Two abundant fatty acid-binding proteins (MFB1 and MFB2) were isolated from the midgut cytosol of larval Manduca sexta. As isolated, MFB1 and MFB2 were found to contain bound fatty acids in a 1:1 molar stoichiometric ratio. Immunological screening demonstrated that MFB1 and MFB2 were restricted to the midgut in a gradient distribution, with MFB1 more concentrated in the anterior two-thirds of t...

BACKGROUND Chromosomal instability is observed in a wide spectrum of human cancer syndromes. However, to date, little is known of the characteristic genetic changes in sporadic neuroendocrine tumours of the gastroenteropancreatic system. AIMS AND METHOD We have studied copy number aberrations (CNAs) in 26 sporadic neuroendocrine tumours of the enteropancreatic system (12 foregut and 14 midgut...

Jasmonate inducible plant leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) is proposed to serve as direct defense in the insect midgut. However, exact functions of inducible plant LAPs in the insect midgut remain to be estimated. In the present investigation, we report the direct defensive role of pigeon pea inducible LAP in the midgut of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and responses of midgut solubl...

Proper control of adult stem cells including their proliferation and differentiation is crucial in maintaining homeostasis of well-organized tissues/organs throughout an organism's life. The Drosophila adult midgut has intestinal stem cells (ISCs), which have been exploited as a simple model system to investigate mechanisms controlling adult tissue homeostasis. Here, we found that a viable muta...

The plant hormone jasmonic acid (JA) activates host defense responses against a broad spectrum of herbivores. Although it is well established that JA controls the expression of a large set of target genes in response to tissue damage, very few gene products have been shown to play a direct role in reducing herbivore performance. To test the hypothesis that JA-inducible proteins (JIPs) thwart at...

Although Anopheles mosquitoes are the vectors for human Plasmodium spp., there are also other mosquito species-among them culicines (Culex spp., Aedes spp.)-present in malaria-endemic areas. Culicine mosquitoes transmit arboviruses and filarial worms to humans and are vectors for avian Plasmodium spp., but have never been observed to transmit human Plasmodium spp. When ingested by a culicine mo...

BACKGROUND Plasmodium parasites need to cross the midgut and salivary gland epithelia to complete their life cycle in the mosquito. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanism and the mosquito genes that participate in this process is still very limited. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We identified an Anopheles gambiae epithelial serine protease (AgESP) that is constitutively expres...

Binding of promastigotes to the sand fly midgut epithelium is regarded as an essential part of the Leishmania life cycle in the vector. Among Leishmania surface molecules putatively involved in attachment to the sand fly midgut, two GPI-anchored molecules are the most prominent: lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and promastigote surface protease gp63. In this work, we examined midgut attachment of Leishm...

After ingestion of infected blood by a mosquito, malarial parasites are fertilized in the mosquito midgut and develop into motile ookinetes. These ookinetes invade epithelial cells by rupturing the cell membrane and migrate through the cytoplasm toward the basal lamina, on which they develop to oocysts. Here we report that a microneme protein with a membrane-attack complex and perforin (MACPF)-...

INTRODUCTION Our aim was to investigate the immune status of midgut carcinoid patients. Cancer patients generally display suppressed Th1-type immunity that disables mounting of an efficient anti-tumor response. However, little is known about patients with neuroendocrine midgut carcinoids. MATERIAL AND METHODS Circulating regulatory T cells were determined in patient blood by staining for CD4,...