Extracellular polysaccharides are major immunogenic components of the bacterial cell envelope. However, little is known about their biosynthesis in the genus Acinetobacter, which includes A. baumannii, an important nosocomial pathogen. Whether Acinetobacter sp. produce a capsule or a lipopolysaccharide carrying an O antigen or both is not resolved. To explore these issues, genes involved in the...

Collagen XVIII is a component of the highly specialized extracellular matrix associated with basement membranes of epithelia and endothelia. In the normal kidney, collagen XVIII is distributed throughout glomerular and tubular basement membranes, mesangial matrix, and Bowman's capsule. Proteolytic cleavage within its C-terminal domain releases the fragment endostatin, which has antiangiogenic p...

Klebsiella pneumoniae causes urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, and septicemia in susceptible individuals. Strains of Klebsiella frequently produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases, and infections with these strains can lead to relatively high mortality rates (approximately 15%). Other virulence factors include production of an antiphagocytic capsule and outer membrane lip...

Pasteurella multocida is a pathogenic Gram-negative bacterial species that infects a wide variety of animals and humans. A notable morphological feature of many isolates is the extracellular capsule. The ability to remove the capsule by treatment with certain glycosidases has been utilized to discern various capsular types called A, D and F. Based on this preliminary evidence, these microbes ha...

Achnanthidium minutissimum is a benthic freshwater diatom that forms biofilms on submerged surfaces in aquatic environments. Within these biofilms, A. minutissimum cells produce extracellular structures which facilitate substrate adhesion, such as stalks and capsules. Both consist of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), but the microstructure and development stages of the capsules are so fa...

Photoautotrophic biofilms play an important role in various aquatic habitats and are composed of prokaryotic and/or eukaryotic organisms embedded in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). We have isolated diatoms as well as bacteria from freshwater biofilms to study organismal interactions between representative isolates. We found that bacteria have a strong impact on the biofilm formation o...

Background: With all the recent advances in cancer treatments, many young cancer patients find themselves facing the prospect of losing their fertility after aggressive chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Cryopreservation of ovarian cortical tissue has emerged as a potential option to restore fertility in these young women. Materials and Methods: Because autotransplantation of cryopreserved ovarian c...

purpose: to evaluate the effect of limited dissection of tenon sheath on the outcome of horizontal strabismus surgery. methods: patients with horizontal strabismus, aged between six and 50 years, were enrolled in this non-randomized study. patients with pattern and vertical strabismus or a history of strabismus surgery were excluded. the strabismus surgeries consisted of bimedial recession (bmr...

one of the main members of the large aggregating proteoglycans (pgs) family is versican which is able to bind to hyaluronate. versican is a chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and is a key ingredient of the extracellular matrix.  due to its widespread expression in the body, versican is involved in cell adhesion, proliferation and migration. induced expression of versican is often observed in tiss...