background: it has been known that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) is involved in neural survival and long term memory (ltm). here we hypothesized that bdnf as a potent neurotrophic factor might modulate amnestic effect induced by morphine. objectives: the aim of this study was to examine whether infusion of exogenous bdnf in the ca1 regions of the dorsal hippocampi could ameliorate me...

The ability of a soluble heparin-binding peptide sequence derived from fibronectin to modulate the adhesion and chemokinetic migration behavior of arterial smooth muscle cells was assessed using a novel glass microsphere centrifugation assay and automated time-lapse fluorescence videomicroscopy, respectively. Treatment of cells grown on fibronectin-coated substrates with the soluble heparin-bin...

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and its specific receptors have diverse roles on a variety of cell types, such as the induction of vascular smooth-muscle cell proliferation which contributes to restenosis after coronary balloon angioplasty. bFGF is also known to interact with heparan sulphate proteoglycans present on the cell surface or in the extracellular matrix. In this study, the bind...

Glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family ligand (GFL) consists of GDNF, neurturin (NRTN), artemin (ARTN), and persephin (PSPN). These GFLs signal through a receptor complex consisting coreceptor (GFRα1–4) as binding component, which has no intracellular domain is anchored to the plasma membrane with glycosylphosphatidylinositol, transmembrane RET (rearranged during transfection...

Heparin is a polysaccharide that is widely used as an anticoagulant drug. The mechanism for heparin's anticoagulant activity is primarily through its interaction with a serine protease inhibitor, antithrombin III (AT), that enhances its ability to inactivate blood coagulation serine proteases, including thrombin (factor IIa) and factor Xa. The AT-binding site in the heparin is one of the most w...

BACKGROUND The clinical benefits of heparin reach beyond its anticoagulative properties. Recently, it has been described that leukocytes adhere on immobilized heparin mediated by the integrin Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18, alphaMbeta2, or CR3). Because inhibition of this versatile adhesion molecule could explain various aspects of the beneficial clinical effects of heparin, we evaluated whether soluble hep...

The purpose of this study was to compare three heparin-binding plasma proteinase inhibitors in order to identify common and unique features of heparin binding and heparin-enhanced proteinase inhibition. Experiments with antithrombin, heparin cofactor, and protein C inhibitor were performed under identical conditions in order to facilitate comparisons. Synthetic peptides corresponding to the put...

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase/cAMP response element-binding protein/brain-derived neurotrophic factor signal transduction pathway plays an important role in the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs and has dominated recent studies on the pathogenesis of depression. In the present review we summarize the known roles of extracellular signal-regulated kinase, cAMP response eleme...