Keratinolytic abilities of Bacillus polymyxa B20 and B. cereus B5esz were evaluated in liquid cultures in mineral media containing chicken feathers. Both tested strains were capable of effective liquefying and biodegradation of feather keratin, up to 56.5 – 72.1% in ten-day cultures, releasing considerable amounts of hydrolysis products. Tested bacteria were mesophilic species, producing highes...

PURPOSE To report the molecular genetic analysis of a Japanese pedigree with Meesmann's corneal dystrophy (MCD). METHODS Sequencing of the keratin 3 and keratin 12 genes was performed in 2 patients who were siblings and in an unaffected individual in the same family. The patients had the typical corneal microcysts and recurrent erosions with mild photophobia. RESULTS A novel mutation result...

Three monoclonal anti-keratin antibodies, AE1, AE3, and AE4, were used to compare the expression of keratins in normal, preneoplastic, and malignant mouse mammary epithelial cells growing in primary culture. In indirect immunofluorescence, AE1 did not stain normal cells but did stain a minority of preneoplastic and carcinoma cells. AE3 reacted with a subpopulation of epithelial cells in both th...

Keratins, the largest subgroup of intermediate filament (IF) proteins, form a network of 10-nm filaments built from type I/II heterodimers in epithelial cells. A major function of keratin IFs is to protect epithelial cells from mechanical stress. Like filamentous actin, keratin IFs must be cross-linked in vitro to achieve the high level of mechanical resilience characteristic of live cells. Ker...

Unidirectional and rotary shadowing techniques have been applied in studying the surface structure of two types of intermediate filaments. Keratin filaments and neurofilaments demonstrate a approximately 21-nm axial periodicity which probably indicates the helical pitch of the outer shell of the filament. Analysis of unidirectionally shadowed keratin showed that the helix is left-handed. The ob...

The present study aimed to compare the 2-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis pattern of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and control individuals, to identify the proteins with differential expression and to examine their significance. CSF samples from the three groups were collected and total protei...

Teleost fishes can regenerate their fins by epimorphic regeneration, a process that involves the transition of the formerly quiescent tissues of the stump to an active, growing state. This involves dynamic modifications of cell phenotype and behavior that must rely on alterations of the cytoskeleton. We have studied the spatial and temporal distribution of three main components of the cytoskele...

introduction: breast cancers in the early phase frequently undergo distant metastasis and survival of patients is greatly dependent on distant metastasis. the occurrence of micrometastasis has been suggested to relate with prognostic features of breast cancer, such as lymph node metastasis and the presence of vascular invasion. the aim of this study was to examine the presence of keratin-19 mrn...