Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most important health problems with increasing prevalence worldwide. Oxidative stress that is a result of imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and antioxidant defense mechanisms has been demonstrated as a main pathology in DM. Hyperglycemia-induced ROS productions can induce oxidative stress through four major molecular mechanisms inclu...

The cytochrome P450 enzyme superfamily (CYP), E.C. 1.14.-.-, are haem-containing monooxygenases with a vast range of both endogenous and exogenous substrates. These include sterols, fatty acids, eicosanoids, fat-soluble vitamins, hormones, pesticides carcinogens as well drugs. Listed below the human enzymes, their relationship rodent CYP activities is obscure in that species orthologue may not ...

Enzyme isoforms are found in many cellular reactions, and can differ in the kind of reaction they catalyze, in their substrate affinity, or in their reaction rates. The evolutionary significance of enzyme isoforms is only partially understood. We used mathematical modeling to investigate the hypothesis that isoforms may be favored by selection because they can increase the phenotypic robustness...

Choline acetyltransferase synthesizes acetylcholine in cholinergic neurons and, in humans, may be produced in 82- and 69-kDa forms. In this study, recombinant choline acetyltransferase from baculovirus and bacterial expression systems was used to identify protein isoforms by two-dimensional SDS/PAGE and as substrate for protein kinases. Whereas hexa-histidine-tagged 82- and 69-kDa enzymes did n...

An extensive literature now supports a fundamental role for glutathione in the antioxidant protection of the lung and its gas exchange surface [1]. However, the physiological significance of lung glutathione turnover by the extracellular catabolic enzyme gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) has remained controversial. The function of GGT in the lung has been a major research focus in my laboratory....

Normal cells are protected by antioxidant enzymes from the toxic effects of high concentrations of reactive oxygen species generated during cellular metabolism. Even though cancer cells generate reactive oxygen species, it has been demonstrated biochemically that antioxidant enzyme levels are low in most animal and human cancers. However, a few cancer types have been found to have elevated leve...

understanding of physiological responses of salt tolerance might be lead to identify main salt tolerance mechanisms and essential approaches for improving grain yield stability, and also to select salt tolerant wheat cultivars. thus, the effects of salinity were investigated on grain yield and some of the characteristics related to salt tolerance. six wheat cultivars (roshan, kavir, karchia, ga...

Regulated point modification by an RNA editing enzyme occurs at four conserved sites in the Drosophila Shaker potassium channel. Single mRNA molecules can potentially represent any of 2(4) = 16 permutations (isoforms) of these natural variants. We generated isoform expression profiles to assess sexually dimorphic, spatial, and temporal differences. Striking tissue-specific expression was seen f...