Adherent cells interact with extracellular matrix via cell-substrate contacts at focal adhesions. The dynamic assembly and disassembly of focal adhesions enables cell attachment, migration and growth. While the influence of mechanical forces on the formation and growth of focal adhesions has been widely observed, the force loading on specific proteins at focal adhesion complex is not clear. By ...

Alpha-actinin-4 is a widely expressed protein that employs an actin-binding site with two calponin homology domains to crosslink actin filaments (F-actin) in a Ca(2+)-sensitive manner in vitro. An inherited, late-onset form of kidney failure is caused by point mutations in the alpha-actinin-4 actin-binding domain. Here we show that alpha-actinin-4/F-actin aggregates, observed in vivo in podocyt...

BACKGROUND The actin cytoskeleton in podocytes is essential for the maintenance of its normal structure and function. Its disruption is a feature of podocyte foot-process effacement and is associated with proteinuria. α-Actinin-4 in podocytes serves as a linker protein binding the actin filaments of the cytoskeleton. METHODS To investigate the effect of ginseng total saponin (GTS) on the path...

Alpha-actinin is an actin crosslinking protein that may be one of the proteins involved in the attachment of the actin cytoskeletal framework to the plasma membrane. We investigated the distribution of alpha-actinin in whole-mount embryonic chick corneal epithelia using confocal laser scanning analysis. The intracellular alpha-actinin distribution was compared with F-actin using phalloidin, or ...

To study how contractile proteins become organized into sarcomeric units in striated muscle, we have exposed glycerinated myofibrils to fluorescently labeled actin, alpha-actinin, and tropomyosin. In this in vitro system, alpha-actinin bound to the Z-bands and the binding could not be saturated by prior addition of excess unlabeled alpha-actinin. Conditions known to prevent self-association of ...

There is a need for a point-of-care serodiagnostic test for women and men for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) caused by Trichomonas vaginalis. Sera from women with this STI and sera from men that were analyzed in studies showing a relationship between serostatus and prostate cancer are highly seropositive in response to trichomonad α-actinin and its truncated protein (ACT-P2) (positive c...

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a malignant astrocytic tumor associated with low survival rates because of aggressive infiltration of tumor cells into the brain parenchyma. Expression of the actin binding protein alpha-actinin has been strongly correlated with the invasive phenotype of GBM in vivo. To probe the cellular basis of this correlation, we have suppressed expression of the nonmuscle ...

To explore the suggestion that alpha-actinin cross-links actin filaments to the microvillar membrane (Mooseker and Tilney, 1975, J. Cell Biol. 67:725--743; Mooseker, 1976, J. Cell Biol. 71-417--433), we have assessed the possible relatedness of alpha-actinin and the brush-border 95-kdalton protein by four independent criteria: antigenicity, mobility on SDS gels, extractability in nonionic deter...

Antitropomyosin and anti-alpha-actinin monoclonal antibodies have been used to isolate two classes of microfilaments, i.e., tropomyosin-enriched and alpha-actinin-enriched microfilaments, respectively, from cultured chicken embryo fibroblasts. Electron microscopic studies of the isolated tropomyosin-enriched microfilaments showed periodic localization of tropomyosin along the microfilaments, wi...

We have used fluorescent analogue cytochemistry, image intensification, and digital image processing to examine the redistribution of alpha-actinin and vinculin in living cultured African green monkey kidney (BSC-1) cells treated with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Before treatment, microinjected alpha-actinin shows characteristic distribution along stress fibers ...