The occurrence and distribution of neuropeptide-containing nerve fibres in the human circumvallate papillae were examined by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunolocalisation method using surgical specimens that had not been subjected to radiotherapy, and the abundance of neuropeptide-containing fibres was expressed as the percentage of total nerve fibres demonstrated by protein gene product (PG...

Su mmary. The fine structural changes and, to a lesser extent, histochemical and histopathological features of biopsy specimens of nerves from patients with non-lepromatous leprosy ( mainly very early cases) , or lepromatous leprosy (mostly treated cases) , have been studied from the point of view of possible immunological response of the host tissues. Using electronmicro­ scopy and acid phosph...

One of the important issues in producing composite materials with natural fibres is the modification of the surface of the fibres to enhance adhesion and interfacial bonding with polymer matrix. In this report, the effect of alkalization on the mechanical properties, thermal stability and surface morphology of banana stem fibres is examined. The results show that treatment with sodium hydroxide...

In the mammalian auditory nerve physiological recordings revealed that the spontaneous discharge rate of single auditory fibres correlates with the diversity of input-output functions which may be important for intensity discrimination (e.g., Sachs and Abbas, 1974, Liberman, 1978; Winter et al., 1990). In this study we determined if the spontaneous discharge rate of auditory nerve fibres in the...

X-ray fibre-diffraction studies indicate a high degree of stereochemical specificity in interactions between water and the DNA double helix. Evidence for this comes from data that show that the molecular conformations assumed by DNA in fibres are highly reproducible and that the hydration-driven transitions between these conformations are fully reversible. These conformational transitions are i...

Reproductive behaviour of animals requires a well-adapted muscular system. This study examines the structural and functional development of ovipositor muscle properties in female locusts during reproductive development. A possible regulation by juvenile hormone (JH) was assessed by comparing muscle properties in immature and mature females and with those whose JH production was inhibited by all...

Various proteins and peptides are able to self assemble into amyloid fibrils that are associated with disease. Structural characterisation of these fibres is limited by their insoluble and heterogeneous nature. However, advances in various techniques including X-ray diffraction, cryo-electron microscopy and solid state NMR have provided detailed information on various amyloid fibrils, from the ...

The structure of an ideal scaffold for tendon regeneration must be designed to provide a mechanical, structural and chemotactic microenvironment for native cellular activity to synthesize functional (i.e. load bearing) tissue. Collagen fibre scaffolds for this application have shown some promise to date, although the microstructural control required to mimic the native tendon environment has ye...

Understanding the structural biology of type IV pili, fibres responsible for the virulent attachment and motility of numerous bacterial pathogens, requires a detailed understanding of the three-dimensional structure and chemistry of the constituent pilin subunit. X-ray crystallographic refinement of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pilin against diffraction data to 2.6 A resolution, coupled with mass spec...

Investigation of the mechanisms of muscle adaptation requires independent control of the regulating factors. The aim of the present study was to develop a serum-free medium to culture mature single muscle fibres of Xenopus laevis. As an example, we used the culture system to study adaptation of twitch and tetanic force characteristics, number of sarcomeres in series and fibre cross-section. Fib...