Background: Intestinal nematodes may interact with the intestinal mucosal host cells through molecules they produced actively in the host environment. Many excretory/secretory products (ESP) of the intestinal nematodes are considered as interesting candidates to be examined in vitro on their tolerance-inducing activities. Nematode-derived protease inhibitors are believed to have multiple, speci...

Class A scavenger receptor (SRA), also known as CD204, has been shown to participate in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and the pattern recognition of pathogen infection. However, its role in adaptive immune responses has not been well defined. In this study, we report that the lack of SRA/CD204 promotes Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 agonist-augmented tumor-protective immunity, which is associa...

Evaluating how autotrophic (SRA), heterotrophic (SRH) and total soil respiration (SRTOT) respond differently to changes of environmental factors is critical to get an understanding of ecosystem carbon (C) cycling and its feedback processes to climate change. A field experiment was conducted to examine the responses of SRA and SRH to water and nitrogen (N) addition in a temperate steppe in north...

BACKGROUND Although hypertension is an important risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, the mechanisms for this interaction are incompletely described. Previous studies have suggested that biomechanical strain regulates macrophage phenotype. We tested the hypothesis that biomechanical strain can induce expression of the class A scavenger receptor (SRA), an important lipoprotein rec...

In the search for new diagnostic methods that would distinguish Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense from T. b. brucei and T. b. gambiense, we have developed two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer sets. The first primer set was derived from the serum resistance-associated (SRA) gene of T. b. rhodesiense that confers resistance to lysis by normal human serum (NHS). The specificity of the SRA-based...

Trypanosoma brucei brucei is the causative agent of nagana in cattle and can infect a wide range of mammals but is unable to infect humans because it is susceptible to the innate cytotoxic activity of normal human serum. A minor subfraction of human high-density lipoprotein (HDL) containing apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), apolipoprotein L-I (apoL-I), and haptoglobin-related protein (Hpr) provides ...

In C. elegans, the RAS/MAPK pathway is used in different tissues to regulate various cell fate decisions. Several positive and negative regulators tightly control the activity of the RAS/MAPK pathway at different steps. We demonstrate a link between a G-protein-coupled receptor signalling pathway and the RAS/MAPK cascade. SRA-13, a member of the SRA family of chemosensory receptors, negatively ...

Theoretical models of animal contests frequently generate predictions about how asymmetries (e.g. differences in size, residence status) between contestants affect fight duration. Linear regression and nonparametric correlation analyses are commonly used to test the fit of data to such models. We show how survival regression analysis (SRA) is a powerful technique for studying the effect of asym...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to systematically characterize individuals with short root anomaly (SRA) without any history of orthodontic treatment. The long-term objective of the study was to improve diagnosis and treatment planning and determine risk factors for developing SRA. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION Twenty-seven patients including two families and 16 unrelated individuals ...

Significant drying shrinkage is one of the main limitations for the wider utilization of alkali-activated slag (AAS). Few previous works revealed that it is possible to reduce AAS drying shrinkage by the use of shrinkage-reducing admixtures (SRAs). However, these studies were mainly focused on SRA based on polypropylene glycol, while as it is shown in this paper, the behavior of SRA based on 2-...