Biological membrane fusion employs divalent cations as protein cofactors or as signaling ligands. For example, Mg2+ is a cofactor for the N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF) ATPase, and the Ca2+ signal from neuronal membrane depolarization is required for synaptotagmin activation. Divalent cations also regulate liposome fusion, but the role of such ion interactions with lipid bilayers in Ra...

Previous studies have shown that baicalin prevented iron accumulation after substantia nigra injury, reduced divalent metal transporter 1 expression, and increased ferroportin 1 expression in the substantia nigra of rotenone-induced Parkinson's disease rats. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between iron accumulation and transferrin expression in C6 cells, to explore the me...

The factors influencing the oligomerization state of OXA-10 and OXA-14 class D beta-lactamases in solution have been investigated. Both enzymes were found to exist as an equilibrium mixture of a monomer and dimer, with a K(d) close to 40 microM. The dimeric form was stabilized by divalent metal cations. The ability of different metal ions to stabilize the dimer was in the following order: Cd(2+...

A persistent question in the field of antibody imaging and therapy is whether increased affinity is advantageous for the targeting of tumors. We have addressed this issue by using a manipulatable model system to investigate the impact of affinity and antigen density on antibody localization. In vitro enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and bead-binding assays were carried out using BSA conjugate...

High yields of mouse macrophage-melanocyte heterokaryons and macrophage-macrophage homokaryons were obtained through the virus-induced fusion of cells spread on a glass surface. After fusion there was a striking reorganization of cellular architecture by means of a colcemid-sensitive process. Heterokaryons were isolated through the use of differential trypsinization and many underwent division ...

Previous studies have shown that Bacillus subtilis cells lacking penicillin-binding protein 1 (PBP1), encoded by ponA, have a reduced growth rate in a variety of growth media and are longer, thinner, and more bent than wild-type cells. It was also recently shown that cells lacking PBP1 require increased levels of divalent cations for growth and are either unable to grow or grow as filaments in ...

Nramp2 (DMT1) is a pH-dependent divalent cation transporter that acts as the transferrin-independent iron uptake system at the intestinal brush border and also transports iron released from transferrin across the membrane of acidified endosomes. In this study, RAW264.7 macrophages and 2 independently derived murine Sertoli cells lines, TM4 and 15P-1, were used to further study the subcellular l...

A mouse monoclonal antibody (AN9P1) to keratan sulphate is described. In a competitive-inhibition solution-phase radioimmunoassay employing l25l-labelled intact proteoglycan, it reacts preferentially with keratan sulphate bound to the core protein of adult human articular-cartilage proteoglycan and to a much lesser degree with keratan sulphate purified from this proteoglycan. Proteolytic cleava...

background: the clinical significance of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with chronic hepatitis c virus (hcv) and some other viral infections is controversial. objective: to study the prevalence of anticardiolipin antibody (acla) and antibeta2glycoproteini antibody (antibeta2gpi antibody) in hcv and hepatitis b virus (hbv) infected patients and its association with liver clinical parame...

The effects of supplementing Mueller-Hinton broth with calcium and magnesium on the miniimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of eight aminoglycosides, colistin, tetracycline, and carbenicillin for 11 nonfermenters other than Pseudomonas aeruginosa were studied and compared with the effects for Escherichia coli and P. aeruginosa. MICs were simultaneously performed in unsupplemented MuellerHinto...