We investigated whether a relationship exists between circulating transforming growth factor beta -1 (TGF-beta(1)), collagen type I metabolism, microalbuminuria, and left ventricular hypertrophy in essential hypertension and whether the ability of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist losartan to correct microalbuminuria and regress left ventricular hypertrophy in hypertensives is relat...

Myostatin is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth and belongs to the TGF-β superfamily of growth and differentiation factors. Myostatin functions by inhibiting myoblast proliferation and differentiation (Thomas, 2000; Rios, 2001; Taylor, 2001; Langley, 2000). Mutations in the myostatin gene are found in cattle such as Belgian Blue and Piedmontese (McPerron et al, 1997;Kambadur, 1997; ...

Von Willebrand factor (VWF) dimerizes through C-terminal CK domains, and VWF dimers assemble into multimers in the Golgi by forming intersubunit disulfide bonds between D3 domains. This unusual oxidoreductase reaction requires the VWF propeptide (domains D1D2), which acts as an endogenous pH-dependent chaperone. The cysteines involved in multimer assembly were characterized by using a VWF const...

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by bone fragility and fractures, and associated with bone deformity, short stature, dentin, ligament and blue‑gray eye sclera. OI is caused by a heterozygous mutation in collagen α‑1(I) chain (COL1A1) or collagen α‑2(I) chain (COL1A2) genes that encode α chains of type I collagen. Collagen α chain peptide contains an N‑pro...

In this article, the full description of a heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HF_REF) cohort of 192 patients is provided. Tables with the baseline demographic, prior history, ECG parameters, echocardiographic parameters, laboratory values and pharmacological treatment of these patients are included. Also, the quartile values of the analyzed circulating biomarkers: high sensitivity Tr...

Aeromonas hydrophila is an opportunistic pathogen and the leading cause of fatal hemorrhagic septicemia in rainbow trout. A gene encoding an elastolytic activity, ahyB, was cloned from Aeromonas hydrophila AG2 into pUC18 and expressed in Escherichia coli and in the nonproteolytic species Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. masoucida. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the ahyB gene revealed an open readi...

Pulmonary surfactant protein C (SP-C) propeptide (proSP-C) is a type II transmembrane protein that is palmitoylated on two cysteines adjacent to its transmembrane domain. To study the structural requirements for palmitoylation of proSP-C, His-tagged human proSP-C and mutant forms were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells and analysed by metabolic labelling with [3H]palmitate. Mutations were...

Subtilisin from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1 is a member of the subtilisin family. T. kodakaraensis subtilisin in a proform (T. kodakaraensis pro-subtilisin), as well as its propeptide (T. kodakaraensis propeptide) and mature domain (T. kodakaraensis mat-subtilisin), were independently overproduced in E. coli, purified, and biochemically characterized. T. kodak...