Oocytes are released from meiotic prophase I arrest through a process termed oocyte maturation. We present here a genetic characterization of oocyte maturation, using C. elegans as a model system. We show that two TIS11 zinc finger-containing proteins, OMA-1 and OMA-2, express specifically in maturing oocytes and function redundantly in oocyte maturation. Oocytes in oma-1;oma-2 mutants initiate...

To evaluate the PRL secretory mechanism in patients with PRL-secreting adenoma (PRL-oma), plasma PRL responses to dopamine (DA) were studied in these cases and in normal subjects. Plasma PRL values showed clear decreases during the infusion of DA (5 micrograms/kg/min for 90 min) in both 6 normal and 7 PRL-oma subjects (%decrease: 43.8 +/- 3.9% vs. 53.9 +/- 5.6%; NS) and postinhibitory increases...

INTRODUCTION Many clinical and observational studies have demonstrated effectiveness of omalizumab (OMA) in the treatment of severe asthma, but the optimal duration of the therapy remains unknown. AIM The article presents the authors' clinical experience on OMA cessation in routine practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS Due to new reimbursement criteria, OMA therapy has been interrupted in 11 subje...

We investigated the effect of oxalomalate (OMA, alpha-hydroxy-beta-oxalosuccinic acid), a competitive inhibitor of aconitase, on the RNA-binding activity of the iron-regulatory proteins (IRP1 and IRP2) that control the post-transcriptional expression of various proteins involved in iron metabolism. The RNA-binding activity of IRP was evaluated by electrophoretic mobility-shift assay of cell lys...

BACKGROUND This study investigates the effects of chronic administration of omapatrilat (OMA) on blood pressure (BP), renal injury, and other variables in N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) hypertension and in the low-renin model produced by the simultaneous administration of L-NAME and deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA). METHODS The control, DOCA, L-NAME, L-NAME + DOCA, L-NAME +...

The Orthologous Matrix (OMA) is a leading resource to relate genes across many species from all of life. In this update paper, we review the recent algorithmic improvements in the OMA pipeline, describe increases in species coverage (particularly in plants and early-branching eukaryotes) and introduce several new features in the OMA web browser. Notable improvements include: (i) a scalable, int...

The Orthologous Matrix (OMA) project is a method and associated database inferring evolutionary relationships amongst currently 1706 complete proteomes (i.e. the protein sequence associated for every protein-coding gene in all genomes). In this update article, we present six major new developments in OMA: (i) a new web interface; (ii) Gene Ontology function predictions as part of the OMA pipeli...

Oral melanoacanthoma (OMA) is a rare benign lesion characterized by colonization of acanthotic epithelium by dendritic melanocytes. Although its pathogenenesis remains uncertain, its clinical behavior and spontaneous remission suggest a non-neoplastic nature. Clinically, it may present as a solitary or multifocal lesion; however these two variants exhibit different features. The clinical appear...

Specification of primordial germ cells requires global repression of transcription. In C. elegans, primordial germ cells are generated through four rounds of asymmetric divisions, starting from the zygote P0, each producing a transcriptionally repressed germline blastomere (P1-P4). Repression in P2-P4 requires PIE-1, which is provided maternally in oocytes and segregated to all germline blastom...