Case report 2 full-term silvery marmosets (Ca/lithrix argentata) were born to young adults housed on exhibition in the Charles Clore pavilion at London Zoo. The litter comprised 1 female which was stillborn and 1 male born alive of equal size. The stillborn female weighed 35 g and showed distinct deformities of the hands and feet. The facial appearance was flattened and there were a number of d...

Crustacean muscle has four calpain-like proteinase activities (CDP I, IIa, IIb and III) that are involved in molt-induced claw muscle atrophy, as they degrade myofibrillar proteins in vitro and in situ. Using PCR cloning techniques, three full-length calpain cDNAs (Gl-CalpB, Gl-CalpM and Gl-CalpT) were isolated from limb regenerates of the tropical land crab Gecarcinus lateralis. All three had ...

We describe two patients with claw hand as a result of a bee sting. It is likely that this was caused by the apamin in the sting which has an effect on the upper limb, at the spinal cord and on the peripheral nerves. It is important to recognise that the claw hand is not owing to compartment syndrome. Both patients were treated conservatively with full resolution within 48 hours, without any la...

Four Ca2+-dependent proteinase activities in lobster claw and abdominal muscle have been resolved by high-performance liquid chromatography on gel filtration and ion-exchange columns. These activities, which do not appear to be generated by autolytic or other degradative processes, differed from each other in molecular weight (peak I, Mr = 310,000; peak IIa, Mr = 125,000; peak IIb, Mr = 195,000...

The use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry as a means of analyzing the proteome has been evaluated extensively in recent years. One of the limitations of this technique that has impeded the development of robust data analysis algorithms is the variability in the location of protein ion signals along the x-axis. We studied technical variations of MALDI-TOF measurements in the context of proteomics p...