Cellular levels of free arachidonic acid (AA) are controlled by a deacylation/reacylation cycle whereby the fatty acid is liberated by phospholipases and reincorporated by acyltransferases. We have found that the esterification of AA into membrane phospholipids is a Ca(2+)-independent process and that it is blocked up to 60-70% by a bromoenollactone (BEL) that is a selective inhibitor of a newl...

Some membrane transporters in liver, such as P-glycoprotein, multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2), MRP3, and MRP5 can lead to a complex multidrug resistance (MDR) to antineoplastic agents. How to inhibit these proteins is still an issue. Tetramethylpyrazine is a bioactive constituent isolated from the root of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort, a Chinese herb. Recent studies showed that it ...

The transcription of genes carried by primate foamy viruses is dependent on two distinct promoter elements. These are the long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter, which regulates expression of the viral structural proteins, and a second internal promoter, located towards the 3' end of the env gene, that directs expression of the viral auxiliary proteins. One of these auxiliary proteins is a potent ...

PURPOSE The chemoresistance of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to cytotoxic drugs, especially intrinsic or acquired multidrug resistance (MDR), still remains a major challenge in the management of HCC. In the present study, possible mechanisms involved in MDR of HCC were identified using a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) -resistant human HCC cell line. METHODS BEL-7402/5-FU cells were established ...

The contractile and relaxation characteristics of trabecular meshwork (TM) are presumed to influence aqueous humor (AH) drainage and intraocular pressure. The mechanisms underlying regulation of TM cell contractile properties, however, are not well understood. This study investigates the role of calcium-independent phospholipase A(2) (iPLA(2)), which controls eicosanoid synthesis, in regulation...

Deser et al. proposed a combination of the Einstein and Landau-Lifshitz pseudotensors such that the second derivatives in vacuum are proportional to the Bel-Robinson tensor. Stimulated by their work, the present paper discuss the gravitational energy-momentum expression which has the same desirable Bel-Robinson tensor property. We find modifications of the Einstein and Landau-Lifshitz pseudoten...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly malignant tumor with an extremely poor prognosis. Our preliminary study indicated that bufalin could restrain the proliferation of human hepatoma BEL-7402 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. In the present study, the colony formation assay, the Transwell invasion assay, the western blot analysis and the immunofluorescence method were respective...

In this Letter, the broad emission line (BEL) profiles of superluminal quasars with apparent jet velocities, βa > 10, (ultraluminal QSOs, or ULQSOs hereafter) are studied as a diagnostic of the velocity field of the BEL emitting gas in quasars. The ULQSOs are useful because they satisfy a very strict kinematical constraint, their parsec scale jets must be propagating within 12◦ of the line of s...

Some of the earliest axon pathways to form in the vertebrate forebrain are established as commissural and retinal axons cross the midline of the diencephalon and telencephalon. To better understand axon guidance in the forebrain, we characterized the zebrafish belladonna (bel) mutation, which disrupts commissural and retinal axon guidance in the forebrain. Using a positional cloning strategy, w...