Sickle erythrocytes (RBC) incubated under 100% nitrogen for 4 hr manifested marked Na gain with an equivalent K loss. There were no changes in cell total cation or water content under these conditions, and no irreversible sickle cells (ISC) were formed. In contrast, sickle RBC incubated for 24 hr under 100% nitrogen in a glucose-free Na medium containing calcium manifested marked ISC formation....

Epithelia separate apical and basal compartments, and movement of substances via the paracellular pathway is regulated by tight junctions. Claudins are major constituents of tight junctions and involved in the regulation of tight junction permeability. On the other hand, the osmolality in the extracellular environment fluctuates in association with life activity. However, effects of osmotic cha...

Although formal methods for developing computer systems have been available for more than a decade, few have had signi cant impact in practice. A major barrier to their use is that developers nd formal methods di cult to understand and apply. One exception is a formal method called SCR for specifying computer system requirements which, due to its easy-to-use tabular notation and demonstrated sc...

Effects of threonine substitution by glutamine at position 256 in the pore of the KAT1 channel have been investigated by voltage-clamp, using heterologous gene expression in Xenopus oocytes. The major discrepancy in T256Q from the wild-type channel (wt) was cation specific. While K(+) currents were reduced in a largely scalar fashion, the NH(4)(+) current exhibited slow, voltage-dependent inhib...

Inasmuch as formal methods have continued to gain popularity within the industrial community, they are still far from attaining widespread acceptance, especially within the information systems domain. Reasons range from lack of appropriate education and training to lack of tools that provide continuity by integrating formal techniques with more traditional methods that may be more familiar for ...

The absorption of glucose is electrogenic in the small intestinal epithelium. The major route for the transport of dietary glucose from intestinal lumen into enterocytes is the Na⁺/glucose cotransporter (SGLT1), although glucose transporter type 2 (GLUT2) may also play a role. The membrane potential of small intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) is important to regulate the activity of SGLT1. The m...

We give an invariant classi cation of orbits of the fundamental representations of exceptional groups E7(7) and E6(6) which classify BPS states in string and M theories toroidally compacti ed to d = 4 and 5. The exceptional Jordan algebra and the exceptional Freudenthal triple system and their cubic and quartic invariants play a major role in this classi cation. The cubic and quartic invariants...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the impact of hypoxia-reoxygenation on endothelial relaxation and aimed to clarify the role of transient receptor potential cation channels V4 (TRPV4) and gap junctions in the protective effect associated with hypoxic preconditioning on the vascular function. METHODS AND RESULTS By mimicking ischemia-reperfusion in C57BL/6 male mice in vivo, we documented a reduced N...

Features of the oxidative cleavage reactions of diastereomers of dimeric lignin model compounds, which are models of the major types of structural units found in the lignin backbone, were examined. Cation radicals of these substances were generated by using SET-sensitized photochemical and Ce(IV) and lignin peroxidase promoted oxidative processes, and the nature and kinetics of their C-C bond c...

Cetiedil is a potential antisickling agent whose major effect appears to be at the erythrocyte membrane. To test the hypothesis that cetiedil alters cation transport, we studied the effect of the drug in promoting changes in cell water (Wc), cell sodium (Nac), and cell potassium (Kc). Results are quite different depending on the presence or near absence of intracellular ATP. With fresh cells, 1...