In pancreatic beta-cells, increased expression of the MODY5 gene product, HNF1 beta, leads to enhanced rates of apoptosis and altered regulation of the cell cycle, suggesting that control of HNF1 beta expression may be important for the control of beta-cell proliferation and viability. It is unclear how these effects of HNF1 beta are mediated, but previously we have identified a protein tyrosin...

The insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling pathway is a major regulator of adipose tissue growth and differentiation. We recently demonstrated that human protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) L1, a large cytoplasmic phosphatase also known as PTP-BAS/PTPN13/PTP-1E, is a negative regulator of IGF-1R/IRS-1/Akt pathway in breast cancer cells. This triggered us to investigate the potent...

The cytokine stem cell factor (SCF) synergizes with interleukin-7 (IL-7) to enhance the proliferation of pre-B cells. To examine the role of SCF and its receptor, c-kit, in the pathogenesis of pediatric Burkitt's lymphomas (BL), we investigated the expression of SCF and c-kit in BL cells and the mitogenic activity of SCF on BL cells. A panel of 13 BL cell lines and 7 fresh biopsy tumors was inv...

Two experiments were performed to screen bacilli isolated from quails for their aflatoxin removal potential and to assess the efficiency of their amelioration of experimental aflatoxicosis. Nonhemolytic bacilli were selected for in vitro aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) removal and conventional probiotic tests. The isolate with the highest scores was selected for assessment in field experiments and was iden...

A novel chemical tool compound that is an antagonist of brassinolide (BL, 1)-induced rice lamina joint inclination was developed. Although 2-O-, 3-O-, 22-O-, or 23-O-methylation of BL causes a critical decrease in biological activity,(5) a crystal structure of the extracellular leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain of BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE I (BRI1) bound to BL(3,4) indicates that the loss of a...

Broussonetia papyrifera and Lonicera japonica have long been used in the treatment of inflammatory disorders in Chinese medicine, especially respiratory inflammation. Previously, a new phytoformula (BL) containing B. papyrifera and L. japonica was found to exert strong anti-inflammatory activity against several animal models of inflammation, especially against an animal model of acute bronchiti...

Firefly bioluminescence (BL) was greatly affected by cationic surfactants coexisting with liposomes containing phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol. In this study, the effects of the type and concentration of cationic surfactants on BL were studied in the presence of the liposomes. Three types of cationic surfactant: benzalkonium chloride (BAC), n-dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), and ben...

Banana lectin (BL) is a homodimeric protein categorized among jacalin-related family of lectins. The effect of acidic pH was examined on conformational stability of BL by using circular dichroism, intrinsic fluorescence, 1-anilino-8-napthalene sulfonate (ANS) binding, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). During acid denaturation of BL, the monomerization of na...

Observations of candidate BL Lacertae objects spectroscopically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) reveal a large fraction with high polarization (P > 3%). This result confirms that synchrotron radiation makes an important contribution to the observed optical continuum for most objects in the sample. The SDSS sample can be divided into separate categories, with objects of undeter...

OBJECTIVE The C57Bl/6J (Bl/6J) mouse is the most widely used strain in metabolic research. This strain carries a mutation in nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (Nnt), a mitochondrial enzyme involved in NADPH production, which has been suggested to lead to glucose intolerance and beta-cell dysfunction. However, recent reports comparing Bl/6J to Bl/6N (carrying the wild-type Nnt allele) und...