The cytomatrix at the active zone (CAZ) has been implicated in defining the site of Ca2+-dependent exocytosis of neurotransmitter. We have identified here a novel CAZ protein of approximately 120 kD from rat brain and named it CAST (CAZ-associated structural protein). CAST had no transmembrane segment, but had four coiled-coil domains and a putative COOH-terminal consensus motif for binding to ...

The Ca2+-activated protease calpain has been shown to play a deleterious role in the heart during ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). We tested the hypothesis that exercise training would minimize I/R-induced calpain activation and provide cardioprotection against I/R-induced injury. Hearts from adult male rats were isolated in a working heart preparation, and myocardial injury was induced with 25 min ...

An immunological biosensor for calpastatin was developed on a surface plasmon resonance based system (Biacore Q). The performance of the biosensor assay was evaluated using ovine and bovine muscle and heart extracts with known calpastatin activity. In addition, the relationship between immunologically detectable calpastatin at 1 day postmortem and shear force at 14 days postmortem was investiga...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate genotypic distribution calpastatin (CAST) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) gene polymorphisms in Tsigai sheep breed. Genomic DNA isolated from blood samples by phenol-chloroform method. A total 56 were genotyped PCR-RFLP Allele genotype frequencies calculated standard procedures. To population-genetic properties, Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium (HW...

BRAF codon 600 mutation testing of melanoma patients is mandatory for the choice of the most appropriate therapy in the clinical setting. Competitive allele specific TaqMan PCR (Cast-PCR) technology allows not only the selective amplification of minor alleles, but it also blocks the amplification of non-mutant allele. We genotyped codon 600 of the BRAF gene in 54 patients' samples by Cast-PCR a...

The objective of this study was to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the calpain 1 (CAPN1), calpain 3 (CAPN3) and calpastatin (CAST) genes, which have been shown to be associated with shear force and tenderness differences in the skeletal muscle of cattle, contribute to phenotypic variation in muscle tenderness by modulating the transcriptional activity of their respe...

CAST gene is a candidate marker that influences the intensity of growth and meat quality. The aim this study was to investigate genetic variability in five Bulgarian sheep breeds – two merino, local one for milk. A total 150 ewes, belonging these were investigated polymorphisms by using PCR-RFLP method. 622 bp fragment Ovis aries amplified PCR. After restriction with endonuclease MspI alleles o...

The level of mRNA for cytosolic aspartate aminotransferase (cAST) in the liver of vitamin B6-deficient rats was found to be 7-fold higher than that of the control rats. The administration of hydrocortisone to adrenalectomized vitamin B6-deficient rats induced expression of hepatic cAST mRNA and the induction was suppressed by the simultaneous administration of pyridoxine. Since the 5' regulator...