Adenosine, as a ubiquitous metabolite, mediates many physiological functions via activation of plasma membrane receptors. Mechanisms of most of its physiological roles have been studied extensively, but research on adenosine-induced apoptosis (AIA) has only started recently. In this study we demonstrate that adenosine dose-dependently triggered apoptosis of cultured baby hamster kidney (BHK) ce...

The general capacity of germfree mouse spleen cells to produce interferon in vitro in response to various stimuli was investigated. The interferon response of germfree mouse spleen cells in vitro, when compared with that of the conventionals, appears to be lower to some inducers. Interferon production in vitro stimulated by hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ) or BHK-HVJ cells (BHK cells persi...

Intracellular applications of ribozymes have been limited partly by the availability of suitable high-expression systems. For RNA effectors, consideration of an RNA virus vector system for delivery and expression is reasonable. We show that alphavirus replicons can be highly efficient nonintegrating ribozyme-expressing vectors. Using a hammerhead ribozyme targeted to a highly conserved sequence...

N-glycans of human Fcγ receptor III (FcγR III) are believed to be involved in the interaction with complement receptor type 3 (CR3) (Sehgal et al. [1993] J. Immunol., 150, 4571–4580). Recombinant human soluble FcγRIII (rhsFcγRIII), which is produced in baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, has been shown to interact with CR3 in a manner similar to native FcγRIII. We elucidated the N-glycosylation pr...

An improved plaque assay for dengue virus was developed utilizing baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells initially grown in shaker culture. Different media preparations were tested for uniform and fast formation of BHK-21 cell sheets. Several overlay formulas were tested to develop a rapid plaque assay in 6- and 24-well plastic plates. The best results were obtained utilizing Eagle minimal essentia...

Monolayers of BHK-21/W1-2 cells were pulsed with (3)H-uridine at different times after infection with rubella virus, and viral-specific cytoplasmic ribonucleic acid species were demonstrated.

Serological evidence for the presence of a host-cell component of vesicular stomatitis virus particles was provided by Cartwright & Pearce 0968). They showed by complement fixation reactions that purified virus particles prepared from virus grown in BHK zI cells reacted with antiserum to BHK cell but not with antiserum to pig kidney cells. Conversely, virus grown in pig kidney cells fixed compl...