We review data from our studies of the physiological role of placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) and report that, in addition to functioning in catalysis, PLAP has the capacity to bind the Fc portion of human IgG. The dissociation constant for the interaction (3.86 mumol/L) indicates that the PLAP-IgG complex probably occurs in vivo. Furthermore, the electrophoretic and immunochemical propert...

Two patients developed thrombocytopenia associated with an in vitro platelet to leukocyte adherence phenomenon (PLAP). In one patient, whole serum, intact plasma, and the IgG fraction of the serum could induce the PLAP of normal platelets in normal whole blood or buffy coat preparations. Passage of serum over a Sepharose column coupled with antihuman IgG resulted in the loss of all the PLAP act...

Periodontal ligament-associated protein-1 (PLAP-1)/asporin is a recently identified novel member of the small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan family. PLAP-1/asporin is involved in chondrogenesis, and its involvement in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis has been suggested. We report that PLAP-1/asporin is also expressed specifically and predominantly in the periodontal ligament (PDL) and that ...

Periodontal ligament associated protein-1 (PLAP-1), a newly discovered extracellular matrix protein in periodontal ligament (PDL), plays a unique biological role in periodontal ligament mineralization. MicroRNA 21 (miR-21) is one of the endogenous small noncoding RNAs which is involved in osteogenic differentiation of PDLCs by targeting PLAP-1 in vitro. Our study was to investigate the specific...

A human term (third trimester) placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP; EC 3.1.3.1) cDNA was isolated from a human placental lambda gt11 cDNA library. The expression library was screened by using rabbit antibodies against PLAP and oligonucleotide probes. DNA sequence analysis of a positive clone with an insert of 2.7 kilobase pairs allowed us to predict the complete amino acid sequence of PLAP (53...

We have analyzed to what extent the surface loop domain of alkaline phosphatases (APs) is responsible for isozyme-specific functional properties. Unique AatII and RsrII restriction sites were introduced by site-directed mutagenesis at identical positions in murine tissue-nonspecific AP (TNAP) and human placental AP (PLAP) cDNAs to allow the homologous exchange of the loop domain of the TNAP (T ...

BACKGROUND In the development of the human ovary, the second trimester includes the transition from oogonial replication to primordial follicle formation. The present study was carried out to assess differentiation and proliferation of germ cells in a series of female gonads from 19 fetuses from the second and third trimester, and two neonates. METHODS Using immunohistochemistry, the followin...

The HeLa TCRC-1 human adenocarcinoma cell line expresses a form of alkaline phosphatase that is similar to the common S-variant of placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) on the basis of electrophoretic mobility, catalytic properties, and reactivity with polyclonal antibodies. More sensitive probes of changes in protein structure than polyclonal antibodies are monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) which r...

The human homologue of FcRn, an IgG Fc receptor expressed in rat villous syncytiotrophoblasts, might be involved in IgG transfer from the maternal to the fetal circulation. However, because the receptor does not bind IgG at the physiological pH of the maternal blood (pH 7.4), FcRn is probably not involved in the initial uptake of IgG. A role in IgG internalization has been suggested for placent...

BACKGROUND We present the possible utility of computational fluid dynamics in the assessment of thrombus formation and virtual surgical planning illustrated in a patient with aortic thrombus in a kinked ascending aortic graft following thoracic endovascular aortic repair. METHODS A patient-specific three-dimensional model was built from computed tomography. Additionally, we modeled 3 virtual ...