Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are important polysaccharides with various biological functions, but their structures in solution are affected in a complex manner by their component residues. We successfully measured the vacuum-ultraviolet circular dichroism (VUVCD) spectra of six GAGs (chondroitin, chondroitin sulfates, hyaluronic acid, and heparin) and their component sugars (N-acetylaminosugars an...

The chemokine CCL21, also known as Exodus-2/6-Ckine/secondary lymphoid-tissue chemokine/T cell activator protein-4, is the most potent stimulator of T cell migration and adhesion yet described. Endothelial heparin-like glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are thought to present chemokines at sites of inflammation, maintaining a local concentration gradient to which leukocytes can respond. In contrast, thi...

Heparan sulfate (HS) and heparin are glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that are heterogeneous in nature, not only due to differing disaccharide combinations, but also their sulfate modifications. HS is well known for its interactions with various growth factors and cytokines; and heparin for its clinical use as an anticoagulant. Due to their potential use in tissue regeneration; and the recent adverse ...

The hydrozoan is the simplest organism whose movements are governed by the neuromuscular system, and its de novo morphogenesis can be easily induced by the removal of body parts. These features make the hydrozoan an excellent model for studying the regeneration of tissues in vivo, especially in the nervous system. Although glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and proteoglycans (PGs) have been implicated i...

INTRODUCTION: Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) contribute to the hydration of articular cartilage, ligament, and tendon through osmotic and electrostatic interactions with polar water molecules [1]. This mechanism is a strong determinant of perceived viscoelastic behavior of some biological soft tissues under deformation [2-4]. The apparent permeability describes the freedom of fluid to flow through a...

Microsporidia are obligate intracellular opportunistic protists that infect a wide variety of animals, including humans, via environmentally resistant spores. Infection requires that spores be in close proximity to host cells so that the hollow polar tube can pierce the cell membrane and inject the spore contents into the cell cytoplasm. Like other eukaryotic microbes, microsporidia may use spe...

The in vitro effects of derivatives of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) on the spontaneous induction of fragmentation of cultured porcine oocytes were examined. Oocytes cultured for 72 h or longer undergo spontaneous fragmentation, and the percent of fragmented oocytes increased thereafter. The fragmented oocytes consisted of several "blastomeres" showin...

A Transferable Utility (TU) game with n players specifies a vector of 2 − 1 real numbers, i.e. a number for each non-empty coalition, and this can be difficult to handle for large n. Therefore, several models from the literature focus on interaction situations which are characterized by a compact representation of a TU-game, and such that the worth of each coalition can be easily computed. Some...

Numerous crosslinking chemistries and methodologies have been investigated as alternative fixatives to glutaraldehyde (GLUT) for the stabilization of bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs). Particular attention has been paid to valve leaflet collagen and elastin stability following fixation. However, the stability of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), the primary component of the spongiosa layer of the BHV,...