PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of down-regulation of Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) and Aquaporin 5 (AQP5) on cell proliferation and migration in human corneal endothelial (HCEC) and human corneal epithelial (CEPI17) cell lines, respectively. METHODS AQP1 and AQP5 were down regulated using siRNA following lipofectamine-mediated transfection in corneal endothelial and epith...

Aquaporin-1 is a water channel found in mammalian red blood cells that is responsible for high water permeability of its membrane. Our electron crystallographic analysis of the three-dimensional structure of aquaporin-1 at 4.5-A resolution confirms the previous finding that each subunit consists of a right-handed bundle of six highly tilted transmembrane helices that surround a central X-shaped...

Binding of the peptide hormone vasopressin to its type-2 receptor (V2R) in kidney triggers a cAMP-mediated translocation of Aquaporin-2 water channels to the apical membrane, resulting in water reabsorption and thereby preventing dehydration. Mutations in the V2R gene lead to Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus (NDI), a disorder in which this process is disturbed, because the encoded, often intrinsi...

The photosynthetic rate increases under high-N supply, resulting in a large CO₂ transport conductance in mesophyll cells. It is less known that water movement is affected by nitrogen supply in leaves. This study investigated whether the expression of aquaporin and water transport were affected by low-N (0.7 mM) and high-N (7 mM) concentrations in the hydroponic culture of four rice varieties: (...

Aquaporin-3 (AQP3) and aquaporin-4 (AQP4) are homologous proteins expressed in the basolateral plasma membrane of kidney collecting duct principal cells, where they mediate the exit pathway for apically reabsorbed water. Although both proteins are localized to the same plasma membrane domain, it is unknown if they are sorted together in the Golgi, or arrive in the same or different vesicles at ...

INTRODUCTION Gene expression profiling was performed via DNA microarrays in leukocytes from critically ill trauma patients nonseptic upon admission to the ICU, who subsequently developed either sepsis (n = 2) or severe sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (n = 3). By comparing our results with published expression profiling studies in animal models of sepsis and lung injury, we found ...

The lateral mobility of proteins within cell membranes is usually thought to be dependent on their size and modulated by local heterogeneities of the membrane. Experiments using single-particle tracking on reconstituted membranes demonstrate that protein diffusion is significantly influenced by the interplay of membrane curvature, membrane tension, and protein shape. We find that the curvature-...

The large number of sequences available for the aquaporin family represents a valuable source of information to incorporate into three-dimensional structure determination. Phylogenetic analysis was used to define type sequences to avoid extreme over-representation of some subfamilies, and as a measure of the quality of multiple sequence alignment. Inspection of the sequence alignment suggested ...