Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been demonstrated to contribute to HIV-induced tubular cell injury. We hypothesized that HIV-induced ROS generation may be causing tubular cell injury through downregulation of vitamin D receptor (VDR) and associated downstream effects. In the present study, HIV not only downregulated tubular cell VDR expression but also inflicted DNA injury. On the other hand...

Differentiation of the glomerulus and the proximal tubule was studied in the rat foetus, especially with regard to the development of the protein filtration-reabsorption apparatus. Filtration starts several days before full differentiation of the glomerulus, when the glomerular basement membrane consists of a thin lamina alongside the podocyte membrane. Endocytosis is functional fom this time b...

The development of composite scaffolds with well-organized architecture and multi-scale properties (i.e. porosity, degradation) represents a valid approach for achieving a tissue-engineered construct capable of reproducing the medium- and long-term in vitro behaviour of hierarchically complex tissues such as spongy bone. To date, the implementation of scaffold design strategies able to summariz...

This study was undertaken to define whether differences in the expression of Wnt pathway components are present between normal colonic mucosa, early (tubular) adenomas and villous adenomas which have a higher malignant potential. Normal mucosa, tubular adenomas and villous adenomas were obtained from twelve patients. RNA was isolated and utilized for Wnt pathway-specific membrane array expressi...

Anode-supported micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) offers many advantages over the electrolyte and cathode-supported confgurations in terms of simplicity, reliability, and efciency. In such design, the anode substrates should possess a highly porous structure, provide active sites reaction as well as serving good mechanical strength. This structure is desired to ...

A bis(squaraine) dye equipped with alkyl and oligoethyleneglycol chains was synthesized by connecting two dicyanomethylene substituted squaraine dyes a phenylene spacer unit. The aggregation behavior of this investigated in non-polar toluene/tetrachloroethane (98:2) solvent mixture, which revealed competing cooperative self-assembly pathways into supramolecular polymorphs entirely different pac...