Purified Pseudomonas aeruginosa elastase cleaved human type III and IV collagens with the formation of specific cleavage products. Furthermore, type I collagen appeared to be slowly cleaved by both P. aeruginosa elastase and alkaline protease. These cleavage fragments from type III and IV collagens were separated from the intact collagen chains by SDS polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis...

Background: Differentiation between the muscularis mucosae (MM) and muscularispropria (MP) of the bladder remains challenging. Objective: To identify MM- and MP-specific antigens that could be of potential value for staging of urothelialcarcinomain a pilot study. Method: The expression of 12 protein antigens in 11 human bladder specimens was examined. There were 5 post radical cystectomy specim...

The bovine placenta produces an array of proteins structurally similar to pituitary prolactin (PRL). At least ten genes of the bovine placental PRL family, including bovine placental lactogen (bPL) and ten bovine PRL-related protein-I to -X (bPRP-I to -X), encode hormones/cytokines predicted to be involved in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. Targets and biological roles for most ...

Collagens carry hydroxylysine residues that act as attachment sites for carbohydrate units and are important for the stability of crosslinks but have been regarded as nonessential for vertebrate survival. We generated mice with targeted inactivation of the gene for one of the three lysyl hydroxylase isoenzymes, LH3. The null embryos developed seemingly normally until embryonic day 8.5, but deve...

Type IV collagen was isolated from limited pepsin digests of human placenta by selective salt precipitation at acidic and neutral pH. The native protein was resistant to human skin collagenase but was cleaved by a rat mast cell protease. Molecular sieve chromatography of the reduced and alkylated material separated relatively homogeneous components of molecular weight 140,000 (140K) and 100,000...

breakthrough bleeding (btb) is the cause of 50% of discontinuations of use by long-acting progestogen-only contraceptive users. btb appears to be associated with capillaries of abnormal morphology and fragility. disturbances in vessels integrity, intercellular junctions or alteration of the basement membrane (bm) composition has been proposed to contribute toward the fragility of these capillar...

Bovine retinal pericytes plated on a two-dimensional substratum display a characteristic stellate morphology. In post-confluent cultures these cells aggregate spontaneously to form multicellular nodules. The same cells plated within a three-dimensional collagen matrix display an elongated sprouting morphology. Sprouting pericytes may be embedded within a gel either as individual cells or as mul...

As tumor cells invade surrounding tissue, they adhere to various extracellular matrix components. Previously we reported that B16-BL6 melanoma cell adhesion to both basement membrane and purified protein substrates was blocked by antibody to beta 1-integrin adhesion receptors (R. H. Kramer et al., Cancer Res., 49: 393-402, 1989). In the present study we found, using immunofluorescent staining, ...