The effect of pretreating cell suspensions of embryonic rat ventral mesencephala (VM) with antioxidant combinations on the survival of dopaminergic (DA) neurons was studied in vitro and following transplantation into the unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rat model of Parkinson's disease. The in vitro experiments examined the effects of two thiol antioxidants, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC)

We have developed a new Internet service, which provides mobile access to bioinformatics databases and software tools. The BioWAP service facilitates access to basic bioinformatics databases and analysis tools from everywhere without a PC or a laptop computer. Both open source bioinformatics. program suites and Internet services, which are not designed for mobile Internet access, were utilized in

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is usually caused by aspiration of pathogenic bacteria from the oropharynx. Oral decontamination with antiseptics, such as chlorhexidine (CHX) or antibiotics, has been used as prophylaxis against this complication. We hypothesised that the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus plantarum 299 (Lp299) would be as efficient as CHX in reducing th

The study explored the counterfactual thinking that women with chronic and widespread pain showed in response to what they themselves considered to be particularly stressful situations. Counterfactual thinking in 125 women sick-listed due to chronic and widespread pain was investigated in terms of structure, function and control focus. The women were asked, for each of three types of problems that

BB-Diabetes Prone (BB-DP) rats, a model for endocrine autoimmune diseases, are severely lymphopenic, especially lacking ART2+ regulatory T cells. BB-Diabetes Resistant (DR) rats are not lymphopenic and do not develop autoimmunity. BB-DP and BB-DR rats only differ at the lymphopenia (lyp) gene (iddm2) on chromosome 4. Since BB-DP rats also show aberrancies in the differentiation of dendritic cells

We have shown previously that protein kinase C (PKC) epsilon can induce neurite outgrowth independently of its catalytic activity via a region encompassing its C1 domains. In this study we aimed at identifying specific amino acids in this region crucial for induction of neurite outgrowth. Deletion studies demonstrated that only 4 amino acids N-terminal and 20 residues C-terminal of the C1 domains

The polarizabilities of polyampholytes have been calculated in Monte Carlo simulations. For chains with random charge topologies, the polarizability increases with the chain length and the chain flexibility. For block copolymers, the polarizability initially increases with the block size to a maximum and then decreases. The polarizability is used to characterize the interaction between polyampholy

The aerosol in the Amazon basin is dominated throughout the year by organic matter, for the most part soluble in water. In this modeling study, we show how the knowledge of water-soluble organic compounds (WSOC) and the associated physical and chemical properties (e.g. solubility, surface tension, dissociation into ions) affect the hygroscopic growth and activation of the aerosol in this area. The

Introduction Tibial osteotomy by the hemicallotasis technique is a clean elective operation. With external fixation pins inserted, close to the knee joint, the infection prophylaxis should be considered. The primary aim was to investigate the differences in the postoperative use of antibiotics during the time in external fixation between administrating prophylactic antibiotics for 3 days or as a s

In vitro growth hormone (GH) stimulation of Janus kinase 2 (Jak2) tyrosine phosphorylation and activation has been detected in rat adipocytes where GH exerts both chronic diabetogenic and acute insulin-like effects but not in adipocytes where only chronic diabetogenic effects are exerted. The 95 kDa transcription factor Stat5, which is tyrosine phosphorylated in response to GH in both cases, is he

Phase behavior and rheology of polymer mixtures comprising aqueous solutions of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes are investigated. Emphasis is put on the effects of hydrophobic modification of the polymers and addition of salt. The associative phase separation usually observed when mixing oppositely charged polyelectrolytes is effectively prevented over a large miscibility region for the hydrop

The complexes trans-[PtPh(OTf)(PMe2Ph)(2)] (1) and trans- [PtPh(OTf)(PPh3)(2)] (4) were synthesized from the corresponding chloro complexes in moderate yields. Complex I is slowly hydrolyzed in solution, giving the dinuclear hydroxo-bridged complex [Pt(mu-OH)(PMe2Ph)(2)](2)(CF3SO3)(2) (6), which was characterized by X-ray crystallography. In solution I and 4 undergo fast solvolysis to give the cor

Apomorphine, given subcutaneously (s.c.), induces erection and bladder overactivity in rats through stimulation of dopamine (D1- and D2-like) receptors in the central nervous system. In paraplegic patients, apomorphine was reported to cause bladder overactivity. This suggests that apomorphine may have a spinal site of action also for stimulation of erection. The present study was initiated to eval

Caveolae are Omega-shaped vesicular structures postulated to play a role in transvascular protein transport. Studies on mice lacking endothelial caveolae, caveolin-1 knockout (Cav-1-KO) mice, indicate increased macromolecular transport rates. This was postulated to be due to the appearance of an alternative pathway. The present study tested whether an alternative pathway had appeared in Cav-1-KO m

We construct a model for the space of automorphisms of a connected p-compact group in terms of the space of automorphisms of its maximal torus normalizer and its root datum. As a consequence we show that any homomorphism to the outer automorphism group of a p–compact group can be lifted to a group action, analogous to a classical theorem of de Siebenthal for compact Lie groups. The model of this p