BACKGROUND Human tissue kallikrein (HK) releases kinins from kininogen. We investigated whether adenovirus-mediated HK gene delivery is angiogenic in the context of ischemia. METHODS AND RESULTS Hindlimb ischemia, caused by femoral artery excision, increased muscular capillary density (P:<0.001) and induced the expression of kinin B(1) receptor gene (P:<0.05). Pharmacological blockade of B(1)...

the balance between reactive oxygen species production and antioxidant activity has an important role in oxidative stress associated diseases including coronary artery disease. in this study, the prooxidant-antioxidant balance (pab) and its correlations with serum lipid levels, uric acid levels, and severity of coronary artery involvement were examined. the aim of this study was to determine th...

In 1997, an avian H5N1 influenza virus, A/Hong Kong/156/97 (A/HK/156/97), caused six deaths in Hong Kong, and in 1999, an avian H9N2 influenza virus infected two children in Hong Kong. These viruses and a third avian virus [A/Teal/HK/W312/97 (H6N1)] have six highly related genes encoding internal proteins. Additionally, A/Chicken/HK/G9/97 (H9N2) virus has PB1 and PB2 genes that are highly relat...

A single bout of exercise increases the rate of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and metabolism in skeletal muscle. Exercise also increases insulin-stimulated glucose 6-phosphate in skeletal muscle, suggesting that exercise increases hexokinase activity. Within 3 h, exercise increases hexokinase II (HK II) mRNA and activity in skeletal muscle from rats. It is not known, however, if a single bo...

The metabolism of potato (Solanum tuberosum) roots constitutively over- and underexpressing hexokinase (HK, EC 2.7.1.1) was examined. An 11-fold variation in HK activity resulted in altered root growth, with antisense roots growing better than sense roots. Quantification of sugars, organic acids and amino acids in transgenic roots demonstrated that the manipulation of HK activity had very littl...

3-Hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) is a tryptophan metabolite whose level in the brain is markedly elevated under several pathological conditions, including Huntington disease and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Here we demonstrate that micromolar concentrations (1-100 microM) of 3-HK cause cell death in primary neuronal cultures prepared from rat striatum. The neurotoxicity of 3-HK was blocked...

High-throughput transcriptomic experiments have made it possible to classify genes that are ubiquitously expressed as housekeeping (HK) genes and those expressed only in selective tissues as tissue-specific (TS) genes. Although partitioning a transcriptome into HK and TS genes is conceptually problematic owing to the lack of precise definitions and gene expression profile criteria for the two, ...

Hexokinase is thought to be one of the key factors of glucose catabolism in the cell. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between HK-II expression and 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uptake in human untreated oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Pre-operatively FDG positron emission tomography (PET) was performed 60 min after FDG injection in all the patients. Maximum s...

The study by Remeijer et al. [1] conducted at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital in The Netherlands and reported in this issue of the Journal significantly enhances our knowledge of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) DNA in human corneas and provides important clinical information about the consequences of HSV-1 DNA in the cornea. Patient medical records were reviewed for relevant clinical information...