Stimulation of macrophages to lyse tumor cells is a property common to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) extracted from a variety of smooth and rough bacterial strains by several different preparative procedures. The relationship between macrophage stimulation and the structural characteristics of LPS is defined. In protein-free LPS, lipid A bears the stimulatory signal which results in the differentiat...

The triacylated lipid A partial structure OM-174 was characterized in detail using a variety of physical and biological techniques. OM-174 aggregates adopt the micellar HI structure. The temperature (Tc) of the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition of the hydrocarbon chains is 0 degrees C, from which high fluidity of the acyl chains at 37 degrees C can be deduced. The molecular area of a s...

Combining extensive molecular dynamics simulations of lipid bilayer systems of varying chemical compositions with single-trajectory analyses, we systematically elucidate the stochastic nature of the lipid motion. We observe subdiffusion over more than 4 orders of magnitude in time, clearly stretching into the submicrosecond domain. The lipid motion depends on the lipid chemistry, the lipid phas...

microbial lipids have a great similarity to the lipids obtained from plants and animals. triacylglycerol is the storage lipid in most of eukaryotic cells; this characteristic attracts a lot of attention for using these lipid sources in biodiesel production. accumulation of neutral lipid composed of triacylglycerol and sterylster is an induced response to environmental stresses in many living or...

objective: the effect of herbal medicine is more useful than synthetic medicines. the present research paper aims to show the effects of leaves extracts of zizyphus spina christi (zsc) on lipid profile, lipid peroxidation and activities of aminotransferase enzymes in streptozocin induced diabetic adult male rats. materials and methods: fifty six male rats weighing 150-200 gm were included in th...

Molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins have become a popular tool for studying their dynamic features, which are not easily accessible by experiments. Whether the force fields developed for globular proteins are adequate this purpose is an important question that is often glossed over. Here we determine the permeation properties of potassium ions in the gramicidin A channel in a li...

We examine, using an analytical mean-field model, the distribution of cholesterol in a lipid bilayer. The model accounts for the perturbation of lipid packing induced by the embedded cholesterol, in a manner similar to that of transmembrane proteins. We find that the membrane-induced interactions between embedded cholesterol molecules vary as a function of the cholesterol content. Thus, the eff...

Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy of thin hydrated films of soluble and membrane protein included in a phospholipid bilayer is shown to provide useful information as to the secondary structure of the protein. The analysis of the amide I band of deuterated samples by Fourier self-deconvolution followed by a curve fitting was performed by a new procedure in which...

A series of experiments investigated the nature of metallic taste reports and whether they can be attributed to the development of a retronasal smell. Two studies showed that the metallic sensation reports following oral stimulation with solutions of FeSO4 were reduced to baseline when the nose was occluded. No such reduction was seen for CuSO4 or ZnSO4, which were more bitter and astringent, r...

The influence of an external electric field on a poorly conductive membrane such as a lipid bilayer is studied theoretically. The unbalanced electric stress created by an ionic current across a non-perfectly flat membrane gives rise to a destabilizing surface energy enhancing undulations. The deformation of a membrane attached to a frame is derived and the electrohydrodynamic instability of a f...