Bone models set for studying apatite mineralization tend to use excess of organic additives and a very low concentration collagen in light those described the biological tissue. However, activity soluble during mineral deposition is highly dependent on their confinement state, among others. Here, we investigate role as key components bone mineralization, i.e., bioinspired synthetic polyaspartat...

A key player in this fascinating story is Weston A. Price, who discovered that the diets of healthy traditional peoples contained at least ten times as much vitamin A as the American diet of his day. His work revealed that vitamin A is one of several fat-soluble activators present only in animal fats and necessary for the assimilation of minerals in the diet. He noted that the foods held sacred...

The cytoplasmic pH undergoes a biphasic change when neutrophils are activated. The role of Ca2+ in initiating these changes was investigated. No correlation was found between the increased cytosolic [Ca2+] and the stimulation of the Na+/H+ antiport. Similarly, the cytoplasmic acidification elicited by activation in Na+-free media was found to be unrelated to [Ca2+]. Reversal of Na+/H+ exchange ...

The heme-protein soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is the intracellular receptor for nitric oxide (NO). sGC is a heterodimeric enzyme with α and β subunits and contains a heme moiety essential for binding of NO and activation of the enzyme. Stimulation of sGC mediates physiologic responses including smooth muscle relaxation, inhibition of inflammation, and thrombosis. In pathophysiologic states, N...

Among single-spanning transmembrane receptors (sTMRs), two guanylyl cyclase receptors, GC1 and GC2, are critically important during phototransduction in vertebrate retinal photoreceptor cells. Ca(2+)-free forms of guanylyl cyclase-activating proteins (GCAPs) stimulate GCs intracellularly by a molecular mechanism that is not fully understood. To gain further insight into the mechanism of activat...

A soluble 5'-nucleotidase was identified in rat kidney and partially purified. Compared with 5'-IMP, 5'-AMP was a poor substrate. The affinity for 5'-IMP was very low (S0.5 greater than 1 mM) in the absence of an activator, and it was much increased (S0.5 = 0.1 mM) by 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG). ATP and bisadenosyl tetraphosphate were further activators. The pH optimum was 6.3. Those pro...

BACKGROUND The glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptors are considered complementary therapeutic targets for type 2 diabetes. Using recombinant membrane-tethered ligand (MTL) technology, the present study focused on defining optimized modulators of these receptors, as well as exploring how local anchoring influences soluble peptide fun...