Cheilitis granulomatosa is a rare disorder of unknown etiology. The condition produces chronic and persistent swelling of one or both lips. The treatment of cheilitis granulomatosa is usually ineffective. Various forms of treatment have been used with variable success. Here I report a 40-year old woman from suburbs of Ahwaz, with persistent swelling of lower lip from 8 months ago, who had not r...

BACKGROUND Zinc (Zn) biofortification through foliar Zn application is an attractive strategy to reduce human Zn deficiency. However, little is known about the biofortification efficiency and bioavailability of rice grain from different forms of foliar Zn fertilizers. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Four different Zn forms were applied as a foliar treatment among three rice cultivars under fie...

Bacteria respond dynamically to the changes in zinc availability. Repression by the Bacillus subtilis transcription factor Zur requires Zn(II), which binds with negative cooperativity to two regulatory sites per dimer to form, sequentially, Zur2:Zn3 and Zur2:Zn4 forms of the repressor. Here we show that, as cells transition from zinc sufficiency to deficiency, operons regulated by Zur are derep...

Zinc is a ubiquitous metal in all life forms, as it is a structural component of the almost 10% of eukaryotic proteins, which are called zinc-binding proteins. In zinc-limiting conditions such as those found during infection, pathogenic fungi activate the expression of several systems to enhance the uptake of zinc. These systems include ZIP transporters (solute carrier 39 family) and secreted z...

Introduction: Today Nano-medicine tries to produce new drugs to reduce the dosage and side effects of their conventional forms. According to the interaction between zinc and opioidergic system activity, this study has investigated the effect of new kind of zinc supplement, nano zinc oxide (nZnO), in compared to its conventional form (cZnO), in presence and absence of opioidergic system activity...

Manufactured nanoparticles have a wide range of application due to their advantageous properties whencompared with their bulk forms. There is a growing concern regarding the safety of nanoparticles. This studyaimed to evaluate the cell membrane lipoperoxidation (LPO) and DNA integrity in red earthworm Lumbricusrubellus when exposed to artificial soil systems containing different concentration o...

The chemical forms of zinc (Zn) in the Zn-tolerant and hyperaccumulator Arabidopsis halleri and in the non-tolerant and nonaccumulator Arabidopsis lyrata subsp. petraea were determined at the molecular level by combining chemical analyses, extended x-ray absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS), synchrotron-based x-ray microfluorescence, and muEXAFS. Plants were grown in hydroponics with various Zn conc...

Hyperaccumulators tolerate and accumulate extraordinarily high concentrations of heavy metals. Content of the metal chelator nicotianamine (NA) in the root of zinc hyperaccumulator Arabidopsis halleri is elevated compared with nonhyperaccumulators, a trait that is considered to be one of the markers of a hyperaccumulator. Using metabolite-profiling analysis of root secretions, we found that exc...

Despite its superior characteristics, there is an increased concern about the environmental effects that zinc oxide causes and over the years lower levels of zinc have been tried in order to decrease its impact and to minimise the production costs. Different approaches have been considered for reducing zinc levels. Between all the alternatives proposed, the use of nano–sized ZnO particles with ...

Using the radionuclide 65Zn, we have demonstrated the direct binding of zinc to purified rhodopsin. 65Zn is eluted with detergent-solubilized rhodopsin from concanavalin A columns and remains bound to the visual pigment through a subsequent gel-filtration step. Zinc binding to purified disc membranes is highly specific and, of the ions tested, copper is the best competitor. Equilibrium-dialysis...