Extracts of mollusks collected from eight cities along the coast of the Bohai Sea, China, were used to determine dioxinlike activity using an in vitro bioassay approach. Dioxinlike activity of total extracts was detected by measuring luciferase activity in a stable transfected rat hepatoma cell line, H4IIE, containing an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-responsive element linked to a luciferase ...

Schistosomiasis remains one of the most prevalent parasitic infections and has significant economic and public health consequences in many developing countries. Economic development and improvement in standard of living in these countries are dependent on the elimination of this odious disease. For the control of Schistosomiasis, understanding the host/parasite association is important, since t...

Inflammation and cancer are related pathologies acting synergistically to promote tumor progression. In both, hematogenous metastasis and inflammation, P-selectin participates in interactions involving tumor cells, platelets, leukocytes and endothelium. Heparin has been shown to inhibit P-selectin and as a consequence it blunts metastasis and inflammation. Some heparin analogs obtained from mar...

Since the initial characterization of the cardioexcitatory peptide FMRFamide in the bivalve mollusk Macrocallista nimbosa, a great number of FMRFamide-like peptides (FLPs) have been identified in mollusks. FLPs were initially isolated and molecularly characterized in model mollusks using biochemical methods. The development of recombinant technologies and, more recently, of genomics has boosted...

Small dams are ubiquitous yet poorly understood features in many streams. Dam removal is being used increasingly in stream restoration projects as a means to enhance habitat connectivity and ecosystem function. However, habitatand assemblage-level effects of small dams on stream mollusk assemblages are poorly documented. We examined associations between stream physicochemical habitat variables ...

Fossil glycoproteins of the soluble organic matrix are present in an 80-million-year-old mollusk shell from the Late Cretaceous Period. Discrete molecular weight components, as determined by gel electrophoresis, are preserved. The fossil organic matrix was compared with the organic matrix of a living representative species of the same superfamily. A particular repeating amino acid sequence, fou...