Subunit II is one of the four nonidentical subunits of the membrane integral, proton-transporting moiety (CFo) of the chloroplast ATP synthase. In chloroplasts of spinach leaves, it is the only nuclear-encoded CFo subunit. It has been deduced that CFoII is not an additional subunit typical for photosynthetic organisms with no counterpart in E. coli, but equivalent to E. coli subunit b (Tiburzy,...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship between vitamin D and serum antioxidant vitamins E and A, and their deficiencies in pregnant women. METHODS This cross-sectional study was carried out in the maternity clinic of Naghavi Specialists and Subspecialities Polyclinic, affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences Kashan, Iran between April 2008 and August 2009. One hundred and forty-seven...

The effects of fat-soluble vitamin supplementation on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are not clear. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to quantify effects of fat-soluble vitamin supplements on fasting flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, a validated marker to assess CVD risk. Randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) were identified by a systematic search till July...

The adhesion of circulating cancer cells to the vascular endothelium is an important at step in the hematogenous metastasis of cancer. E-selectin expressed on endothelial cells and carbohydrate ligands expressed on cancer cells mediate this adhesion. We investigated the clinical significance of such cell adhesion molecules in breast cancer. The cytosol concentration of sialyl Lewis(x) was found...

The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of some specific biochemical indicators in discriminating between Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis and H. pylori-associated stomach cancer (serum gastrin level, serum soluble E-cadherin and tissue COX-2 activity, as well as serodiagnostic markers for H. pylori infection) in order to find a simple diagnostic test that can reasonably predict...

(PMN) elastase has been implicated in various pathological conditions. However, its physiological role remains undefined. One possible function of this enzyme may be digestion of bacterial proteins after phagocytosis. To test this hypothesis, we prepared Escherichia coli labeled with [3H]arginine and treated these bacteria with a lipid-soluble, active-site-directed chloromethyl ketone inactivat...