Numerous studies have demonstrated that both the hypothalamic paraventricular nuclei (PVN) and ventromedial nuclei (VMN) regulate energy homeostasis through behavioral and metabolic mechanisms. Receptors for pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) are abundantly expressed in these nuclei, suggesting PACAP may be critical for the regulation of feeding behavior and body weight....

Cholera toxin (CT) and the heat-labile enterotoxin of E. coli (LT), as well as their non toxic mutants, are potent mucosal adjuvants of immunization eliciting mucosal and systemic responses against unrelated co-administered antigens in experimental models and in humans (non toxic mutants). These enterotoxins are composed of two subunits, the A subunit, responsible for an ADP-ribosyl transferase...

Anterior pituitary glands contain five types of hormone-producing cells. Distinguishing and isolating specific types of living cells are essential for studying their function. Although many such attempts have been made, the results have been disappointing. In the present study, we labeled specific types of living hormone-producing cells by using potential differences in sugar chains on the cell...

The inhibition of human CD4+ T lymphocyte activation and proliferation by cholera toxin B-subunit (CTB) is a well-established phenomenon; nevertheless, the exact mechanism remained unclear. In the present study, we propose an explanation for the rCTB-induced inhibition of CD4+ T lymphocytes. rCTB specifically binds to GM1, a raft marker, and strongly modifies the lipid composition of rafts. Fir...

To study the circuitry related to the ventral stream of visual information processing and its relation to the cytochrome oxidase (CytOx) modules in visual area V2, we injected anterograde and retrograde cholera toxin subunit B (CTb) tracer into nine sites in area V4 in five Cebus apella monkeys. The injection site locations ranged from 2° to 10° eccentricity in the lower visual field representa...

Retrograde axonal transport of cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) was used to compare the development of intracortical and thalamocortical connections in normal rats with those in rats in which all of the whiskers were trimmed continuously from birth. In normal animals, injections of CTB into a single barrel column resulted in an asymmetrical labeling of cells that were distributed preferentially wi...

We have investigated the induction of protective mucosal immunity to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolate 89.6 by intranasal (i.n.) immunization of mice with gp120 and gp140 together with interleukin-12 (IL-12) and cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) as adjuvants. It was found that both IL-12 and CTB were required to elicit mucosal antibody responses and that i.n. immunization resulted...

Cholera is a diarrheal disease responsible for the deaths of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of people every year, and its impact is predicted to further increase with climate change. It has been known for decades that blood group O individuals suffer more severe symptoms of cholera compared with individuals with other blood groups (A, B and AB). The observed blood group dependen...

To determine whether cholera toxin B subunit and active peptide from shark liver (CTB-APSL) fusion protein plays a role in treatment of type 2 diabetic mice, the CTB-APSL gene was cloned and expressed in silkworm (Bombyx mori) baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS), then the fusion protein was orally administrated at a dose of 100 mg/kg for five weeks in diabetic mice. The results demonstr...

Diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) presents as a wide variety of sensorimotor symptoms and affects approximately 50% of diabetic patients. Changes in the neural circuits may occur in the early stages in diabetes and are implicated in the development of DPN. Therefore, we aimed to detect changes in the expression of isolectin B4 (IB4, the marker for nonpeptidergic unmyelinated fibers and their cell b...