Protein-DNA binding interactions play critical roles in important cellular processes such as gene expression, cell division, and chromosomal organization. Techniques to identify and characterize these interactions often utilize formaldehyde cross-linking for stabilization of the complexes. Advantages of formaldehyde as a cross-linking reagent include cell permeability, relatively fast cross-lin...

AIM The glutathione-dependent AdhC-EstD formaldehyde detoxification system is found in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. It is established that it confers protection against formaldehyde that is produced from environmental sources or methanol metabolism. Thus, its presence in the human host-adapted bacterial pathogen Neisseria meningitidis is intriguing. This work defined the biological function of t...

OBJECTIVE To determine the changes in respiratory function within one hour and three hours of exposure to formaldehyde and investigate the relation between exposure to formaldehyde and acute changes in respiratory function. METHOD Respiratory function of 50 non-smoking medical students exposed to formaldehyde in a gross anatomy laboratory were compared with respiratory function of 36 non-expo...

An 8.6 kDa protein, which the authors call a modifin, has been purified from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) and has been shown to alter the substrate specificity and kinetics of NAD+-linked formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) isolated from the same organism. Purification methods for both the modifin and FDH are presented which reliably produced pure protein for further analysis. Analysis of the m...

Urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin (F/U: 1.25), melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin (F/(U+M): 1.05), and three kinds of wood species including poplar (Populus davidiana Dode), beech (Fagus engleriana Seem.), and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus robusta Smith) were used to produce plywood. The effects of sealing treatment and wood species on the formaldehyde emissions were studied. The anatomical characteris...

Unsaturated oxidative formaldehyde is a noxious aldehyde in cigarette smoke that causes edematous acute lung injury. However, the mechanistic effects of formaldehyde on lung fluid transport are still poorly understood. We examined how formaldehyde regulates human epithelial sodium channels (ENaC) in H441 and expressed in Xenopus oocytes and exposed mice in vivo. Our results showed that formalde...

Animal models and in vitro experiments suggest neurotoxic effects of formaldehyde that may be relevant for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Formaldehyde induces neuronal τ protein misfolding and aggregation, leading to neuronal apoptosis. Formaldehyde also increases mitochondrial membrane permeability and causes oxidative damage partly by reducing superoxide dismutase activity, mechanisms i...

A hierarchical approach for the use of smog chamber data for chemical mechanism development was established by Gary Whitten and Jim Killus at Systems Applications Incorporated (SAI) in San Rafael California in the late 1970s (Whitten et al., 1980). The concept was to start with simple compounds and build to the more complex. Hence if one were to build a kinetic mechanism for propylene, mechanis...

Numerous contaminants in indoor air and their potential to cause or exacerbate asthma continue to be a subject of public health concern. Many agents are causally associated with or can exacerbate asthma, particularly in children. For formaldehyde, an established respiratory irritant based on numerous studies, the evidence for an association with asthma is still considered only limited or sugges...

Occupational exposure to formaldehyde has been linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To date, mechanistic explanations for this association have primarily focused on formaldehyde-induced cytotoxicity, regenerative hyperplasia and DNA damage. However, recent studies broaden the potential mechanisms as it is now well established that formaldehyde dehydrogenase, identical to S-nitrosoglutathione red...