A virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibody specific for glycoprotein C (gC) of herpes simplex virus type 1 strain KOS was used to select a number of neutralization-resistant mutants. A total of 103 of these mutants also were resistant to neutralization by a pool of gC-specific antibodies and thus were operationally defined as gC-. Analysis of mutant-infected cell mRNA showed that a 2.7-kilobase m...

Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency during pregnancy has been linked to increased risk of preeclampsia. Placenta dysfunction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of this pregnancy disorder. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that disturbed vitamin D metabolism takes place in preeclamptic placentas. Protein expressions of vitamin D binding protein (VDBP), 25-hydroxylase (CYP2R1), 1α-h...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies have noted a specific association between type 1 diabetes and insufficient levels of vitamin D, as well as polymorphisms within genes related to vitamin D pathways. Here, we examined whether serum levels or genotypes of the vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP), a molecule key to the biologic actions of vitamin D, specifically associate with the disorder. RESEARCH DESIGN...

Immunofixation electrophoresis is a relatively simple and reliable method for the genetic phenotyping of the group-specific component (Gc) of serum. This method permits direct comparison of electrophoretic mobilities and band concentrations, with no interference by other proteins. The variants Gc Ab and Gc Y appear identical by this technique; the Eskimo variant appears to be similar to Gc D bu...

Carotid body chemoreceptors are complex secondary receptors. There are chemical and electric connections between glomus cells (GC/GC) and between glomus cells and carotid nerve endings (GC/NE). Chemical secretion of glomus cells is accompanied by GC/GC uncoupling. Chemical GC/NE transmission is facilitated by concomitant electric coupling. Chronic hypoxia reduces GC/GC coupling but increases G/...

In this work we re-examined the hypothesis that the variation in GC content in the human genome is due to different regional mutational biases. For this purpose we inferred the mutational pattern by using mutation databases that are available for many genes associated with human genetic diseases. The assumption of this approach is that such mutations reflect the actual frequency distribution of...

The volatile composition of 20-year-old out-of-service creosote-treated railway wood sleepers was studied. The emitted volatile fraction was collected by means of dynamic purge-and-trap concentration at ambient temperature, and analyzed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC) hyphenated with mass spectrometric detection systems, using quadrupole (GC x GC/qMS) and time-of-f...