Immobilizing hydrated soft tissue specimens for atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a challenge. Here, we describe a simple and very cost-effective immobilization method, based on the use of transglutaminase in an aqueous environment, and successfully apply it to AFM characterization of human native Wharton's Jelly (nWJ), the gelatinous connective tissue matrix of the umbilical cord. A side-by-sid...

Tissue transglutaminase 2 (TG2) has recently been shown to have intrinsic serine/threonine kinase activity. Since histones are known to be cross-linked by TG2, we investigated whether histones are also substrates for TG2 kinase activity. TG2 was able to phosphorylate H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 histones in vitro. Using peptide substrates and phosphospecific antibodies we demonstrated that TG2 phos...

Repair of tissue after injury depends on a series of concerted but overlapping events including, inflammation, re-epithelialization, neovascularization and synthesis and stabilization of a fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) that is remodeled to emulate normal tissue over time. Particular members of the transglutaminase (TG) family are upregulated during wound healing and act as a novel class of...

A complex series of events involving inflammation, cell migration and proliferation, ECM stabilisation and remodelling, neovascularisation and apoptosis are crucial to the tissue response to injury. Wound healing involves the dynamic interactions of multiple cells types with components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and growth factors. Impaired wound healing as a consequence of aging, injury...

Calcification of the arterial wall occurs in, among others, atherosclerosis and aging. The role of calcification in plaque stability is subject of ongoing discussion; media calcification in aging and diabetes increases stiffness and pulse pressure.1 It is now clear that calcification is not simply a passive process but, rather, is tightly regulated, involving induction of an osteochondrogenic p...

The present study demonstrates the existence of tissue transglutaminase in rabbit alveolar macrophages and measures the effects of cigarette smoke extracts on the activity of enzyme partially purified from these cells. The effects of smoke on transglutaminase purified from guinea pig liver are also measured. A water soluble component of gas-phase cigarette smoke inhibits both enzymes in a dose-...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate two commercial stool tests for detection of secretory IgA antibodies against gliadin and human tissue transglutaminase for diagnosis of coeliac disease in children with symptoms. SETTING Tertiary care children's hospital. PARTICIPANTS Coded stool samples from 20 children with newly diagnosed coeliac disease and 64 controls. Six children with coeliac disease had stool t...

Previous studies have shown that 16% of patients with psoriasis vulgaris have IgA and/or IgG antibodies to gliadin, but few have antibodies to endomysium. The increase in duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytes was mild. Still, highly significant clinical improvement was observed after 3 months on a gluten-free diet. This study surveys certain immunohistological aspects of involved and non-involve...

PURPOSE In severe ocular surface diseases, pathologic keratinization of the ordinarily nonkeratinized corneal and conjunctival mucosal epithelia results in severe visual loss. The expression in conjunctivalized corneas of various proteins known to play important roles in the physiological keratinization process in human epidermis was examined to better understand the mechanism of keratinization...

background: alopecia areata (aa) is a noncicatricial (nonscarring) alopecia. the association between aa and celiac disease (cd) is debatable. several studies declare the relationship between aa and cd as measurement of celiac autoantibodies (anti‑gliadin iga and anti‑gliadin igg), but a few studies consider anti‑tissue transglutaminase iga. the aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency di...