Skin, as the outermost organ in the human body, continuously confronts the external environment and serves as a primary defense system. The protective functions of skin include UV-protection, anti-oxidant and antimicrobial functions. In addition to these protections, skin also acts as a sensory organ and the primary regulator of body temperature. Within these important functions, the epidermal ...

Tight junctions create a paracellular permeability barrier, which is breached when non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs cause gastrointestinal injury, including increased gastrointestinal permeability. However, the mechanism by which aspirin affects the function of gastric epithelial tight junctions is unknown. Thus, we examined the effect of aspirin on gastric mucosal barrier properties and t...

Although water, small nonelectrolytes, and gases are freely permeable through most biological membranes, apical membranes of certain barrier epithelia exhibit extremely low permeabilities to these substances. The role of integral membrane proteins in this barrier function has been unclear. To study this problem, we have ablated the mouse gene encoding uroplakin III (UPIII), one of the major pro...

Steroids reduce permeability of the blood-brain barrier and inhibit active sodium transport by brain capillaries in vitro. Since the rate of edema formation during the early stages of ischemia is related to the rate of sodium transport from blood to brain, this study was designed to determine whether steroids reduce ischemic edema formation by inhibiting blood-brain barrier sodium transport. De...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is released on inflammatory responses in many organs. However, roles of PTX3 in brain are still mostly unknown. Here we asked whether and how PTX3 contributes to blood-brain barrier dysfunction during the acute phase of ischemic stroke. METHODS In vivo, spontaneously hypertensive rats were subjected to focal cerebral ischemia by transient middle cereb...

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) has an essential role in mediating Ca(2+)-induced keratinocyte differentiation in vitro. In this study, we generated keratinocyte-specific CaR knockout ((Epid)CaR(-/-)) mice to investigate the function of the CaR in epidermal development in vivo. (Epid)CaR(-/-) mice exhibited a delay in permeability barrier formation during embryonic development. Ion capture c...

although in recent two decades, the concept of dielectric barrier discharges (dbds) have been developed in ozone production well, air pollution control, plasma screens and control of chemical, and biological and medical processes, employment of this concept for high voltage applications to improve insulation performance as an alternative to the pressurized gas-insulated systems (gis) utilizing ...

Vascular endothelial permeability transition does not cause significant lesions, but enhanced permeability may contribute to the development of vascular and other diseases, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure and cancer. Therefore, elucidating the effect of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) on vascular endothelial permeability could help prevent disease that might be caused by P...

Background and aim: A genetically impaired intestinal barrier function has long been suspected to be a predisposing factor for Crohn’s disease (CD). Recently, mutations of the capsase recruitment domain family, member 15 (CARD15) gene have been identified and associated with CD. We hypothesise that a CARD15 mutation may be associated with an impaired intestinal barrier. Methods: We studied 128 ...