Errors in choice tasks have been shown to elicit a cascade of characteristic components in the human event-related potential (ERPs)-the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) and the error positivity (Pe). Despite the large number of studies concerned with these components, it is still unclear how they relate to error awareness as measured by overt error signaling responses. In the present study, we...

Atg8 is conjugated to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) by ubiquitin-like conjugation reactions. Atg8 has at least two functions in autophagy: membrane biogenesis and target recognition. Regulation of PE conjugation and deconjugation of Atg8 is crucial for these functions in which Atg4 has a critical function by both processing Atg8 precursors and deconjugating Atg8-PE. Here, we report the crystal ...

Arachidonate-containing oxidized phospholipids are acutely generated by 12-LOX (12-lipoxygenase) in agonist-activated platelets. In the present study, formation of structurally related lipids by oxidation of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid)-containing phospholipids is demonstrated using lipidomic approaches. Precursor scanning reverse-phase LC (liquid chromatography)-MS/MS (tandem MS) identified a ne...

Introduction Chronic otomastoiditis causes pain, otorrhea, and hearing loss resulting from the growth of tissue within the normally hollow mastoid cavity. Objectives In this report, we used a lipidomics approach to profile major mastoid bone and tissue lipids from patients with and without otomastoiditis. Methods The bone dust created during mastoidectomy, as well as the mastoid tissue, was ana...

Monolayer spontaneous curvatures for cholesterol, DOPE, POPE, DOPC, DPPC, DSPC, POPC, SOPC, and egg sphingomyelin were obtained using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) on inverted hexagonal phases (HII). Spontaneous curvatures of bilayer forming lipids were estimated by adding controlled amounts to a HII forming template following previously established protocols. Spontaneous curvatures of bo...

The endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) has many neurovascular activities. However, it is not yet clear how AEA can be metabolized at the neurovascular interface, and how it can move through the vascular and the cerebral compartments. The results reported in this article show that isolated bovine brain microvessels, an ex vivo model of the blood-brain barrier, have detectable levels of endogenous ...

With 22 carbons and 6 double bonds docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is the longest and most unsaturated fatty acid commonly found in membranes. It represents the extreme example of a class of important human health promoting agents known as omega-3 fatty acids. DHA is particularly abundant in retinal and brain tissue, often comprising about 50% of the membrane's total acyl chains. Inadequate amounts ...

The composition of the lipid matrix is critical for function of membrane proteins. Perhaps one of the best studied examples is the function of the G-protein-coupled membrane receptor (GPCR) rhodopsin which is located in membranes with high content of phospholipids with polyunsaturated docosahexaenoic acid chains (DHA, 22:6n-3). Technological advances enabled a more detailed study of structure a...

Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 7136 exhibited major changes in lipid composition when grown in the presence of either 0.15% sodium deoxycholate or 0.15% sodium benzoate. These lipophilic compounds had directly opposing effects on the lipid profile of the organism. The saturated/unsaturated ratio was markedly elevated in benzoate-grown cells. On the other hand, it was depressed by an even greater m...

We aimed to identify metabolites involved in the anti-obesity effects of Platycodon grandiflorum (PG) in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice using mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomic techniques. C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups: normal diet (ND)-fed mice, HFD-fed mice, HFD with 1% PG extract-fed mice (HPGL), and HFD with 5% PG extract-fed mice (HPGH). After 8 weeks, the HFD group gaine...