BACKGROUND Existing studies have demonstrated the clinical significance of triglyceride content in VLDL (VLDL-TG) and intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL-TG). We developed a homogeneous assay protocol to directly measure VLDL-TG. METHODS Possible reagents and conditions for measuring VLDL-TG were comprehensively tested, and the "best" combination was determined. Healthy persons were instruc...

We describe the improvement of transglycosylation (TG) by chitinase D from Serratia proteamaculans (SpChiD). The SpChiD produced a smaller quantity of TG products for up to 90 min with 2 mm chitotetraose as the substrate and subsequently produced only hydrolytic products. Of the five residues targeted at the catalytic center, E159D resulted in substantial loss of both hydrolytic and TG activiti...

To examine how binding of BiP (a molecular chaperone of the hsp70 family that resides in the endoplasmic reticulum) influences the conformational maturation of thyroglobulin (Tg, the precursor for thyroid hormone synthesis), we have developed a system of recombinant Tg stably expressed in wild-type Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and CHO-B cells genetically manipulated for selectively increas...

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are formed on proteins after exposure to high concentrations of glucose and modify protein's immunogenicity. Herein, we investigated whether the modification of thyroglobulin (Tg) by AGEs influences its antigenicity and immunogenicity. Human Tg was incubated in vitro with increasing concentrations of D-glucose-6-phosphate in order to produce Tgs with diffe...

In this work we compute the capacities and the pragmatic capacities of militarystandard shaped-o set quadrature phase-shift keying (SOQPSK-MIL) and aeronautical telemetry SOQPSK (SOQPSK-TG). In the pragmatic approach, SOQPSK is treated as a modulation scheme as opposed to an encoder, and no iterations are performed between the SOQPSK demodulator and the outer binary decoder. We also evaluate th...

Endothelial dysfunction in vascular disease states is associated with reduced NO bioactivity and increased superoxide (O2 ) production. Some data suggest that an important mechanism underlying endothelial dysfunction is endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) uncoupling, whereby eNOS generates O2 rather than NO, possibly because of a mismatch between eNOS protein and its cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of FNA-Tg for detecting lymph node metastases in patients with a history of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 58 patients with DTC diagnosis and evidence of single or multiple suspicious cervical lymph nodes were assessed. All underwent total or near-total thyroidectomy with (35 cases) or wi...

We monitored myocardial function in postinfarcted wild-type (WT) and transgenic (TG) mouse hearts with overexpression of the cardiac Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger. Five weeks after infarction, cardiac function was better maintained in TG than WT mice [left ventricular (LV) systolic pressure: WT, 41 +/- 2; TG, 58 +/- 3 mmHg; P < 0.05; maximum rising rate of LV pressure (+dP/dt(max)): WT, 3,750 +/- 346;...