Cardiac remodeling is thought to be the major cause of chronic heart dysfunction after myocardial infarction (MI). However, molecules involved in this process have not been thoroughly elucidated. In this study we investigated the long-term effects of the growth factor midkine (MK) in cardiac remodeling after MI. MI was produced by ligation of the left coronary artery. MK expression was progress...

A sequence (Mk) of closed subsets of Rn converges normally to M ⊂ Rn if (sc) M = lim supMk = lim inf Mk in the sense of Painlevé–Kuratowski and (nc) lim sup G(NMk ) ⊂ G(NM ), where G(NM ) (resp., G(NMk )) denotes the graph of NM (resp., NMk ), Clarke’s normal cone to M (resp., Mk). This paper studies the normal convergence of subsets of Rn and mainly shows two results. The first result states t...

Menaquinone-7 (MK-7), a member of the vitamin K2 family, performs several functions, all related to its recognised effect on post-translational carboxylation of certain protein-bound glutamate residues. Due to its lipophilic structure MK-7 is soluble in olive oil, so the aim of the present study was to test whether extra-virgin (EV) olive oil enriched with MK-7 significantly increases MK-7 plas...

These experiments observed the immediate and long-term effects of neonatal treatment with MK-801 on patterned single alternation (PSA), a form of nonspatial, memory-based learning. Rat pups were injected daily on postnatal days (PND) 7-19, with MK-801 (MK+) or the less active isomer of MK-801 (MK-) (0.25 mg/kg), and trained at either PND 22 or 60. Rats treated with MK+ or MK- and trained on PND...

Injuries in the mammalian central nervous system induce a variety of factors which promote or inhibit neuronal axon regeneration/sprouting. However, the inhibitory activities are much stronger, and indeed are the major obstacle to functional recovery. Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are produced by activated glial cells, and are among the strongest inhibitors. Here, we investigated th...

Preserving isolated islets at low temperature appears attractive because it can keep islet quantity comparable to freshly isolated islets. In this study, we evaluated the effect of serum as an additive to preservation solutions on islet quality after short-term hypothermic storage. Isolated mouse islets were preserved at 4°C in University of Wisconsin solution (UW) alone, UW with serum, M-Kyoto...

1. First we introduce some notations. elements of the finite set S is denoted by ISI. We write ex = exp x. We denote the i th prime number by p i ,. v(n) denotes the number of distinct prime factors of n. mk is the smallest integer m for which v(1k» > k. P(n) is the greatest, p(n) the smallest prime factor of n. nk is the smallest integer n for which P(n+i) > k for all 1 < i <_ k. Mk > c I k 2 ...

Apart from congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, manifest HCMV disease occurs primarily in immunocompromised patients. In allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, HCMV is frequently associated with graft failure and cytopenias involving all hematopoietic lineages, but thrombocytopenia is the most commonly reported hematologic complication. The authors hypothesized that megakaryocyte...

BACKGROUND The present study was conducted to assess whether midkine (MK), a multifunctional molecule known to stimulate tumor growth, may be involved in the development of endometriosis. METHODS The mitogenic activity of MK on cultured endometriotic stromal cells was examined by measuring 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation. Concentrations of MK in the peritoneal fluid (PF) of women...