The Leptospiraceae are thin spirochetes with a unique mode of motility. These spiral-shaped bacteria have internal periplasmic flagella that propel the cells in low-viscosity and gel-like high-viscosity media. A model of Leptospiraceae motility has been previously proposed that states that the subterminally attached periplasmic flagella rotate between the outer sheath and the helical protoplasm...

Flow cytometric 1-parameter DNA analysis and 2-parameter DNA/protein analysis have been performed with cell material of the diptera species Chironomus thummi, Drosophila melanogaster, Calliphora vicina and Musca domestica using an impulse cytophotometer with a new quartz objective, that was especially manufactured for cytofluorometric investigations. The occurrence of heterogenous cell populati...

Orientation of nucleus, centriole, microtubules, and microfilaments within human neutrophils in a gradient of chemoattractant (5 percent Escherichia coli endotoxin-activated serum) was evaluated by electron microscopy. Purified neutropils (hypaque-Ficoll) were placed in the upper compartment of chemotactic chambers. Use of small pore (0.45 mum) micropore filters permitted pseudopod penetration,...

We describe a method for measuring plasma, erythrocyte, and leukocyte sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), and magnesium (Mg2+) concentrations in 10-mL blood specimens. After separating cells with Ficoll-Hypaque and washing with isotonic choline chloride, erythrocytes and leukocytes are counted, so that results can be expressed as amount of substance per cell and also to monitor cell integrity and pos...

Erythroid burst forming units (BFU-E) are proliferative cells present in peripheral blood and bone marrow which may be precursors of the erythroid colony forming cell found in the bone marrow. To examine the possible role of monocyte-macrophages in the modulation of erythropoiesis, the effect of monocytes on peripheral blood BFU-E proliferation in response to erythropoietin was investigated in ...

INTRODUCTION: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) constitute an essential element in many applications in regenerative medicine. In orthopedics, they are used as osteoinductive component for bone regeneration. One source for MSC is bone marrow (BM) aspirate which contains concentrations of 10-100 MSC per Mio BM cells. This low number requires an efficient isolation procedure and usually an in-vitro ex...

The physiology of glomerular filtration remains mechanistically obscure despite its importance in disease. The correspondence between proteinuria and foot process effacement suggests podocytes as the locus of the filtration barrier. If so, retained macromolecules ought to accumulate at the filtration barrier, an effect called concentration polarization. Literature data indicate macromolecule co...

The cytosol of a cell is a concentrated milieu of a variety of different molecules, including small molecules (salts and metabolites) and macromolecules such as nucleic acids, polysaccharides, proteins and large macromolecular complexes. Macromolecular crowding in the cytosolic environment is proposed to influence various properties of proteins, including substrate binding affinity and enzymati...

Ampelozizyphus amazonicus is used in the treatment and prevention of malaria. The effect of an aqueous extract from this plant (SART) on the immune response was investigated by measuring immunoglobulin production induced by immunization with the antigen TNP-Ficoll in Plasmodium chabaudi-infected mice. SART treatment increased antigen-specific IgM and IgG levels in TNP-Ficoll-immunized mice. The...

Although numerous procedures have been described for the isolation of either granulocytes or lymphocytes, few focused on the concurrent separation of these cells from the same sample of blood. Those reported (e.g., (1)) are based on the use of discontinuous gradients of Ficoll-Hypaque (sodium diatrizoate), a method introduced by Boyum (2). However, a common disadvantage of these procedures is t...