Unlike TSP1, TSP2 is less-to-moderately responsive to serum in mouse NIH3T3 and Swiss 3T3 cells respectively. Transcription of THBS2 in some human cancers is suppressed through hypermethylation. TSP2 mRNA is upregulated by Rac1-induced reactive oxygen species, Hox A5, ACTH, TGFb, cerivastatin and in-vitro, by increasing cell confluency. Downregulation of TSP2 mRNA occurs by inhibiting TGFb-depe...

NKG2D is a potent activating receptor expressed on NK cells, NKT cells, γδ T cells, and CD8 T cells. NKG2D recognizes cell surface molecules structurally related to MHC class I proteins induced by infection or other type of cellular stress. The engagement of NKG2D leads to NK cell cytotoxicity and cytokine secretion or to a co-stimulation of CD8 T cells. Both human and mouse cytomegalovirus (CM...

Recently the mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) genome was cloned as an infectious bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) (M. Messerle, I. Crnkovic, W. Hammerschmidt, H. Ziegler, and U. H. Koszinowski, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:14759-14763, 1997). The virus obtained from this construct is attenuated in vivo due to deletion of viral sequences and insertion of the BAC vector. We reconstituted the fu...

We have constructed and expressed recombinant chimeric soluble TGF-β type II receptor fused with the Fc portion of human IgG1 (sTβRII-Fc) in NS0 mouse myeloma cells and isolated cell lines constitutively secreting very high levels of biologically active protein. The GS-NS0 expression system takes advantage of the strong human cytomegalovirus immediate early promoter expression vector and glutam...

L5Jcs1 is a perinatal lethal mutation uncovered in a screen for ENU-induced mutations on mouse chromosome 5. L5Jcs1 homozygotes exhibit posterior-to-anterior transformations of the vertebral column midsection, similar to mice deficient for Hoxc8 and Hoxc9. Positional cloning efforts identified a mutation in a novel, evolutionarily conserved, and ubiquitously expressed gene dubbed Tapt1 (Transme...

Five new polyoxygenated cembranoids, named (+)-1,15-epoxy-2-methoxy-12-methoxycarbonyl-11E-sarcophytoxide (1), (+)-2-epi-12-methoxycarbonyl-11E-sarcophine (2), 3,4-epoxyehrenberoxide A (3), ehrenbergol D (4) and ehrenbergol E (5), were obtained from the soft coral Sarcophyton ehrenbergi. The structures of 1-5 were established on the basis of comprehensive NMR and HR-ESI-MS analyses and by compa...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the diagnostic value of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed on vitreous, aqueous and conjunctiva for the detection of cytomegalovirus in AIDS patients with a clinical diagnosis of cytomegalovirus retinitis. MATERIAL AND METHOD PCR-based assay was used to detect cytomegalovirus DNA in vitreous, aqueous and conjunctival samples from 24 patients with the acquired immu...

BACKGROUND Infection with gastrointestinal cytomegalovirus in an immunocompetent host is a rather rare occurrence in the literature. There are a few reports of gastrointestinal infection in the immunocompetent who are then subsequently given a new diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease. It is speculated that the initial cytomegalovirus colitis infection triggers the onset of inflammatory bowel...

Murine cytomegalovirus infection was studied in cell and organ cultures. Regardless of the virulence characteristics of input virus, all cultures produced attenuated murine cytomegalovirus. Virulent murine cytomegalovirus has been recovered only from salivary glands of infected mice. In vivo the maintenance of murine cytomegalovirus in a virulent state is apparently due to factors other than vi...

BACKGROUND Congenital cytomegalovirus infection is a leading cause of long-term sequelae. Cytomegalovirus is also frequently transmitted to preterm infants postnatally, but these infections are mostly asymptomatic. A correlation between cytomegalovirus genotypes and clinical manifestations has been reported previously in infants with congenital infection, but not in preterm infants with postnat...