In an effort to better understand the consequences of lead (Pb2+) on skeletal growth, the effects of Pb2+ were investigated using ROS 17/2.8 bone-like cells in vitro. These studies revealed that Pb2+ (4.5 x 10(-6) M -4.5 x 10(-7) M) has little or no effect on cell shape except when added immediately following seeding of the cells. However, proliferation of ROS cells was inhibited, in the absenc...

The aberrant generation of oxygen and nitrogen free radicals can cause severe damage to key cellular components, resulting in cell apoptosis. Similarly, excitotoxicity leads to protease activation and mitochondrial dysfunction, which subsequently causes cell death. Each of these factors play critical roles in the neuronal cell death underlying various neurodegenerative diseases. Procyanidin B2 ...

Schizophrenia: A Plausible Neurobiologic Connection In their article in the April issue of EHP, Opler et al. (2004) raise the intriguing possibility that prenatal exposure to the ubiquitous developmental neurotoxicant lead (Pb2+) may be associated with schizophrenia, an adult psychiatric disease. Although the study has certain limitations that the authors discussed, it brings to light the possi...

Effects of Pb2+ on delayed-rectifier potassium channels in acutely isolated hippocampal neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 2649-2654, 1997. The effects of Pb2+ on delayed-rectifier potassium currents were studied in acutely isolated hippocampal neurons (CA1 neurons, CA3 neurons, granule cells) from the guinea pig using the patch-clamp technique in the whole cell configuration. Pb2+ in micromolar con...

A novel method for the rapid extraction and determination of a ppt level of Pb2+ and Cu2+ ions using partial silylated MCM-41 modified by a new salophen and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) is introduced. The preconcentration factor of the method is 500, and the detection limits of Pb2+ and Cu2+ are 335 and 34 ng L(-1), respectively. The time and efficiency of e...

well-defined crystalline pbse nanocubes and nanospheres have been synthesized through a simple hydrothermal method by using pb2+- edta and pb2+- oleylamine complexes at 180°c for different reaction times. composition and morphology of the samples have been characterized by means of xrd and sem. gradual release process of pb2+ from pb2+-edta and pb2+-oleylamine complexes can adjust the growth ra...

We modeled the stimulated hydrogel volume transitions of a material which binds Pb2+ and is used as a photonic crystal chemical sensing material. This material consists of a polymerized crystalline colloidal array (PCCA) hydrogel which contains a crown ether molecular recognition group. The PCCA is a polyacrylamide hydrogel which embeds a crystalline colloidal array (CCA) of monodisperse polyst...

BACKGROUND Influenza A virus has a RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) that is composed of three subunits (PB1, PB2 and PA subunit), which assemble with nucleoproteins (NP) and a viral RNA (vRNA) to form a RNP complex in the host nucleus. Recently, we demonstrated that the combination of influenza ribonucleoprotein (RNP) components is important for both its assembly and activity. Therefore, we ...

An electrochemical sensor incorporating a signal enhancement for the determination of lead (II) ions (Pb2+) was designed on the basis of the thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA) as a molecular recognition element and ionic liquid supported cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles-carbon nanotubes composite modification. The composite comprises nanoparticles CeO2, multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and hydr...

The potency of Pb2+ inhibition of glutamate-activated currents mediated by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors was dependent on the subunits composing the receptors when functionally expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Pb2+ reduced the amplitudes of glutamate-activated currents and shifted the agonist EC50 values of NMDA receptors consisting of different subunit compositions. The IC50 values...