There is substantial clinical interest in synthetic platelet analogs for potential application in transfusion medicine. To this end, our research is focused on self-assembled peptide-lipid nanoconstructs that can undergo injury site-selective adhesion and subsequently promote site-directed active platelet aggregation, thus mimicking platelet's primary hemostatic actions. For injury site-selecti...

When a sperm and an oocyte unite upon fertilization, their cell membranes adhere and fuse, but little is known about the factors regulating sperm-oocyte adhesion. Here we explored the role of β-catenin in sperm-oocyte adhesion. Biochemical analysis revealed that E-cadherin and β-catenin formed a complex in oocytes and also in sperm. Sperm-oocyte adhesion was impaired when β-catenin-deficient oo...

The water-physical and strength properties of the soil from site a landslide were determined in laboratory conditions. According to results shear tests, dependences indices (adhesion, angle internal friction) loam samples on humidity constructed. magnitude mass is determined. By constructing various possible sliding surfaces, most dangerous surface was stability coefficient for each them. relia...

Cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISPs) have been identified as a toxin family in most animal venoms with biological functions mainly associated with the ion channel activity of cysteine-rich domain (CRD). CRISPs also bind to Zn(2+) at their N-terminal pathogenesis-related (PR-1) domain, but their function remains unknown. Interestingly, similar the Zn(2+)-binding site exists in all CRISP fam...

Monocytes fundamentally contribute to immune surveillance and the inflammatory response in immunoinflammatory diseases like atherosclerosis. Recruitment of these cells to the site of injury requires their trafficking across the blood vessel wall. A series of events, including capture, rolling, slow rolling, arrest, adhesion strengthening, and lateral locomotion, precede monocyte transmigration....

The ends of stress fibers in the basal portion of cells (basal stress fibers) are anchored to focal adhesions, and stress fibers in the apical part of cells (apical stress fibers) are attached to the apical membrane, forming a structure (the apical plaque; KATOH, K. et al. (1995). Cell Motil. Cytoskel., 31: 177-195) resembling the focal adhesion. In addition to these two sites, stress fibers al...

In this study, efficacy of two hernia mesh implants viz. conventional Prolene and a novel Prolene-Vicryl composite mesh was assessed for experimental ventral hernia repair in dogs. Twelve healthy mongrel dogs were selected and randomly divided into three groups, A, Band C (n=4). In all groups, an experimental laparotomy was performed; thereafter, the posterior rectus sheath and peritoneum were ...

We studied the mechanical strength of the adhesion of living cells to model membranes. The latter contained a RGD lipopeptide which is a high affinity binding site for a cell adhesion molecule (integrin alpha(V)beta(3)). Cells adhered specifically to the vesicles. We used micropipette aspiration for breaking this adhesion with well defined forces. Systematic variation of the rate of force appli...

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process by which cancer cells gain the ability to leave the primary tumor site and invade surrounding tissues. These metastatic cancer cells can further increase their plasticity by adopting an amoeboid-like morphology, by undergoing mesenchymal-to-amoeboid transition (MAT). We found that adhering cells produce spreading initiation centers (SICs),...

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the main etiological factor for cervical carcinoma. HPV-16 is the most prevalent high-risk HPV-genotype found in HPV-associated cancers. We studied the effect of HPV-16 E7 oncoprotein on cadherin-mediated cell adhesion. The expression of E7 strongly suppressed the cadherin-mediated cell adhesion in the rat fibroblast cell line 3Y1. This suppression was associate...