Human chymase (HC) constitutes a major granule protease in one of the two human mast cell (MC) types. The main biological role of this haematopoietic serine protease is probably not yet known, although it has been implicated in a large number of functions. Dogs, like humans, have only one chymase. This enzyme is closely related to its human homologue, and the MC subtypes of human and dog appear...

Cholesterol is a main lipid component of sperm cell that is essential for sperm membrane fluidity, capacitation, and acrosomal reaction. Recent data obtained in bovine sperm showed that sperm capacitation is associated to the formation of oxysterols, oxidized products of cholesterol. The aim of this study was to profile oxysterol content in human semen, and to investigate their potential role i...

The outcome of patients with advanced stage rhabdomyosarcoma is extremely poor, with a disease-free survival of less than 20% at 3 years. Autologous bone marrow transplantation for patients with Clinical Group IV rhabdomyosarcoma may be an effective therapy. The bone marrow involvement diagnosed by light microscopy is 29% for patients with advanced disease. The present study was performed to te...

Both human capital accumulation and Lazear contracts can explain the raising wage of salary/wage worker through job experience or tenure. To distinguish between these two effects, Lazear and Moore (1984) used self-employed workers’ wage growth to partial out the effect of human capital accumulation from salary/wage workers’ wage growth. When the human capital accumulation behavior is identical ...

The social capital and human capital have been conceptualized as key resources that may facilitate the performance of new ventures. Yet, despite a surge of studies examining the role of social capital and human capital in the entrepreneurial process, no quantitative assessments have been made of the empirical evidence to date. In an effort to systematically review past research results, I condu...

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is mediated by proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Because heavy chain-hyaluronic acid/pentraxin 3 (HC-HA/PTX3) purified from human amniotic membrane exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-scarring actions, we hypothesized that HC-HA/PTX3 could inhibit these PVR-related processes in vitro. In this study,...

Tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) produced by Clostridium tetani is one of the most poisonous protein substances. Neutralizing antibodies against TeNT can effectively prevent and cure toxicosis. Using purified Hc fragments of TeNT (TeNT-Hc) as an antigen, three specific neutralizing antibody clones recognizing different epitopes were selected from a human immune scFv antibody phage display library. The...

INTRODUCTION. Human cartilage glycoprotein 39 (HC gp-39), a member of the mammalian protein family related in sequence to the bacterial chitinases, has been reported as a major secretory glycoprotein of cultured human articular chondrocytes and synovial fibroblasts [1]. Although HC gp39 was undetectable in normal cartilage by Northern and Western blot analyses, it was reported to be highly expr...