Purified smooth muscle myosin light chain can be phosphorylated at multiple sites by myosin light chain kinase and protein kinase C. We have determined the sites phosphorylated on myosin light chain in intact bovine tracheal smooth muscle. Stimulation with 10 microM carbachol resulted in 66 +/- 5% monophosphorylated and 11 +/- 2% diphosphorylated myosin light chain after 1 min, and 47 +/- 4% mo...

BACKGROUND Primary immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis (AL amyloidosis) is a plasma cell disorder which mainly affects heart, kidneys, liver, and peripheral nervous system. Cases of atypical AL amyloidosis presented as spontaneous vertebral compression fractures have been rarely reported, and data about the management and clinical outcomes of the patients are scarce. METHODS Herein, we pre...

Introduction Waldenstrom's primary macroglobulinaemia (Waldenstrom, 1944) is characterized by serum IgM paraproteinaemia and pleomorphic infiltration consisting of lymphocytes, abnormal plasma cells and intermediate cell forms in the bone marrow and other tissues (McCallister et al., 1967; MacKenzie and Fudenberg, 1972). This pathological picture has been termed 'plasmacytoid lymphocytic lympho...

Rearrangement of Ig genes proceeds during B cell differentiation in an orderly fashion. First the heavy (H) chain gene is rearranged in pre-B cells . These cells can express cytoplasmic A chain but no light (L) chain (1). The K light chain genes rear range next and if they fail to produce a functional gene on either chromosome the X light chain genes are rearranged (2) . It is generally believe...

In healthy individuals, plasma cells originating from the bone marrow produce immunoglobulin molecules composed of two heavy chains and two light chains. There are two types of light chains in humans. The κ light chains are encoded by the immunoglobulin κ locus on chromosome 2 and λ light chains are encoded by the immunoglobulin λ locus on chromosome 22 [1]. During B lymphocyte development, the...