introduction: intracellular ph (phi) regulates essentially all aspects of cellular activities. however, it is unknown how endoplasmic reticulum (er) potassium channels sense phi. in this study, we investigate the direct effects of phi on er potassium channels. methods: we used channel incorporation into the bilayer lipid membrane method. l-α-phosphatidylcholine, a membrane lipid, was extracted ...

background: gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists or antagonists are used in assisted reproductive technique cycles as premature luteinizing hormone secretion inhibition. studies have been reported different and contradictory results on the serum progesterone effect on intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. objective: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of serum progesterone leve...

background: the exact pathophysiology of testicular degeneration, following varicocele has not been completely understood yet.   objective: the current study was designed to determine the effect of varicocele on germinal epithelium (ge) cytoplasmic biohistochmical alterations.   materials and methods: to follow-up this study, left varicocele was induced in test groups. non-varicocelized rats we...

exploitation of the full potential of any hybrid requires the possessing of genetically high-purity seeds. commercial soybean hybrids have been developed using a cytoplasmic male sterility (cms) system. in order to avoid reduction in yield caused by using low-purity seeds, development of a simple, rapid, and accurate method for hybrid purity assessment is of great essence and significance. ther...

Gap junctions mediate the transfer of small cytoplasmic molecules between adjacent cells. A family of gap junction proteins exist that form channels with unique properties, and differ in their ability to mediate the transfer of specific molecules. Mutations in a number of individual gap junction proteins, called connexins, cause specific human diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand ...

The filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 differentiates specialized cells, heterocysts, that fix atmospheric nitrogen and transfer the fixed nitrogen to adjacent vegetative cells. Reciprocally, vegetative cells transfer fixed carbon to heterocysts. Several routes have been described for metabolite exchange within the filament, one of which involves communicating chan...

Cell differentiation is remarkably stable but can be reversed by somatic cell nuclear transfer, cell fusion, and iPS. Nuclear transfer to amphibian oocytes provides a special opportunity to test transcriptional reprogramming without cell division. We show here that, after nuclear transfer to amphibian oocytes, mitotic chromatin is reprogrammed up to 100 times faster than interphase nuclei. We f...