Introduction: Peripheral segmental nerve injuries are most commonly treated with nerve autografting. However, the availability of autograft tissue is limited, and the morbidity of graft harvesting is significant. As potential alternatives, artificial grafts have been made from natural and synthetic polymers. However, currently available synthetic conduits yield inferior results compared to auto...

We investigated the properties of an artificial chimeric peptide that contains an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)tripeptide, the versatile cell recognition signal of extracellular matrix protein components, coupled to a carboxyl-terminal fragment of the highly specific a-thrombin hibitor, hirudin (residues 53-64): WG-SANGDFEEIPEEYL (RGD-hir~din'~-'~). Hir ~ d i n ~ ~ ' ~ and RGD-hir~din'~-'~ inhibited th...

Cell-cell interactions play an important role in the development of cartilage. Heterologous and homologous cell-cell interactions are critical for chondrogenic differentiation during development. Cell-cell interactions in the formation of fracture callus and cartilage neoplasia also invoke the process of cartilage differentiation. We have investigated cell-cell interactions between articular ch...

In cancer cells integrins modulate important cellular events that regulate the metastasic cascade which involves detachment from the tumor mass, dissemination and attachment to the oncogenic niche. The α5β1, αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins are widely expressed in different cancer types and recognize the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif present in several extracellular matrix proteins. In human gliobl...

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an arthropod-borne virus transmitted by Culicoides species to vertebrate hosts. The double-capsid virion is infectious for Culicoides vector and mammalian cells, while the inner core is infectious for only Culicoides-derived cells. The recently determined crystal structure of the BTV core has revealed an accessible RGD motif between amino acids 168 to 170 of the outer ...

We have previously demonstrated [Lu, Williams, Deadman, Salmon, Kakkar, Wilkinson, Baruch, Authi and Rahman (1994) Biochem. J. 304, 929-936] the preferential antagonism of the interactions of the integrin aIIbflb on activated platelets with three immobilized glycoprotein ligands (fibrinogen, fibronectin and von Willebrand factor) by a selected panel of snake-venom RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp)-containing p...

Integrin alpha(V)beta(3) binds to extracellular matrix proteins through the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD), forming a shallow crevice rather than a deep binding pocket. A dynamic picture of how the RGD-alpha(V)beta(3) complex resists dissociation by mechanical force is derived here from steered molecular dynamic (SMD) simulations in which the major force peak correlates with the breaking of the c...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is known to employ the conserved Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) tripeptide located on the variable betaG-betaH loop of the VP1 capsid protein for binding to cells. Coxsackievirus A9 (CAV9) also carries an RGD sequence, but on a short C-terminal extension of its VP1 and in a different amino acid context. This apparent relationship raised the question of whether insertion o...

Rat insulinoma cells (INS-1), an immortalized pancreatic beta cell line, were cultured on low-fouling carboxymethyl-dextran (CMD) layers bearing fibronectin, the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) or CDPGYIGSR, a laminin nonapeptide. INS-1 cells were non-adherent on CMD and RGE but adhered to fibronectin- and peptide-coated CMD surfaces and to tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). On CMD bearing fibrone...

A fundamental problem of plant science is to understand the biochemical basis of plant/pathogen interactions. The foliar disease tan spot of wheat (Triticum aestivum), caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, involves Ptr ToxA, a proteinaceous host-selective toxin that causes host cell death. The fungal gene ToxA encodes a 17.2-kD pre-pro-protein that is processed to produce the mature 13.2-kD t...