Uridine phosphorylase (UPase) is a key enzyme in the pyrimidine salvage pathway. It reversibly catalyzes the catabolism of uridine to uracil; controls the homeostatic regulation of uridine concentration in plasma and tissues; and plays a role in the intracellular activation of 5-fluorouracil. We cloned the murine UPase gene promoter, a 1703-bp fragment, and determined the transcription initiati...

Tumor suppressor gene silencing by DNA hypermethylation contributes to tumorigenesis in many tumor types. This aberrant methylation may be due to increased expression and activity of DNA methyltransferases, which catalyze the transfer of methyl groups from S-adenosylmethionine to cytosines in CpG dinucleotides. Elevated expression of the maintenance DNA methyltransferase, DNA methyltransferase ...

A purification procedure of pertussis toxin (PT) from submerged culture of Bordetella pertussis (B.pertussis) strain 134 using adsorption and affinity chromatography was discussed. The yield of the resulting PT was approximately 37.5mg/l of concentrated culture supernatant. The polypeptide pattern of the purified PT was investigated by SDS-PAGE and showed five bands between 11 to 26 KDa using l...

BACKGROUND Tissue factor (TF) is expressed in 2 isoforms: membrane-bound "full length" (fl)TF and soluble alternatively spliced (as)TF. flTF is the major thrombogenic form of TF. Although the function of asTF is poorly understood, it was suggested that asTF contributes to tumor-associated growth and angiogenesis. In the heart of a developing embryo, asTF is expressed much later compared to flTF...

Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a type II integral membrane glycoprotein belonging to the serine protease family. Human FAP is selectively expressed by tumor stromal fibroblasts in epithelial carcinomas, but not by epithelial carcinoma cells, normal fibroblasts, or other normal tissues. FAP has been shown to have both in vitro dipeptidyl peptidase and collagenase activity, but its biolog...

Nerve growth factor-like substance(s) were identified in both conditioned media of a human prostatic tumor epithelial cell line (TSU-pr1) and a human prostatic stromal cell line (HPS) by Western blot analysis and bioassay of neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells. Nerve growth factor-beta (NGF) immunofluorescence was also localized to secretory vesicles in the cytoplasm of both the TSU-pr1 and HPS cel...

background: toxoplasma gondii , an apicomplexan parasite, is capable of infecting a broad range of intermediate warm-blooded hosts including humans. the parasite seems to be capable of altering the natural behavior of the host to favor its trans-mission in the environment. the aim of this study was to evaluate the course, alter-ations in behavior along with normal kinetics of the abnormally ind...

conclusions the development of delivery systems into bacteria with an efficacy compatible to that in human use could be a key for the potential utility of sirna for the prophylaxis and treatment of p. aeruginosa-induced hematogenous pulmonary infections in humans. results in quantitative rt–pcr,it was shown that the sirna significantly inhibited the expression of the flagella mrna. filc gene kn...