BACKGROUND A non-invasive marker is needed to identify patients with significant gastrointestinal injury due to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Gastrointestinal permeability to sucrose has been suggested as such a test. AIMS To assess the utility of sucrose permeability as a marker of gastroduodenal mucosal injury after single and multiple doses of aspirin, to identify the site of incr...

BACKGROUND In contrast to man the majority of higher plants use sucrose as mobile carbohydrate. Accordingly proton-driven sucrose transporters are crucial for cell-to-cell and long-distance distribution within the plant body. Generally very negative plant membrane potentials and the ability to accumulate sucrose quantities of more than 1 M document that plants must have evolved transporters wit...

Seven untrained male subjects participated in a double-blind, crossover study conducted to determine the efficacy of different carbohydrate drinks in promoting carbohydrate storage in the whole body and skeletal muscle during recovery from exhaustive exercise. The postabsorptive subjects first completed an exercise protocol designed to deplete muscle fibers of glycogen, then consumed 330 ml of ...

In tissues and organs, mechanisms have evolved that allow the constituent cells to function in an integrative manner. Direct communication between the cells is mediated by a surface region, termed the gap junction, where the plasma membranes of contiguous cells are in contact. In cardiac muscle the spread of excitation is thought to proceed primarily through a series of gap junctions that inter...

Gap junctions are plasma membrane areas enriched in channels that provide direct intercellular communication. Gap junctions have a high turnover rate; however, the mechanisms by which gap junctions are degraded are incompletely understood. In the present study, we show that in response to phorbol ester treatment, the gap junction channel protein Cx43 (connexin43) is redistributed from the plasm...

BURNSTOCK, GEOFFREY AND C. L. PROSSER. Conduction in smooth muscles : comparative electrical properties. Am. J. Ph ysiol. ‘99(3) : 553-559. I g6o.-Electrical and morphological properties were correlated in a variety of mammalian smooth muscles. In the sucrose gap electrode the gut muscles (esophagus muscularis mucosae, intestinal muscles and taenia coli) showed small slow waves (5 mv) and spike...

Desmosomal cadherins, desmogleins (Dsgs) and desmocollins, make up the adhesive core of intercellular junctions called desmosomes. A critical determinant of epithelial adhesive strength is the level and organization of desmosomal cadherins on the cell surface. The Dsg subclass of desmosomal cadherins contains a C-terminal unique region (Dsg unique region [DUR]) with unknown function. In this pa...

Autoantibodies binding to the extracellular domains of desmoglein (Dsg) 3 and 1 are critical in the pathogenesis of pemphigus by mechanisms leading to impaired function of desmosomes and blister formation in the epidermis and mucous membranes. Desmosomes are highly organized protein complexes which provide strong intercellular adhesion. Desmosomal cadherins such as Dsgs, proteins of the cadheri...

Five to 20% linear sucrose gradients were used to obtain sedimentation patterns of mycobacterial ribosomes, ribosomal subfractions, and ribonucleic acid (RNA) preparations. Classical 70S ribosomes were obtained when 10(-1)m magnesium chloride was used. These, when dialyzed against 10(-4)m MgCl(2), yielded typical 50S, 30S, and smaller ribosomal subunits. The 30S subunits were the most immunogen...