The overall incidence and mortality of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common kidney cancer, are steadily increasing for reasons that are not fully explained. Our aim was to explore the expression of membrane MHC class I chain-related gene A (mMICA) in human RCC cell lines and tissue specimens, and to determine expression of soluble MICA (sMICA) in serum of patients with renal cell carcino...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease with great morphological and genetic heterogeneity, which complicates its prognosis and treatment. The hypomethylating agents azacitidine (Vidaza®, AZA) and decitabine (Dacogen®, DAC) have been approved for the treatment of AML patients, but their mechanisms of action are poorly understood. Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in the recogni...

Extended layering of ionic liquids (ILs) on the mica surface has been reported by several groups previously and it is generally accepted that the electrostatic interaction at the IL/mica interface is critical to the observed extended layering. Here we report that, indeed, water adsorption on the mica surface is the key to the extended layering of ionic liquids. The atomic force microscopy (AFM)...

MICA and MICB are stress-induced ligands recognized by the activating receptor NKG2D. A microRNA encoded by human cytomegalovirus downregulates MICB expression by targeting a specific site in the MICB 3¢ untranslated region. As this site is conserved among different MICB alleles and a similar site exists in the MICA 3¢ untranslated region, we speculated that these sites are targeted by cellular...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) results are reported for self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of 4-(4-mercaptobutyl)-4‘-ferrocenylazobenzene, compound 1, on Admica and Wmica thin films. Two different Admica surfaces, designated Au(rough)/ mica and Au(lll)/mica, have been characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) to define their r...

A sample from the small-sized tailing pile of an Iranian mica processing plant was subjected to a series of mica recovery experiments. Mineralogical and microscopic investigations indicated that the dominant mica mineral was phlogopite which was accompanied by plagioclase feldspars. Before beneficiation studies, the particle size distribution of the representative sample was obtained, and the s...

THE EFFECT OF E-GLASS FIBERS AND PHLOGOPITE MICA ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND DIMENSIONAL STABILITY OF RIGID PVC FOAMS by Murtatha M. Jamel The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professor Nidal Abu-Zahra Short E-Glass Fibers (GF) and Phlogopite Mica (M) were used separately and simultaneously to enhance the dimensional stability and mechanical properties of ex...

Viruses exploit the ubiquitin system by targeting cell-surface receptors recognized by immune cells for internalization, thereby evading recognition. We have characterized the KSHV (Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus)-encoded E3 ubiquitin ligases, K3 and K5. We find their activities not only prevent recognition by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, but also promote evasion of NK (natural killer) cel...

PURPOSE Some studies suggest that the immunoreceptor NKG2D expression on CD8(+) T cells is down-regulated and this reduction may be involved in immune evasion in cancer patients. The present study was designed to investigate NKG2D expression on CD8(+) T lymphocytes and its relationship to immune evasion in gastric cancer patients. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN NKG2D expression on both circulating and t...