The nutritional influence of zinc on markers of bone extracellular matrix resorption and mineralization was investigated in growing rats. Thirty male weanling rats were randomly assigned to consume AIN-93G based diets containing 2.5, 5, 7.5, 15 or 30 microg Zn/g diet for 24 days. Femur zinc increased substantially as zinc increased from 5 to 15 microg/g diet and modestly between 15 and 30 micro...

The high-resolution crystal structure of the leucine transporter (LeuT) is frequently used as a template for homology models of the dopamine transporter (DAT). Although similar in structure, DAT differs considerably from LeuT in a number of ways: (i) when compared to LeuT, DAT has very long intracellular amino and carboxyl termini; (ii) LeuT and DAT share a rather low overall sequence identity ...

The importance of zinc in biology is evidenced by the growing number of disease states that directly involve aberrant levels of zinc, including neurodegeneration, inflammation, diabetes, cancer and more. Zinc is a component of an estimated 10% of all proteins and has a well-established role in regulation of gene expression, primarily through activation of metalresponsive transcription factor-1 ...

In several brain injury models, zinc accumulates in degenerating neuronal somata. Suggesting that such zinc accumulation may play a causal role in neurodegeneration, zinc chelation attenuates neuronal death. Because histochemically reactive zinc is present in and released from synaptic vesicles of glutamatergic neurons in the forebrain, it was proposed that zinc translocation from presynaptic t...

Zinc, the most abundant trace metal in the brain, has numerous functions in health and disease. It is released into the synaptic cleft alongside glutamate and this connection between zinc and glutamatergic neurotransmission allows the ion to modulate overall excitability of the brain and influence synaptic plasticity. To maintain healthy synapses, extracellular zinc levels need to be tightly re...

Combining fluorescent zinc sensors with the facile syntheses and biological targeting capabilities of peptides, we created green- and blue-emitting probes that, (i) are readily prepared on the solid-phase, (ii) retain the photophysical and zinc-binding properties of the parent sensor, and (iii) can be directed to the extracellular side of plasma membranes in live cells for detection of mobile z...

Zinc is a trace metal essential for many cellular processes, including its recently described role as a signaling mediator. Zinc transporters regulate intracellular zinc homeostasis, control numerous physiological cell functions involved in zinc signaling, and play a role in the progression of several diseases. In breast cancer, zinc transporters are significantly involved in the epithelial mes...

The ZIP zinc transporter family is responsible for zinc uptake from the extracellular milieu or intracellular vesicles. The LIV-1 subfamily, containing nine out of the 14 human ZIP proteins, is featured with a large extracellular domain (ECD). The critical role of the ECD is manifested by disease-causing mutations on ZIP4, a representative LIV-1 protein. Here we report the first crystal structu...

Background: Proteolytic enzymes have an important role in variety of physiological and pathological functions. They have been used in therapeutic and pharmaceutical applications. Characterizations of extracellular proteases from various strains of S. marcescens indicate that most strains produce a very similar major metalloprotease. This metalloprotease (serrapeptidase, serrapeptase) is an impo...

Burkholderia cepacia produces at least one extracellular zinc metalloprotease that may be involved in virulence. A B. cepacia zinc metalloprotease gene was cloned using a Burkholderia pseudomallei zinc metalloprotease gene as a probe. The predicted amino acid sequences of these B. cepacia and a B. pseudomallei extracellular zinc metalloproteases indicate that they are similar to the thermolysin...