Reelin (Reln) is a protein with some structural analogies with other extracellular matrix proteins that functions in the regulation of neuronal migration during the development of cortical laminated structures. In the cortex of adult animals, Reln is expressed primarily in g-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic neurons and is secreted into perineuronal nets. However, only 50–60% of GABAergic interneur...

All known proteins that accumulate in the vacuolar space surrounding the obligate intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii are derived from parasite dense granules. To determine if constitutive secretory vesicles could also mediate delivery to the vacuolar space, T. gondii was stably transfected with soluble Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase and E. coli beta-lactamase. Surprisingl...

Sustained stress can have numerous pathologic effects. There have been several animal models for chronic stress. We tried to identify the changes of pain threshold and hippocampus in a model of chronic stress. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were kept in a cage filled with 23°C water to a height of 2.2 cm for 7 days. Nociceptive thresholds, expressed in grams, were measured with a Dynamic Plantar Aest...

The subcellular location of IL-1 beta was determined using a postsectioning immunoelectron microscopic method on ultrathin frozen sections of human monocytes stimulated with LPS. This methodology permits access of antibody probes to all sectioned intracellular compartments, and their visualization at high resolution. Staining was performed with a rabbit antibody that specifically recognized ami...

A detailed morphological study of neurons in healthy and pathological conditions requires reasonably a number of special techniques, which may visualize the majority of neu-rons in a thick three-dimensional arrangement. A detailed visualization of neurons must include the cell body, most of the dendritic arbor, the dendritic spines, the axon, the axonal collaterals and the synapses. An ideal mo...

Isolated Golgi complexes can be recognized in phosphotungstate (PTA) negative stain as stacks of membranous plates surrounded by a complex anastomosing network of tubules and vesicles. The extent of this tubular network is, however, much greater than can be observed in thin sections of whole cells. To determine which of the steps leading to the final negatively stained image may produce the obs...

The Golgi silver-impregnation method established itself as an important technique for distinguishing morphology at the individual neuron level. This technique has been especially useful for studying human neuroanatomy because it works on postmortem tissue but it is also unreliable and capricious. In this report, we describe a simple technique that was applied to human autopsy and tissue-bank ma...

Immunohistochemical study showed selective localisation of human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) to the synovial lining layer. Although the synovial lining layer of the rheumatoid, osteoarthritic, and traumatic joints was hEGF positive, hEGF staining was especially dense at the rheumatoid synovial lining layer; the staining increasing linearly according to the degree of stratification of the lin...

introduction: the novel development of the (hba) sperm- hyaluronan binding assay has now been routinely used in some laboratories worldwide to predict sperm maturity and functionality. the purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between hba score and histone deficiency, protamine content and dna fragmentation. methods: during april- march 2012 patients who were enrolled at shiraz-...

Despite the ubiquitous presence of the COPI, COPII, and clathrin vesicle budding machineries in all eukaryotes, the organization of the secretory pathway in plants differs significantly from that in yeast and mammalian cells. Mobile Golgi stacks and the lack of both transitional endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and a distinct ER-to-Golgi intermediate compartment are the most prominent distinguishing ...