Regulation of the intestinal epithelial barrier is a differentiated process, which is profoundly deranged in inflammatory bowel diseases. Recent data provide evidence that the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is critically involved in intestinal epithelial wound healing and barrier maturation and exerts antiapoptotic effects under certain conditions. Furthermore, not only the ...

Mucosal barriers separate self from non-self and are essential for life. These barriers, which are the first line of defense against external pathogens, are formed by epithelial cells and the substances they secrete. Rather than an absolute barrier, epithelia at mucosal surfaces must allow selective paracellular flux that discriminates between solutes and water while preventing the passage of b...

On interaction with the intestine, the mycotoxin ochratoxin A is know to cause rapid inflammation, diarrhea, and increased bacterial translocation. All these effects are consistent with a decrease in epithelial barrier function. However, this has not been shown directly. We determined that ochratoxin A is able to reduce the barrier properties of the model intestinal cell line Caco-2. Over 24 h,...

To improve the blood-brain barrier permeability of the trypanocidal lead compound 4,4'-bis(imidazolinylamino)diphenylamine (1), five N-alkoxy analogues were synthesized from bis(4-isothiocyanatophenyl)amine and N-alkoxy-N-(2-aminoethyl)-2-nitrobenzenesulfonamides following successive chemical reactions in just one reactor ("one-pot procedure"). This involved: (a) formation of a thiourea interme...

We introduce a framework in which updating rules for the barrier parameter in primal-dual interior-point methods become dynamic. The original primal-dual system is augmented to incorporate explicitly an updating function. A Newton step for the augmented system gives a primal-dual Newton step and also a step in the barrier parameter. Based on local information and a line search, the decrease of ...

The paper addresses generalized Borel summability of “1+” difference equations in “critical time”. We show that the Borel transform Y of a prototypical such equation is analytic and exponentially bounded for <(p) < 1 but there is no analytic continuation from 0 toward +∞: the vertical line ` := {p : <(p) = 1} is a singularity barrier of Y . There is a unique natural continuation through the bar...

This document is an on-line supplement to a recent paper (Carr and Crosby (2008)) entitled “A class of Lévy process models with almost exact calibration to both barrier and vanilla FX options”. OLS

Stabilization of the blood-brain barrier during and after stroke can lead to less adverse outcome. For elucidation of underlying mechanisms and development of novel therapeutic strategies validated in vitro disease models of the blood-brain barrier could be very helpful. To mimic in vitro stroke conditions we have established a blood-brain barrier in vitro model based on mouse cell line cerebEN...

The colonic mucus barrier is the first line of defence that the underlying mucosa has against the wide range of potentially damaging agents of microbial, endogenous, and dietary origin that occur within the colonic lumen. The functional component of mucus is the secreted, polymeric glycoprotein mucin. The mucus barrier can either act as an energy source or a support medium for growth to the int...