were mechanically i...