spinal cord injury (sci) in humans remains a devastating and incurable disorder. a very important obstacle in axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury is astroglial scaring. the use of self-assembling peptide nanofiber, a hydrogel mimicking extracellular matrix, has been suggested as a scaffold for spinal cord regeneration and inhibition of astrogliosis. however, neurogenesis potential of l...

background: spermatogonial stem cells are subpopulation of spermatogonial cells in testis tissue that support beginning and maintenance of spermatogenesis. ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase l1 (uchl1) could be a specific marker for identification of spermatogonial stem cells including spermatogonial sperm cells (sscs) in testis tissue and during the culture; therefore we undertook this study...

Laminin-2 promotes basement membrane assembly and peripheral myelinogenesis; however, a receptor-binding motif within laminin-2 and the downstream signaling pathways for motif-mediated cell adhesion have not been fully established. The human laminin-2 alpha2 chain cDNAs cloned from human keratinocytes and fibroblasts correspond to the laminin alpha2 chain variant sequence from the human brain. ...

Lu/BCAM (Lutheran/basal cell-adhesion molecule) is a laminin 511/521 receptor expressed in erythroid and endothelial cells, and in epithelial tissues. The RK573-574 (Arg573-Lys574) motif of the Lu/BCAM cytoplasmic domain interacts with αI-spectrin, the main component of the membrane skeleton in red blood cells. In the present paper we report that Lu/BCAM binds to the non-erythroid αII-spectrin ...

Mutations in the laminin-332 (α3Aβ3γ2) genes cause junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB), a recessively inherited disease characterized by blistering and altered wound repair. In addition, specific mutations that affect the N-terminus of the α3A chain cause a JEB-related non-blistering condition characterized by chronic production of granulation tissue, suggesting a critical role of this regio...