OBJECTIVE Glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3beta plays an important role in cardiomyopathies. Cardiac-specific metallothionein-overexpressing transgenic (MT-TG) mice were highly resistant to diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy. Therefore, we investigated whether metallothionein cardiac protection against diabetes is mediated by inactivation of GSK-3beta. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Diabetes was ind...

OBJECTIVE To explore the differences of the trophoblast cell function in first trimester between natural pregnancy and pregnancy after IVF-ET therapy. METHODS 102 cases with twin to singleton fetal reduction after IVF-ET treatment from July 2010 to August 2013 in Peking University Third Hospital were involved in analysis, and eight specimens were obtained from this group. 10 natural-pregnancy...

Intubation of rats with alpha-mercapto-beta-(2-furyl)-acrylic acid (MFA) for 5 days at 50 mg/kg caused a 7-fold increase in kidney copper concentration, a 2-fold increase in kidney zinc concentration, and a 20% increase in liver zinc concentration. The proteins which bound the increased metals were purified and identified as metallothioneins by their amino acid compositions. Two isoforms were i...

Quantitative determination of tissue levels of metallothionein was performed using differential pulse polarographic analysis. Cadmium induction of mouse hepatic metallothionein was observed to be linear with respect to dose until a sharp saturation maximum was reached. This metal-stimulated synthesis was completely inhibited by actinomycin D. It was found that a 2- and 7-fold molar excess of co...

In rats injected with 5 micron mole CdCl2/kg, 5 days/week, metallothionein was detected in plasma by gel filtration chromatography as early as four weeks. The mean renal concentration of cadmium was 80 microgram/g. The excretion of cadmium in urine at this time was rather low and amounted to 0.01% of the total dose. The amount of metallothionein in plasma, as determined by 109Cd-binding to the ...

The relationship between metallothionein levels and concentrations of several metals and radionuclides was examined in liver tissues of raccoons ( Procyon lotor, n = 47) from the Department of Energy?s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to determine the applicability of metallothioneins as an initial screening device for exposure assessment in free-living mammals and environmental monitoring...

Nephrotoxic effects of cadmium exposure are well established in humans and experimental animals. An early manifestation of such toxicity is calciuria a few hours after injection of CdMT in rats. Protection against calciuria and other adverse effects such as proteinuria (occurring later) is offered by pretreatment with Cd, which effectively induces metallothionein synthesis. In the present exper...

It has been reported that anti-metallothionein (a metallothionein antibody) is present in the circulation of healthy subjects and in patients suffering from atopic dermatitis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cadmium-induced renal dysfunction is related to the presence of the plasma metallothionein antibody (MT-Ab) in workers exposed to cadmium (Cd) occupationally. Plasma metall...

The mechanisms of metallothionein prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy are largely unknown. The present study was performed to test whether inhibition of nitrosative damage is involved in metallothionein prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Cardiac-specific metallothionein-overexpressing transgenic (MT-TG) mice and wild-type littermate controls were treated with streptozotocin (STZ) by a sin...

Low-ambient temperature environment exposure increased the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, although the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study was designed to examine the impact of cardiac overexpression of metallothionein, a cysteine-rich heavy metal scavenger, on low temperature (4°C)-induced changes in myocardial function and the underlying mechanism involved, with ...