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The properties of hydrophobically modified cellulose derivatives in aqueous mixtures with various other molecules have been investigated. Mixtures of a hydrophobically modified polymer and alkali-sensitive, degradable surfactants gave rise to time-dependent viscosities. With time, the viscosity decreased continuously or went through a maximum, depending on the initial surfactant concentration. Th
71 consecutive posterolateral lumbar fusions without decompression or internal fixation were evaluated with a mean follow-up time of 3.5 (2-7) years. The diagnoses were spondylolysis-olisthesis in 43 cases, degenerative disc disease and/or facet joint arthrosis in 16 cases and pain post laminectomy/ decompression in 12 cases. 54/70 patients had a solid fusion. In the group with spondylolysis-olist
Telomeres are the end-structures of linear chromosome which are crucial for maintaining genome integrity. The telomeres prevent the DNA-repair machinery from recognizing the chromosome ends as double-strand breaks and from end-to-end fusions. The telomeres are composed by short repetitive units of TG-rich DNA and associated specialized telomere-binding proteins. Due to that replication only can
Vasodilator responses to endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) and anandamide in isolated arteries were investigated. A combination of the potassium channel blockers charybdotoxin and apamin inhibits EDHF-mediated relaxations. Experiments in which charybdotoxin or apamin was substituted with other potassium channel inhibitors indicated that small- and intermediate-conductance calcium-a
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) refers to heart rate variations due to respiration, which results from parasympathetic nervous system activity mediated via the tenth cranial nerve, the vagus. Thus, the magnitude of RSA is considered as an index of cardiac vagal tone. This thesis explored RSA during emotional responding in healthy women and men. In the first two studies fear-relevant pictorial s
The purpose of this study was to investigate how total body protein and its fraction of body weight (body protein fraction) change in cancer patients during different anti-tumor treatments, and to see if these changes have any clinical significance in the form of prognostic value or correlation with disease course and tumor response. In 84 patients, 28 with lung cancer, 24 with gastrointestinal t
Beginning with the notion that spatial and material qualities of architecture set limits and create conditions for how we make use of it, the overall aim and ambition of this thesis is to develop this notion and to contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationships that are produced between the materiality of architecture and a bodily appropriation of it. To investigate this the thesis esta
Wilms’ tumor gene 1 (WT1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor that is involved in the development of urogenital organs and mesothelial tissues. It was initially identified as a tumor suppressor gene, based on the observation that somatic inactivation of the gene predispose for development of the pediatric kidney cancer Wilms’ tumor. A role for WT1 in hematopoiesis was suggested based on the fact
Aquaporins constitute a class of membrane proteins that create pores through the lipid bilayer of biological membranes, facilitating the passage of water and other small solutes. Nearly all living organisms possess a more or less intricate set up of aquaporin proteins and the importance of these channels has been implicated in many aspects of health and disease. The aim of the projects summarized
Antibody-based microarrays are among the novel class of rapidly evolving proteomic technologies. In recent years, antibody microarrays have emerged as a unique tool for high-throughput protein expression profiling with great promise within biomedicine and a wide range of potential applications, including disease diagnostics and biomarker discovery. In order to evolve the technology from small dedi
Neuroblastoma is a tumor of sympathetic nervous system derivation, mostly afflicting young children. This thesis is focused on a group of receptor proteins for neurotrophic factors, the Trk family, and on N-Myc, a transcription factor, all important in the formation of the sympathetic nervous system as well as in determining neuroblastoma patient outcome. Expression of trkA and trkC is linked to f
Abstract. This thesis describes factors that are rate limiting for the folding of two small proteins, U1A and CI2 which fold without accumulating intermediates. The [GdnHCl] dependencies of the unfolding- and refolding kinetics of U1A display downward curvatures. However, as the curvatures are precisely matched and no indications of formation of partially structured intermediates are seen, the fol
Membrane proteins are particularly important to characterize, since they are involved in cellular processes of utmost importance in control and regulation of cells, such as transport across membranes, signal transduction and photosynthesis. The word "proteome" means all proteins expressed by a e.g. a cell or a tissue, at a certain time point and "proteomics" is the large scale study of these prote
Proteoglycans (PGs) is a class of highly anionic macromolecules that consist of one or more linear polysaccharide chains (glycosaminoglycans, GAGs) covalently attached to a core protein. The biological functions of PGs are mainly due to the interactions of GAG chains with various protein ligands and regulatory factors, such as cytokines and growth factors. PGs and GAGs are critical for a diverse s
Mucosal infections trigger an inflammatory response that includes the secretion of cytokines and the recruitment of neutrophils to the infected site. This thesis describes studies examining the molecular mechanisms of neutrophil migration to sites of mucosal bacterial infection. Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection of epithelial cell layers stimulates chemokine secretion and chemokine receptor ex
The aim of this thesis work was to study phase diagrams, microstructure and phase separation in alkylglucoside systems. Both alkyl glucoside/water systems and microemulsions with alkyl glucosides have been studied. The phase diagram of the ternary n -nonyl-beta-glucoside (C9G1)/ n -decyl-beta-glucoside (C10G1)/water system has been determined and is dis
In the studies of this thesis, a method for automated classification of myocardial perfusion images was successfully developed and evaluated. The results show that the method, based on artificial neural networks, was equally good, or even better than human experts. It was also found that physicians interpreting myocardial perfusion images benefit from the advice of the artificial neural networks.
The influence of trauma (acute pancreatitis) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN) on pancreatic islet hormone secretion in relation to islet expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was investigated. Acute pancreatitis resulted in an impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) which was found to be parallelled by a marked expression of iNOS and an exaggerated NO production in t
Disregarding the small primordial traces of the lightest elements, all metals have been formed in stellar processes, which means that the relative amount of metals in the Universe increases for every stellar generation. This build-up of elements is called chemical evolution and might be used both to constrain stellar models as well as understanding the formation and evolution of stellar population
In this thesis asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (FFF) separations of ribosomes and subunits have been studied. Ribosomal material was prepared from Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells and analyzed by the size separation technique. The five main peaks in the fractograms correspond to transfer RNA (tRNA), unidentified proteins, small subunit, large subunit, and ribosome. The accuracy of the
