SMC condensin complexes play a central role in compacting and resolving replicated chromosomes in virtually all organisms, yet how they accomplish this remains elusive. In Bacillus subtilis, condensin is loaded at centromeric parS sites, where it encircles DNA and individualizes newly replicated origins. Using chromosome conformation capture and cytological assays, we show that condensin recrui...

Hypoxia, energy deficit, and oxidative damage are principal mechanisms of injury in hemorrhagic shock (HS). Oxidant-induced cellular energetic failure and cell dysfunction is mediated, in part, via the activation of the nuclear enzyme poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase (PARS). Here we examine the effect of the PARS inhibitor 3-aminobenzamide (3AB) in a severe HS model. Pigs were bled to a cardiac ind...

In birds, optic flow is analyzed by two retinal-recipient nuclei: the nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) of the accessory optic system (AOS), and the pretectal nucleus, lentiformis mesencephali (LM). Previous anatomical studies have shown that both of these nuclei have descending projections to structures involved in oculomotor, head movement, and postural control. In this report, using bio...

PURPOSE To determine if pars plana vitrectomy induces long-term changes in the anterior segment anatomy by means of ultrasound biomicroscopy. METHODS A prospective case series study was undertaken of consecutive patients referred to a tertiary eye care centre for pars plana vitrectomy as the only procedure. Twenty eyes of 20 patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy alone were studied by ultr...

Proteinase-activated receptors (PARs), a family of G protein-coupled receptors, are widely distributed in the mammalian body, playing a variety of physiological/pathophysiological roles. In the respiratory systems, PARs, particularly PAR-2 and PAR-1, are expressed in the epithelial and smooth muscle cells. In addition to the G(q/11)-mediated activation of the phospholipase C beta pathway, epith...

Certain extracellular proteases, derived from the circulation and inflammatory cells, can specifically cleave and trigger protease-activated receptors (PARs), a small, but important, sub-group of the G-protein-coupled receptor super-family. Four PARs have been cloned and they all share the same basic mechanism of activation: proteases cleave at a specific site within the extracellular N-terminu...

PURPOSE To study the differentiation of immature retinal neurons/retinal precursors in the ciliary epithelium after retinal histogenesis in mice with inherited or acquired retinal degeneration. METHODS Immunoreactivity to anti-recoverin, rhodopsin, and Pax6 antibodies and binding to peanut agglutinin were analyzed histologically. The distribution and differentiation of immature retinal neuron...

Chromosome segregation is an essential cellular function in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. The ParABS system is a fundamental player for a mitosis-like process in chromosome partitioning in many bacterial species. This work shows that the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus also uses the ParABS system for chromosome segregation. Its large prokaryotic genome of 9.1 Mb contains 22 parS sequenc...

Background: The smiley face rod method is an effective treatment for symptomatic terminal-stage spondylolysis. However, the risk factors failure are unknown. We investigated association of pars defect type with outcomes this method.