Amorphous Calcium Phosphate (ACP) is an essential mineral phase formed in mineralized tissues and the first commercial product as artificial hydroxyapatite. ACP is unique among all forms of calcium phosphates in that it lacks long-range, periodic atomic scale order of crystalline calcium phosphates. The X-ray diffraction pattern is broad and diffuse with a maximum at 25 degree 2 theta, and no o...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis that occurs in humans. Despite its prevalence, the pathogenesis of OA is not fully understood. Intraarticular basic calcium phosphate (BCP) (an inclusive term for partially carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite, octacalcium phosphate and tricalcium phosphate) crystals are implicated in OA and are associated with severe degenerative arthrit...

The photoprotective processes of photosynthetic organisms involve the dissipation of excess absorbed light energy as heat. Photoprotection in cyanobacteria is mechanistically distinct from that in plants; it involves the orange carotenoid protein (OCP), a water-soluble protein containing a single carotenoid. The OCP is a new member of the family of blue light-photoactive proteins; blue-green li...

Cyanobacteria have developed a photoprotective mechanism that decreases the energy arriving at the photosynthetic reaction centers under high-light conditions. The photoactive orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is essential in this mechanism as a light sensor and energy quencher. When OCP is photoactivated by strong blue-green light, it is able to dissipate excess energy as heat by interacting wit...

Open circuit potential (OCP) measurements can be very sensitive to small changes in the electrode environment and may allow detection of electron transfer events involving few, and maybe single, electrons. Factors affecting the overall sensitivity of OCP measurements were investigated to achieve the highest sensitivity. The OCP of platinum ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs) was determined in solutions...

PURPOSE Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic, proinflammatory cytokine that mediates various immunoinflammatory processes. Ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (OCP) is an autoimmune disease in which affected conjunctivae show features of an immunoinflammatory disease. In this study, the role of MIF in the pathogenesis of OCP was examined. METHODS The expression of MIF in co...