BACKGROUND Polymeric fibronectin (polyFN) assembled on suspended breast cancer cells is required for metastasis. Conceivably, drugs that target such polyFN may fight against cancer metastasis. While stilbene analogs trigger pro-apoptotic effect on attached cancer cells, whether they prevent polyFN assembly and metastasis of suspended cancer cells via an apoptosis-independent manner remains unex...

The mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway is a critical regulator of cell growth, migration, and differentiation. Growth factor activation of MAP kinase in NIH 3T3 cells is strongly dependent upon integrin-mediated adhesion, an effect that contributes to the anchorage dependence of normal cell growth. We now show that expression of constructs that constitutively activate focal adhesion...

Many dissolved substances attach easily to sediment particles. In the presence of suspended sediments bioavailability of dissolved substances is therefore, usually reduced and clays are even applied to "wash" natural waters upon pollution. In organisms which feed on food organisms in the size range of these suspended sediment particles, however, bioavailability of such substances may even incre...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 grew with the detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The growth started with the formation of macroscopic cell aggregates which consisted of respiring cells embedded in an extracellular matrix composed of acidic polysaccharides and DNA. Damaged and uncultivable cells accumulated in these aggregates compared to those cells that remained suspended. We investiga...

Activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 cascade by polypeptide growth factors is tightly coupled to adhesion to extracellular matrix in nontransformed cells. Raf-1, the initial kinase in this cascade, is intricately regulated by phosphorylation, localization, and molecular interactions. We investigated the complex interactions between Raf-1, protein kinase A (PKA), and...

1. The experiments show that the mass of air roots formed in a stem increases with the mass of the leaf attached to the stem, though it has not been possible to establish an exact mathematical relation between the two masses, owing to unavoidable sources of error. 2. Darkened leaves do not increase the mass of roots formed. 3. In stems suspended horizontally air roots appear on the lower side o...

The surfactant linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS; 0.5 mM) or linear monoalkyldiphenyletherdisulfonate (LADPEDS; 0.5 mM) in salts medium was easily degraded in laboratory trickling filters, whereas carbon-limited, aerobic enrichment cultures in suspended culture with the same inocula did not grow. We took portions of the trickling filters which degraded LADPEDS, shook the organisms from the soli...

An •mo•b•, Hartmanindia •astdlanii, which possesses many features typical of higher-order animal cells, was irradiated with 1-MHz ultrasound while suspended inordinary growth medium and in one with increased viscosity. The ultrasonically produced cavitation was monitored and a strong correlation is found between the number of discrete cavitation events occurring and the decrease in cell number%...