A number of analogues of ovine growth hormone (GH), in which regions of the hormone had been deleted, were produced by site-directed mutagenesis, and characterised by radioimmunoassays and radioreceptor assays. These analogues were based on a previously described variant (oGH1) in which an 8-residue extension replaces the N-terminal alanine of pituitary-derived ovine GH. Three analogues with de...

A hallmark of prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopaties is the conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)), expressed by the prion gene (prnp), into an abnormally folded isoform (PrP(Sc)) with amyloid-like features that causes scrapie in sheep among other diseases. prnp together with prnd (which encodes a prion-like protein designated as Doppel), and prnt (that encodes th...

Background: in vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes has increasing potential applications in assisted reproductive technology (ART), during which germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes cultured in vitro to produce mature (MII arrested) ones. Although functional, IVM oocytes have low developmental competence compared to in vivo matured oocytes; possibly because IVM comprises asynchrony between nuclear and c...

Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2) has been reported as the main Shiga toxin associated with human disease. In addition, the Stx2 toxin type can have a profound impact on the degree of tissue damage in animal models. We have characterized the stx(2) subtype of 168 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates of which 146 were derived from ovine sources (principally feces and meat) and 22 were isola...

AIMS Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an emerging field with technological challenges. One major challenge is to minimise delivery catheter size to reduce vascular trauma, while maintaining features such as repositionability and retrievability. This study was designed as proof of concept of FOLDAVALVE, using a short-term ovine model. METHODS AND RESULTS FOLDAVALVE is a fully ...

Immunoglobulins were eluted from ovine placentae and characterized by immunoprecipitation, electrophoresis, western blotting and ELISA. IgG was shown to comprise the bulk of placental-bound immunoglobulins while smaller amounts of IgM and only trace amounts of IgA were demonstrated. Results suggest that ovine placental IgG eluted by surgical cannulation of the uterine blood vessels in situ is s...

Until now, the only published ovine adenovirus DNA sequence was the complete genome of ovine adenovirus isolate 287 (OAV287) which, compared to other mammalian adenoviruses, possesses strikingly unique genomic organisation and should properly be classified into a new adenovirus genus. The protease gene sequence of ovine adenovirus type 3 (OAdV-3) was determined and analysed. The results of phyl...

Ovine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) cDNA was isolated from total mRNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from indigenous sheep by reverse transcription PCR. The cDNA was successfully cloned, sequenced and expressed in Escherichia coli as thioredoxin fusion protein. Sequence comparison of Indian sheep IFN-γ showed high nucleotide homology with published IFN-γ sequences of sheep and other species o...

An ovine, testosterone-dependent protein was purified from an extract of epididymides of orchidectomized-, testosterone-implanted rams by ethylene glycol precipitation, anion exchange chromatography, preparative non-denaturing PAGE at alkaline pH and gel filtration. The protein which had previously been named ovine prealbumin-epididymis-specific protein (oPES), migrated as a single band ahead o...