Functional studies on the alpha6beta4 integrin have focused primarily on its role in the organization of hemidesmosomes, stable adhesive structures that associate with the intermediate filament cytoskeleton. In this study, we examined the function of the alpha6beta4 integrin in clone A cells, a colon carcinoma cell line that expresses alpha6beta4 but no alpha6beta1 integrin and exhibits dynamic...

Mollusk shells contain a plethora of information on past climate variability. However, only a limited toolkit is currently available to reconstruct such data from the shells. The environmental data of some proxies (e.g. Sr/Ca ratios) is obscured by physiological effects, whereas other proxies, such as δ(18)O, simultaneously provide information on two or more different environmental variables. T...

BACKGROUND In our previous study, we showed that both allogeneic and autogeneic small-incision femtosecond laser-assisted corneal intrastromal transplantation are safe and effective surgeries. However, the results of small-incision femtosecond laser-assisted intrastromal xenotransplantation have not yet been explored. Additionally, we suggest that glycerol-dehydrated corneal lamellae might prov...

Light-induced structural changes of chloroplasts and their lamellae were studied in leaves of Pisum sativum L., cv. Blue Bantam, using electron microscopy. Upon illumination of 14-day-old plants with 2000 lux, the chloroplasts decreased in thickness by about 23% with an accompanying increase in electron scattering by the stroma. Concomitantly, the average thickness of granal lamellae (thylakoid...

A stroma fraction that has photosystem 1 activity and grana lamellae fractions that have activities for both photosystems were isolated by differential centrifugation of a needle valve homogenate. Subsequent fractions, corresponding to photosystems 1 (F-1D) and 2 (F-2D) were isolated by digitonin treatment of the grana lamellae (P-10K) and compared with respect to their chlorophyll composition ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of second-harmonic imaging to identify differences in corneal stromal collagen organization between normal human and keratoconus corneas. METHODS Six normal corneas from eye bank donors and 13 corneas of patients with keratoconus, obtained after penetrating keratoplasty were examined. A femtosecond titanium-sapphire laser with 800-...

Polyamide 11 (PA11) is a linear semicrystalline polymer. Bulk samples of PA11 were compression moulded from the melt. The aim of this study is to describe the deformation of the structure during an uniaxial drawing (up to a true strain of 0.4) at room temperature. The structure of the studied samples is described on two scales by two different X-ray scattering techniques. The small angle X-ray ...

We examine the alignment of thin film diblock copolymers subject to a perpendicular electric field. Two regimes are considered separately: weak segregation and strong segregation. For weakly segregated blocks and below a critical value of the field, Ec, surface interactions stabilize stacking of lamellae in a direction parallel to the surfaces. Above the critical field, a first-order phase tran...

How platelet shape change initiated by a collagen-related peptide (CRP) specific for the GPVI/FcR gamma-chain complex (GPVI/FcR gamma-chain) is coupled to SLP-76, phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase, and gelsolin is reported. As shown by video microscopy, platelets rapidly round and grow dynamic filopodial projections that rotate around the periphery of the cell after they contact a CRP-coated surfa...