We showed previously that a truncated form of the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) beta-receptor lacking its kinase region can form a nonfunctional heterodimer with the wild-type beta-receptor and thereby inhibit its signal transduction. In this paper we investigated whether the truncated form of either alpha- or beta-receptor could block the function of the other type of wild-type PDGF re...

Although influenza is primarily a respiratory disease, it has been shown, in some cases, to induce encephalitis, including people acutely infected with the pandemic A/California/04/2009 (CA/09) H1N1 virus. Based on previous studies showing that the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A/Vietnam/1203/2004 H5N1 virus was neurotropic, induced CNS inflammation and a transient parkinsonism, we e...

atropine has been used to block cholinergic neurotransmission in basic research. large doses of atropine cause vasodilation of the blood vessels in the skin. this effect is apparently unconnected with the antimuscarinic activity of atropine and seems to be due to a direct action on the blood vessels. it has been suggested that atropine blocks muscarinic receptors at low doses and it induces the...

glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (gdnf) plays important roles not only for the differentiation of neurons during normal development but also for the survival and recovery of many populations of mature neurons. the effect of traumatic brain injury (tbi) on the expression of gdnf is currently unknown. to determine if there is alteration in gdnf after tbi we examined the effect of contr...

The sympathetic nervous system regulates immune responses in part through direct innervation of lymphoid organs. Recent data indicate that viral infections can alter the structure of lymph node innervation. To determine the molecular mechanisms underlying sympathetic denervation during Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) infection, we assessed the expression of neurotrophic factors and neuromod...

The interleukin-6 (IL-6) signal is transduced through membrane-anchored gp130, which is associated with IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) in the presence of IL-6. Soluble forms of gp130 (sgp130) with molecular weights of 90 and 110 Kd were found in human serum. In the presence of recombinant IL-6 (rIL-6), serum sgp130 were capable of associating with serum sIL-6R. By the sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorben...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the amniotic fluid protein profiles and the intensity of intraamniotic inflammatory response to Ureaplasma spp. and other bacteria, using the multiplex xMAP technology. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was undertaken in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. A total of 145 pregnant women with ...

Despite the use of fish models to study human mental disorders and dysfunctions, knowledge of regional telencephalic responses in non-mammalian vertebrates expressing alternative stress coping styles is poor. As perception of salient stimuli associated with stress coping in mammals is mainly under forebrain limbic control, we tested region-specific forebrain neural (i.e. mRNA abundance and mono...

The expression of members of the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) system in bone marrow cells derived from Idiopathic myelofibrosis (IMF) has been investigated by real-time RT-PCR. Increased expression of PDGFs and the corresponding PDGF receptor a could be demonstrated to be a feature of advanced fibrosis in IMF that is not demonstrable in the prefibrotic phase of the disease.