Lecithin was fi rst isolated from egg yolk in the 1850’s. The Greek word for egg yolk, lekithos, is the basis for the name lecithin. Lecithin has a reputation for being “brain food” because of its high concentration of phosphatidyl choline, a nutrient which supports primary brain functions including memory, thought, and muscular control. Phosphatidyl choline is the biological precursor to acety...

Several lines of biochemical evidence correlate the presence of energy metabolic defects with the functional alterations associated with brain aging and with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Within this context we tested the ability of insulin to regulate the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Our findings show ...

Skeletal muscle differentiation, maturation, and regeneration are regulated by interactions between signaling pathways activated by hormones and growth factors, and intrinsic genetic programs controlled by myogenic transcription factors, including members of the MyoD and myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) families. Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) play key roles in muscle development in the emb...

Autonomic stimulation controls heart rate and myocardial excitability and may underlie the precipitation of both acquired and hereditary arrhythmias. Changes in phosphatidyl inositol bisphosphate (PIP2) concentration results from activation of several muscarinic and adrenergic receptors. We sought to investigate whether PIP2 changes could alter HERG K(+) channel activity in a manner similar to ...

Electric fields have been used to manipulate and concentrate glycan-phosphatidyl inositol (GPI)-tethered proteins in planar supported bilayers. Naturally GPI-linked CD48, along with engineered forms of I-Ek and B7-2, in which their transmembrane domains have been genetically replaced with the GPI linkage, were studied. The proteins were labeled with fluorescently tagged antibodies, allowing the...

NKG2D is an activating receptor present in all human NK cells, CD8+ T cells, and in certain populations of CD4 T cells, and engagement of this receptor with its ligands is a crucial step in the regulation of both innate and specific immune responses [for review, see Ref. (1)]. NKG2D recognizes two families of MHC-related molecules, whose expression is, in general, upregulated when the cells suf...