T-Cell activation results in the release or shedding of a soluble form (45 kDa) of the cellular (55 kDa) low-affinity interleukin-2 receptor (alpha-chain) (slL-2R). The present study was performed to investigate if the serum concentration of sIL-2R is a marker of disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Twenty-seven UC patients (about half...

The complexity of signalling pathways was boosted at the origin of the vertebrates, when two rounds of whole genome duplication (2R-WGD) occurred. Those genes and proteins that have survived from the 2R-WGD—termed 2R-ohnologues—belong to families of two to four members, and are enriched in signalling components relevant to cancer. Here, we find that while only approximately 30% of human transcr...

NK/T-cell ratios predict disease activity in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). We investigated 50 RRMS patients whether interleukin-2 receptor alpha-chain (IL-2R?) expression and shedding associates with balance, as suggested by daclizumab-trials RRMS. A subsample (N = 31) was genotyped for IL2RA-associated MS risk SNPs. CD56bright NK-cell/IL-17A+CD4+ T-cell correlated negatively p...

Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by the expansion of neoplastic B-cells expressing the p55 chain of the interleukin 2 receptor (IL-2R) system that is recognized by anti-CD25 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and binds interleukin 2 (IL-2) with low affinity. In the present study we investigated leukemic hairy cells (HC) for the presence of the p75 IL-2R chain...

Thymidylate synthase (TS) converts dUMP to dTMP, the rate-limiting nucleotide in DNA synthesis. It is also the target for 5-flurorouracil, the most common chemotherapy agent for treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). We designed a nested case-control study within the prospective Physicians' Health Study to investigate whether TS polymorphisms independently predict risk of CRC and simultaneously ...

Levels of serum sIL-2R (soluble interleukin-2 receptor) reflect the total amount of activated T lymphocytes in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes of cancer tissues and metastatic organs, because a part of alpha-chain of IL-2R is released into the bloodstream on the attachment of IL-2 (interleukin-2) to its specific IL-2R membrane. In most malignant diseases, elevated levels of serum sIL-2R are foun...

In this paper we investigate some basic properties of fractional powers. In this regard, we show that for any rational number 1 ≤ 2r+1 2s+1 < og(G), G 2r+1 2s+1 −→ H if and only if G −→ H− 2s+1 2r+1 . Also, for two rational numbers 2r+1 2s+1 < 2p+1 2q+1 and a non-bipartite graph G, we show that G 2r+1 2s+1 < G 2p+1 2q+1 . In the sequel, we introduce an equivalent definition for circular chromat...

A mixture of cerebrosides, called poke-weed cerebrosides, was purified from Phytolaccae Radix (Phytolaccaceae) and characterized as 1-O-beta-D-glucopyranosides of phytosphingosine type ceramides comprised of a common long chain base (2S,3S,4R,8Z)-2-amino-8-octadecene-1,3,4-triol and fatty acids. The fatty acyl chain of ceramide moieties was determined as (2R)-2-hydroxypentacosanoic acid, (2R)-2...

For k > 1, r 6= 0 and large x, let π 2r (x) denote the number of prime pairs (p, p+2r) with p ≤ x. By the Bateman–Horn conjecture the function π 2r(x) should be asymptotic to (2/k)C k 2rli2(x), with certain specific constants C 2r . Heuristic arguments lead to the conjecture that these constants have mean value one, just like the Hardy–Littlewood constants C2r for prime pairs (p, p + 2r). The c...

Glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) regulates proliferative and cytoprotective pathways in the intestine; however GLP-2 receptor (GLP-2R) signal transduction remains poorly understood, and cell lines that express the endogenous GLP-2R have not yet been isolated. We have now identified several expressed sequence tags from human cervical carcinoma cDNA libraries that correspond to GLP-2R nucleotide s...