Proenzymes with various lengths of propeptides have been observed in GluV8 from Staphylococcus aureus and GluSE from S. epidermidis. However, the production mechanism of these proenzymes and roles of truncated propeptides have yet to be elucidated. Here we demonstrate that shortening of propeptide commonly occurs in an auto-catalytic manner in GluV8-family members, including those from coagulas...

The time course of the ability of active shortening was compared to that of isometric contractile force during contraction-relaxation cycles of the pedal retractor muscle of Mytilus by measuring the maximal shortening velocity and the rate of force redevelopment after a quick release. The contractile force had its peak at 2 s after stimulus initiation and decayed with a half relaxation time of ...

Telomere shortening is a feature of cellular ageing common to a range of human tissues. Shorter telomeres are associated with an increased likelihood of mortality, including death from heart disease. We examined the association between telomere length and heart disease (present in 33%) in a well-characterised, narrow age cohort of older people (n=190, all born in 1921), and tested for any conco...

Previously, we have shown that shortening of telomeres by telomerase inhibition sensitized cancer cells to cisplatinum, slowed their migration, increased DNA damage and impaired DNA repair. The mechanism behind these effects is not fully characterized. Its clarification could facilitate novel therapeutics development and may obviate the time consuming process of telomere shortening achieved by ...

The cineangiograms of 26 normal subjects were analyzed to study the effect of Starling's mechanism on postextrasystolic potentiation. The end-diastolic volumes (single plane and biplane) of the left ventricle were similar in the regular sinus beat before an extrasystole and sequential sinus beats after an extrasystole. However, the ejection fraction, mean normalized systolic ejection rate, mean...

In eukaryotes, the absence of telomerase results in telomere shortening, eventually leading to replicative senescence, an arrested state that prevents further cell divisions. While replicative senescence is mainly controlled by telomere length, the heterogeneity of its onset is not well understood. This study proposes a mathematical model based on the molecular mechanisms of telomere replicatio...

Bacterial endotoxins in vitro are capable of shortening the coagulation time of normal whole blood, native platelet-rich and platelet-poor plasma, and the blood of a hemophilic patient in silicone but not in glass. The point in the coagulation system at which the endotoxins act has not been found but the search has been narrowed by the demonstration that these materials act independently of leu...

During the complex process of replication, DNA polymerase is unable to create fully double-stranded ends on daughter chromosomes. This results in a progressive shortening of the telomeric repeats, by around 50 to 200 bp per cell division in somatic cells (2). Once the telomere length reaches a critical lower limit, the cell loses its ability to replicate, entering a state of senescence that usu...