The Ws mutant allele of rats represents a 12-base deletion at the tyrosine kinase domain of the c-kit gene. Although homozygous Ws/Ws rats were deficient in both connective tissue-type mast cells (CTMC) and mucosal-type mast cells (MMC), mast cells did develop when bone marrow cells of Ws/Ws rats were cultured in the presence of concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cell conditioned medium (ConA-SCM...

A viscometer suitable for rapid measurements in small volumes of highly viscous liquids is described. Using this device the viscometric affinity assay for glucose was studied under variable conditions in order to obtain basic information for the design of a viscometric glucose sensor. The viscosity of the dextran/Concanavalin A (ConA) solution is sensitive to glucose in a broad range of the she...

Cell death of hepatocytes is a prominent characteristic in the pathogenesis of liver disease, while hepatolysis is a starting point of inflammation in hepatitis and loss of hepatic function. However, the precise molecular mechanisms of hepatocyte cell death, the role of the cytokines of hepatic microenvironment and the involvement of intracellular kinases, remain unclear. Tumor necrosis factor ...

P388D1 macrophage-like cells have previously been shown to produce both mitogenic and inhibitory regulators of porcine smooth muscle cell (pSMC) growth. The mitogenic activity was shown to have a molecular mass of > 10 kDa while the inhibitory activity was in the range of 2-6 kDa. In the present study, we present a novel dialysis culture system where P388D1 cells were grown in dialysis membrane...

Bone marrow-derived stromal cells (BMSC) are avidly recruited by experimental vascularizing tumors, which implies that they must respond to tumor-derived growth factor cues. In fact, BMSC chemotaxis and cell survival are regulated, in part, by the membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), an MMP also involved in pro-MMP-2 activation and in degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM)...

Charge states of noncovalent protein complexes in the gas phase are known to affect their propensity for unfolding and dissociation. In this work, C-reactive protein (CRP) pentamer and Concanavalin A (ConA) tetramer at different charge states were subjected to collision induced dissociation (CID) and surface induced dissociation (SID) in a modified quadrupole/ion mobility/time-of-flight mass sp...

Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) has become an indispensable technique for accurate determination of gene expression in various samples. In mice, intravenous injection of concanavalin A (ConA) leads to acute hepatitis and liver injury. Functional studies based on this model have provided insights for understanding the mechanisms of liver injury. How...

Severe liver injury that occurs when immune cells mistakenly attack an individual's own liver cells leads to autoimmune hepatitis. In mice, acute hepatitis can be induced by concanavalin A (ConA) treatment, which causes rapid activation of CD1d-positive natural killer (NK) T cells. These activated NKT cells produce large amounts of cytokines, which induce strong inflammation that damages liver ...

T cells bearing the gd antigen receptor (gd T cells) can constitute up to 50% of T cells in the peripheral blood and lymphoid organs of young cattle. We present data showing that gd T cells are involved in immune responses against Theileria parva. gd T cells isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of T. parva-naive and -immune cattle proliferated in the presence of fixed or unfi...

Two forms of the gonadotropin alpha subunit are synthesized in placenta and in human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-producing tumors: an uncombined (monomer) form and a combined (dimer) form. These forms show differences in their migration on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The slower migration of the monomeric form on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electroph...