The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of Apelin-13 on cardiomyocyte autophagy and to determine the underlying mechanism of this effect. To establish an autophagic model system, the cardiomyocytes of Sprague Dawley rats (postnatal day 3) were cultured and divided into five groups: normal control (Co), glucose deprivation (GD), GD+Apelin-13, GD+Apelin-13 treated with the Akt-...

Introduction. Percentage of galactose-deficient IgA1 (Gd-IgA1) relative to total IgA in serum was recently reported to correlate with proteinuria at time of sampling and during follow-up for pediatric and adult patients with IgA nephropathy. We sought to determine whether this association exists in another cohort of pediatric patients with IgA nephropathy. Methods. Subjects were younger than 18...

BACKGROUND MST-4 and TRAF-6 are involved in the regulation of inflammatory and immune responses. However, whether they participate in the pathogenesis of Graves' disease (GD) has not yet been reported. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of MST-4 and TRAF-6 in the peripheral blood of patients with GD to understand their role in the pathogenesis of GD. METHOD...

two new potential magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, gd-hematoporphyrin (gd-h) and gd-tetra-carboranylmethoxyphenyl-porphyrin (gd tcp), were synthesized and applied to nude mice with human melanoma (mm 138) xenografts. these agents showed a high relaxivity because of their greater potential to coordinate water molecules. the reduction of t1 relaxation times of 16 and 21% was observed i...

Gaucher disease (GD) is caused by a spectrum of genetic mutations within the gene encoding the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase). These mutations often lead to misfolded proteins that are recognized by the unfolded protein response system and are degraded through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Modulating this pathway with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) has been shown to im...

Urinary diluting ability and protein abundance of renal aquaporins (AQPs) and ion transporters in glucocorticoid-deficient (GD) rats were examined at baseline and in response to oral water loading. Rats underwent bilateral adrenalectomy followed by aldosterone (GD) or aldosterone + dexamethasone (CTL) replacement. Before oral water loading, urinary output was significantly decreased and urinary...

Glycoprotein D (gD) interacts with two alternative protein receptors, nectin1 and HveA, to mediate herpes simplex virus (HSV) entry into cells. Fusion of the envelope with the plasma membrane requires, in addition to gD, glycoproteins gB, gH, and gL. Coexpression of the four glycoproteins (gD, gB, gH, and gL) promotes cell-cell fusion. gD delivered in trans is also capable of blocking the apopt...

Previously, we showed that mild heat shock modulates patterns of cell death in response to glucose deprivation (GD), a common characteristic of the tumor microenvironment, by switching necrosis to apoptosis through ERK-dependent suppression of reactive oxygen species production in A549 cells. In the present study, we further examined the molecular mechanism underlying mild heat shock-induced ne...

BACKGROUND In Gaucher disease (GD), resulting from mutations in the GBA gene, mutant β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase) molecules are recognized as misfolded in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). They are retrotranslocated to the cytoplasm, where they are ubiquitinated and undergo proteasomal degradation in a process known as the ER Associated Degradation (ERAD). We have shown in the past that the degre...

Gd-HPDO3A, a neutral gadolinium complex, is a good candidate for obtaining heavy-atom-derivative crystals by the lipidic cubic phase crystallization method known to be effective for membrane proteins. Gadolinium-derivative crystals of hen egg-white lysozyme were obtained by co-crystallizing the protein with 100 mM Gd-HPDO3A in a monoolein cubic phase. Diffraction data were collected to a resolu...