Of the 15 nicotinic ACh receptor genes identified in vertebrates, only four (alpha 1, beta 1, gamma, and delta) have been shown to be expressed in embryonic skeletal muscle at early times. In mammalian muscle a fifth gene (epsilon) replaces the gamma gene in expression at later times. The remaining 10 nicotinic receptor genes identified to date (alpha 2-alpha 8, beta 2-beta 4) are expressed in ...

Members of the protein kinase C (PKC) isozyme family are important signal transducers in virtually every mammalian cell type. Within the heart, PKC isozymes are thought to participate in a signaling network that programs developmental and pathological cardiomyocyte hypertrophic growth. To investigate the function of PKC signaling in regulating cardiomyocyte growth, adenoviral-mediated gene tran...

The thermal copolymerization of lysine with other alpha-amino acids has been studied further. The identity of the second amino acid influences various properties of the polymer obtained, including the proportion of alpha and epsilon linkages of lysine. A review of linkages in proteinoids indicated alpha and beta linkages for aspartic acid, alpha and gamma linkages for glutamic acid, alpha and e...

The phorbol ester phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) inhibits Cl(-) secretion (short-circuit current, I(sc)) and decreases barrier function (transepithelial resistance, TER) in T84 epithelia. To elucidate the role of specific protein kinase C (PKC) isoenzymes in this response, we compared PMA with two non-phorbol activators of PKC (bryostatin-1 and carbachol) and utilized three PKC inhibitor...

Maillard products arise from condensation reactions between amino acids or proteins with reducing sugars during food processing. As ubiquitous components of human food, these early or advanced glycation products may be subject to intestinal absorption. The present study was performed to investigate the intestinal uptake of Maillard products and to determine whether they are substrates for pepti...

Human epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) bearing IgE are found in disease states associated with hyperimmunoglobulinemia E. When studying the mechanism(s) underlying this phenomenon, immunohistology revealed that a majority of epidermal LC from normal skin of healthy individuals can specifically bind monomeric IgE. IgE binding to LC could neither be prevented by preincubation of the tissue with mo...

Regulatory proteins on muscle filaments are substrates for protein kinase C (PKC) but mechanisms underlying activation and translocation of PKC to this non-membrane compartment are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the epsilon isoform of PKC (epsilon-PKC) activated by arachidonic acid (AA) binds reversibly to cardiac myofibrils with an EC(50) of 86 nM. Binding occurred near the Z-line...

Fc epsilon RI is a tetrameric receptor, composed of a ligand recognition subunit, alpha, a beta chain, and dimeric gamma chains. Previous studies have indicated that the dimeric gamma chain is associated with Fc gamma RIIIA (CD16) on natural killer cells and macrophages as well as the clonotypic T cell receptor. Here we show that in mast cells, in addition to the dimeric gamma chains, the beta ...

Cultivation of CD4-CD8- double negative (DN) mouse thymocytes and splenocytes with recombinant interleukin 2 (IL2) in the absence of other stimulation results in the generation of DN-CD3/TCR+CD16+NK1.1+B220+ large granular lymphocytes (LGL). Purified DN alpha-beta TCR+ thymocytes and splenocytes are CD16+IL2R alpha-IL2R beta+NK1.1+B220-CD5high. These cells are unique in that they express both C...