P4, a 28-amino-acid peptide, is a eukaryotic cellular activator that enhances specific in vitro opsonophagocytic killing of multiple bacterial pathogens. In a previous study, we successfully recreated this phenomenon in mice in vivo by using a two-dose regimen of P4 and pathogen-specific antibodies, which significantly reduced moribundity in mice. For the present study, we hypothesized that the...

Infection with the protozoan parasite Leishmania amazonensis can cause diverse clinical forms of leishmaniasis. Immunization with purified P4 nuclease protein has been shown to elicit a protective response in mice challenged with L. amazonensis and L. pifanoi. To explore the potential of a DNA-based vaccine, we tested the L. amazonensis gene encoding P4 nuclease as well as adjuvant constructs e...

A simple graph is P4-indifferent if it admits a total order < on its nodes such that every chordless path with nodes a, b, c, d and edges ab, bc, cd has a < b < c < d or a > b > c > d. P4-indifferent graphs generalize indifferent graphs and are perfectly orderable. Recently, Hoàng, Maffray and Noy gave a characterization of P4-indifferent graphs in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. We clari...

CONTEXT Progesterone (P4) promotes its own secretion and the survival of human granulosa/luteal (GL) cells. OBJECTIVE The objective of these studies was to determine whether progesterone receptor membrane component-1 (PGRMC1) mediates P4's actions. DESIGN In vitro studies were conducted on GL cells from women undergoing in vitro fertilization and GL5 cells, which are derived from GL cells. ...

Intravaginal impedance (IVI) fluctuates during the goat estrous cycle. To understand which ovarian steroids are responsible for IVI changes and whether IVI variations are associated with precopulatory and copulatory behaviors, 8 ovariectomized females were assigned to 4 treatments in a 4 x 4 Latin square replicated over four 8-d periods. The treatments were as follows: progesterone plus estradi...

Objectives were to compare circulating progesterone (P4) profile and pregnancies per AI (P/AI) of two commercial intravaginal P4 devices (PRID-Delta(®) vs CIDR(®)). In Experiment 1, ovariectomized dairy cows (PRID-Delta, n=6 vs CIDR, n=6) were sampled throughout 7 days to measure circulating P4. In Experiment 2 (PRID-Delta, n=399 vs CIDR, n=375), cows were assigned to treatments, as follows: D0...

Herein we report a rapid and sensitive surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor to detect progesterone (P4), a model analyte of small molecules. A terthiophene scaffold with an oligoethylene glycol (OEG) linker is used as an anchor for the P4-ovalbumin (OVA) immobilization on gold to form a stable, regenerable SPR surface. Subsequently, inhibition SPR immunoassays based on this terthiophene/OV...

A P4 is a chordless path of four vertices. A graph is P4-indifference if it admits an ordering < on its vertex set such that every P4 abcd has a < b < c < d or d < c < b < a. Such an ordering is called a P4-indifference ordering. The P4-indifference graphs were introduced in [Chv84] as a particular class of perfectly orderable graphs. A graph is perfectly orderable if there exists an ordering o...

Previous reports of adrenal progesterone (P4) contributions during late gestation in cattle, and ACTH-induced P4 responses in the non-pregnant heifer, prompted a retrospective investigation to evaluate the plasma P4 response and the relative ratio of plasma cortisol (CT) to P4 following ACTH administration during mid-gestation in pregnant Brahman heifers. Twenty-three pregnant (139.0 +/- 5.0 da...

Our objective was to develop treatments applied to cattle of unknown pregnancy status that would resynchronize the repeat estrus of nonpregnant females. In Exp. 1, previously inseminated dairy and beef heifers were assigned randomly to each of three treatments 13 d after AI: 1) no treatment (controls; n = 44); 2) 0.5 mg of estradiol cypionate (ECP) i.m. on d 13 and 20 at the time of insertion a...