BACKGROUND There is an urgent need to develop safe and effective adjuvants for the new generation of subunit vaccines. We developed the tubular immunostimulating complex (TI-complex) as a new nanoparticulate antigen delivery system. The morphology and composition of TI-complexes principally differ from the known vesicular immunostimulating complexes (ISCOMs). However, methodology for the prepar...

Plants are able to sense the magnitude and direction of gravity. This capacity is thought to reside in selected cell types within the plant body that are equipped with specialized organelles called statoliths. However, most plant cells do not possess statoliths, yet they respond to changes in gravitational acceleration. To understand the effect of gravity on the metabolism and cellular function...

The Atlantic jackknife clam, Ensis directus, is currently being researched as a potential species for aquaculture operations in Maine. The goal of this study was to describe the hemocytes of this species for the first time and provide a morphological classification scheme. We viewed hemocytes under light microscopy (using Hemacolor, neutral red, and Pappenheim's stains) as well as transmission ...

In many brain regions, hyperpolarization-activated cationic currents (Ih) are involved in the generation of rhythmic activities, but the role of Ih in olfactory oscillations remains unclear. Knowledge of the cellular and subcellular distributions of hyperpolarization-activated and cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (HCN) subunits is necessary for understanding the role of Ih in olfactory network a...

We have developed an in vitro system to study the biochemical events in the fusion of ilimaquinone (IQ) induced vesiculated Golgi membranes (VGMs) into stacks of cisternae. The Golgi complex in intact normal rat kidney cells (NRK) is vesiculated by treatment with IQ. The cells are washed to remove the drug and then permeabilized by a rapid freeze-thaw procedure. VGMs of 60 nm average diameter a...

Eight samples of accessory sex glands donkey were used to compare between the immature and mature donkey. The morphological parameters involved position, relation, shape, length, width, weight each gland. results in ampulla ductus deferens spindle shape strcture ends part deferens, located dorsaly urinary bladder opened into ejaculatory duct, measured 1.85±0.04cm, 3.81±0.18mm 0.96±0.02g 7.57±0....

Astrocytes might function as brain interoceptors capable of detecting different (chemo)sensory modalities and transmitting sensory information to the relevant neural networks controlling vital functions. For example, astrocytes that reside near the ventral surface of the brainstem (central respiratory chemosensitive area) respond to physiological decreases in pH with vigorous elevations in intr...

Recent experiments indicate that modification of synaptic strength may involve rapid regulation of vesicular traffic on the postsynaptic side of the synapse. The specific vesicular trafficking route taken by postsynaptic receptors appears to depend on the stimulus.

Disruption of neurotransmitter vesicle dynamics (transport, capacity, release) has been implicated in a variety of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions. Here, we report a novel mouse model of enhanced vesicular function via bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-mediated overexpression of the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2; Slc18a2). A twofold increase in vesicular transpo...