The bag cell neurons of the marine mollusk, Aplysia, are a putative multitransmitter system that utilizes two or more peptide transmitters derived from a common precursor protein. Two putative transmitters are egg-laying hormone (ELH), a 36 amino acid peptide that induces egg laying and mediates bag cell-induced excitatory effects on certain abdominal ganglion neurons, and alpha-bag cell peptid...

Background Asthenozoospermia accounts for almost 50% of the cases of male infertility. Our study investigating phosphoproteins differentially expressed in asthenozoosperm has identified the phosphoproteins relevant to sperm motility and the signature molecules likely to be altered in asthenozoospermia. The 66 phosphoproteins differentially expressed included four alpha tubulin isoforms which we...

Background Asthenozoospermia accounts for almost 50% of the cases of male infertility. Our study investigating phosphoproteins differentially expressed in asthenozoosperm has identified the phosphoproteins relevant to sperm motility and the signature molecules likely to be altered in asthenozoospermia. The 66 phosphoproteins differentially expressed included four alpha tubulin isoforms which we...

INTRODUCTION Treatment with various biological agents in disease states such as rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with multiple side effects. Whereas many of these are frequently reported in the literature, hypoglycemia, a possible side effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors, may be underpublicized. CASE PRESENTATION We report nine cases of non-diabetic Caucasian women who we...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection activates protein kinase C (PKC), but the precise PKC isoform(s) involved and its role(s) remain to be elucidated. On the basis of the activation kinetics of different signaling pathways and the effect of various PKC inhibitors, it was reasoned that PKC activation is important in the early stages of RSV infection, especially RSV fusion and/or replicat...

BACKGROUND Macrophages expressing the pro-angiogenic transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha have been demonstrated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the synovial tissue. Aim of the present study was to investigate intracellular signal transduction regulation of pro-inflammatory HIF-1 alpha expression in macrophages to identify possible new intervention strategies. We investiga...