Background: Polymalic acid (PMA) is a water-soluble biopolymer with many attractive properties for food and pharmaceutical applications mainly produced by the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. Acid hydrolysis of PMA, resulting in release of the monomer l-malic acid (MA), which is widely used in the food and chemical industry, is a competitive process for producing bio-based platform ch...

Previous studies have shown that coexposure to marginally toxic concentrations of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA; 10 nM) and the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol (FP; 100-200 nM) synergistically induces apoptosis in human myeloid leukemia cells U937 and HL-60 (i.e., >50% apoptotic at 24 h). Attempts have now been made to characterize the cell death pathway(s) involved in thi...

Gross similarities between the external appearance of the hind limbs of the peroneal muscle atrophy (pma) mouse mutant and congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), a human disorder historically referred to as 'clubfoot', suggested that this mutant could be a useful model. We used micro-magnetic resonance imaging to visualize the detailed anatomy of the hind limb defect in mutant pma mice and perf...

The inhibition of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-gated chloride currents by the protein kinase C (PKC) activator 4beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) was investigated using recombinant human GABAA receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. PMA (5 nM) reduced the GABA response in oocytes expressing the alpha1 beta2 gamma2L receptor construct, as measured by the two-electrode voltage-clamp me...

Acylation Stimulating Protein (ASP) was recently purified to homogeneity from human plasma and shown to be identical to C3adesArg. ASP stimulates triglycerides synthesis in human skin fibroblasts and primary human adipocytes. In vitro differentiation of human preadipocytes to mature fat cells results in increased expression and accumulation of ASP in the medium. These differentiated human adipo...

Monocytes were isolated in high yield (approximately 80%) and purity (greater than 90%) by Percoll gradient centrifugation and incubated in Teflon culture vessels. Using this culture method, we routinely recovered 80% of the cells originally placed into culture. Studies of the C3b and C3b' receptors of these monocytes showed that the function of both receptors could be dramatically altered by t...

Interactions between the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) flavopiridol (FP) and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) were examined in U937 human leukemia cells in relation to differentiation and apoptosis. Simultaneous, but not sequential, exposure of U937 cells to 100 nM FP and 10 nM PMA significantly increased apoptosis manifested by characteristic morphological features, mitochondri...

Increased expression of cyclooxygenase (COX) 2 and the production of PGs appear to provide a survival advantage to transformed cells through the inhibition of apoptosis, increased attachment to extracellular matrix, increased invasiveness and the stimulation of angiogenesis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an angiogenic antagonist, SU5416, could inhibit endogenous and phorbol...

The aim of this study was to determine the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in regulating glucose uptake in lactating bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMEC). The BMEC were cultured and treated with different concentrations of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA;0, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 ng/mL), the classic activator of PKC, for 48 h. Compared with the cells with no PMA treatment, 50 and 100 ng...

Phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) induces the expression of megakaryocyte and/or platelet proteins during terminal differentiation of human erythroleukemia (HEL) cells. However, it is not established whether megakaryocytic differentiation is accompanied by the downregulation of the major erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 and the concomitant loss of the erythrocytic phenotype. Studies of the m...