OBJECTIVES To prospectively evaluate the technical feasibility and efficacy of wedged arterial injection (WAI) as a potential route for experimental selective therapy to the pancreas of healthy pigs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Selective angiographies were completed in ten pigs under general anaesthesia. By superselective angiography, the catheter was inserted and wedged into the major pancreatic a...

Background Cancer origin is closely linked with mutations and changes in the chromosome structure, making important such cytogenetics studies [1]. Macrophage murine cell line J774-1 is derived from a reticulum cell sarcoma and presents various characteristics of primary macrophages as synthesis and lysozyme secretion, phagocytosis, Fc receptor expression [2,3]. This work aimed to analyze the fu...

An embryonic cell marker system has been developed in Drosophila melanogaster that has enabled us to identify the genotype of cells as early as the cellular blastoderm stage of development. This system allows unambiguous detection of embryos homozygous for most X-linked lethal mutations at stages prior to when their first defects become obvious. By examining gynandromorphs at this stage, we hav...

UNLABELLED Sliding Box Docking is a program that manages simulations of ligand docking at different defined positions of a three-dimensional DNA structure. The procedure is similar to inverse docking, which is a method that performs docking simulations of a single ligand in the active sites of different targets. Sliding Box Docking manages docking simulations of one ligand into a box that slide...

AIM To explore the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope protein 2 (E2) in the induction of apoptosis. METHODS A carboxyterminal truncated E2 (E2-661) was transiently expressed in several cultured mammalian cell lines or stably expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line. Cell proliferation was assessed by 3H thymidine uptake. Apoptosis was examined by Hoechst 33258 staining, flow c...

DNA quantification of soils and sediments is useful for the investigation of microbial communities and for the acquisition of their genomes that are exploited for the production of natural products. However, in such samples DNA quantification is impaired by humic acids (HA). Due to its lack of specificity and sensitivity, UV spectrophotometry cannot be applied. Consequently, fluorimetric assays...

BACKGROUND Live cell fluorescence microscopy experiments often require visualization of the nucleus and the chromatin to determine the nuclear morphology or the localization of nuclear compartments. METHODS We compared five different DNA dyes, TOPRO-3, TOTO-3, propidium iodide, Hoechst 33258, and DRAQ5, to test their usefulness in live cell experiments with continuous imaging and photobleachi...

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) is essential for normal cell growth, and may play an important role in inflammatory and autoimmune disorders including rheumatoid arthritis. We investigate that EPA could suppress the proliferation of fibroblast like synoviocytes in vitro. We treated synoviocytes with 1 to 50 microM EPA and measured cell viabilities by the modified MTT assay. We sorted the number of ...

Dried flowers of Trollius chinensis have long been used as an important traditional Chinese medicine. Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of T. chinensis flavonoids to reduce the proliferation of human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. The present study further investigated the influence of T. chinensis flavonoids on the growth and proliferation of MCF-7 cells and observed clear inhibitory ...