Cerebral ischemic postconditioning (IPOC) has been demonstrated to be neuroprotective against cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury. The present study aimed to determine whether IPOC could inhibit autophagy and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) release in a PC12 cell oxygen glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) model. An 8 h OGD and 24 h reperfusion cellular model was developed to mimic cerebr...

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) truncation-specifying mutations cause familial hypobetalipoproteinemia (FHBL). Lipoprotein kinetics studies have shown that production rates of apoB-100 are reduced by 70-80% in heterozygous FHBL humans, instead of the expected 50%. To develop suitable mouse models to study the underlying mechanism, apoB-38.9-only (Apob(38.9/38.9)) mice were crossbred with Apobec-1 knock...

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an attractive host for the production of heterologous proteins. However, low-yield production of many proteins (from micrograms to milligrams/liter) leaves considerable room for optimization. By engineering the yeast cell via traceable genome-wide libraries, genes that can enhance protein expression level because of their roles in protein transcription, tra...

Natural killer (NK) cells are a highly heterogeneous population of innate lymphocytes that constitute our first line of defense against several types of tumors and microbial infections. Understanding the heterogeneity of these lymphocytes requires the ability to integrate their underlying phenotype with dynamic functional behaviors. We have developed and validated a single-cell methodology that...

As new nutritional strategies for ruminant are designed to change production efficiency by improving the supply of rumen protect protein, lipid, and even starch, the digestive system must fit to utilize these increased nutrient supplies, especially the pancreas. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of phenylalanine (Phe) on digestive enzymes synthesis or secretion and cell...

Transcription regulatory genes are crucial modulators of cell physiology and metabolism whose intracellular levels are tightly controlled in response to extracellular stimuli. We previously reported a set of 29 transcription regulatory genes modulated by angiotensin II in H295R human adrenocortical cells and their roles in regulating the expression of the last and unique enzymes of the glucocor...

Abstract To identify virulence genes of P. syringae pv. tomato strain DC3000 we screened for mutants with reduced virulence on its plant hosts, Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato. We isolated a Tn5-insertion mutant that exhibited reduced virulence on both hosts. Further characterization showed that this mutant carried a single Tn5 insertion in the dsbA gene, which encodes a periplasmic disulphide ...

Pathogenic Brucella species replicate within mammalian cells, and their type IV secretion system is essential for intracellular survival and replication. The options for biochemical studies on the Brucella secretion system are limited due to the rigidity of the cells and biosafety concerns, which preclude large-scale cell culture and fractionation. To overcome these problems, we heterologously ...

BACKGROUND Brucella abortus is a facultative intracellular pathogen that mainly infects cattle and humans. Current vaccines rely on live attenuated strains of B. abortus, which can revert to their pathogenic status and thus are not totally safe for use in humans. Therefore, the development of mucosal live vaccines using the food-grade lactic acid bacterium, Lactococcus lactis, as an antigen del...

It has been observed experimentally that early distal tubular urea flow exceeds urea delivery by the proximal convoluted tubule to the pars recta and loop of Henle. Moreover, the fractional excretion of urea in the urine may exceed values compatible with the reabsorption known to occur in the proximal convoluted tubule in the cortex. A likely explanation for these observations is that urea may ...