Recently we have shown that the free energy for pore formation induced by antimicrobial peptides contains a term representing peptide-peptide interactions mediated by membrane thinning. This many-body effect gives rise to the cooperative concentration dependence of peptide activities. Here we performed oriented circular dichroism and x-ray diffraction experiments to study the lipid dependence o...

This study was carried out to investigate the wound healing effect of caffeic acid in skin-incised mice. Caffeic acid showed significant effects on anti-inflammatory activity and wound healing, such as myeloperoxidase activity, lipid peroxidation, phospholipase A(2) activity and collagen-like polymer synthesis, in incised-wound tissue. On the other hand, it significantly stimulated collagen-lik...

We present an experimental study of the pore formation processes of small amphipathic peptides in model phosphocholine lipid membranes. We used atomic force microscopy to characterize the spatial organization and structure of alamethicin- and melittin-induced defects in lipid bilayer membranes and the influence of the peptide on local membrane properties. Alamethicin induced holes in gel DPPC m...

Acetylcholine and Norepinephrine Mediate GABAergic but not 1 Glycinergic Transmission Enhancement by Melittin in Adult Rat 2 Substantia Gelatinosa Neurons 3 4 Tao Liu, Tsugumi Fujita, and Eiichi Kumamoto 5 6 Department of Physiology, Saga Medical School, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, 7 Japan; Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang 8 330006, China 9 10 Runni...

Translation of melittin messenger RNA from queen bee venom glands in a cell-free system from wheat germ yielded prepromelittin. Sequence analysis of the labeled in vitro product was performed by automatic Edman degradation of the intact polypeptide as well as by analysis of some of its proteolytic fragments. Prepromelittin was shown to be composed of 70 amino acids, two of which have not been i...