Proteins

O presente trabalho teve por objetivos avaliar a composição de rizomas do lírio-do-bejo (Hedychium coronarium) e isolar e caracterizar seu amido, por meio de análises físicas e físico-químicas. A composição química dos grânulos de amido isolados dos rizomas também foi determinada, bem como o formato, tamanho, distribuição de tamanho de partícula por difração a laser, viscosidade de pasta em analisador rápido de viscosidade, poder de inchamento, índice de solubilidade em água, propriedade térmica por calorimetria diferencial de varredura e cristalinidade por difração de raios X. Observou-se que os rizomas apresentaram elevado teor de água e baixos teores de matéria graxa, carboidratos, cinzas, proteínas e fibras. Os rizomas de lírio-do-brejo apresentam-se inadequados para produção de amido, devido ao baixo teor de matéria seca (17,3%), com 21,97% de amido, bem como fibras longas e látex, que dificultam a extração do amido. O amido extraído apresentou pureza de 99,2%, com 37,2% de ami...

The use of transcranial low-level laser (light) therapy (tLLLT) to treat stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is attracting increasing attention. We previously showed that LLLT using an 810-nm laser 4 h after controlled cortical impact (CCI)-TBI in mice could significantly improve the neurological severity score, decrease lesion volume, and reduce Fluoro-Jade staining for degenerating neurons. We obtained some evidence for neurogenesis in the region of the lesion. We now tested the hypothesis that tLLLT can improve performance on the Morris water maze (MWM, learning, and memory) and increase neurogenesis in the hippocampus and subventricular zone (SVZ) after CCI-TBI in mice. One and (to a greater extent) three daily laser treatments commencing 4-h post-TBI improved neurological performance as measured by wire grip and motion test especially at 3 and 4 weeks post-TBI. Improvements in visible and hidden platform latency and probe tests in MWM were seen at 4 weeks. Caspase-3 express...

An electrophoretic and microbiological study [more probable number (NMP), total (CT) and fecal coliforms (CF); aerobic-mesophils bacteria (BAM), molds andyeasts] in worm's flour of Eisenia fétida was carried out. In the electrophoretic proflles using gels of ...

The present study characterizes the dynamic interfacial properties of calf lung surfactant (CLS) and samples reconstituted in a stepwise fashion from phospholipid (PL), hydrophobic apoprotein (HA), surfactant apoprotein A (SP-A), and neutral lipid fractions. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), the major PL component of surfactant, was examined for comparison. Surface tension was measured over a range of oscillation frequencies (1-100 cycles/min) and bulk phase concentrations (0.01-1 mg/ml) by using a pulsating bubble surfactometer. Distinct differences in behavior were seen between samples. These differences were interpreted by using a previously validated model of surfactant adsorption kinetics that describes function in terms of 1) adsorption rate coefficient (k1), 2) desorption rate coefficient (k2), 3) minimum equilibrium surface tension (gamma*), 4) minimum surface tension at film collapse (gammamin), and 5) change in surface tension with interfacial area for gamma < gamm...

High pressure homogenization (HPH) was tested for inducing autolysis in a commercial strain of Saccharomyces bayanus for winemaking. The effects on cell viability, the release of soluble proteins, glucidic colloids and amino acids in wine-like medium and the volatile composition of the autolysates were investigated after processing, in comparison with thermolysis. HPH seemed a promising technique for inducing autolysis of wine yeasts. One pass at 150MPa was the best operating conditions. Soluble colloids, proteins and free amino acids were similar after HPH and thermolysis, but the former gave a more interesting volatile composition after processing, with higher concentrations of ethyl esters (fruity odors) and lower fatty acids (potential off-flavors). This might allow different winemaking applications for HPH, such as the production of yeast derivatives for wine ageing. In the conditions tested, HPH did not allow the complete inactivation of yeast cells; the treatment shall be optimized before winemaking use.

Ascites can be defined as the abnormal accumulation of fluid inside the peritoneal cavity. Earlier ascites was classified as transudative and exudative based on the total protein concentration of the ascitic fluid. The traditional concept of high pro-tein ascites(> 2.5 g/dl) as exudate ...

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is the major mediator of the humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy and of malignant osteolysis associated with skeletal metastases of common epithelial cancers. PTHrP secretion is regulated by the extracellular calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)](o)) in several types of normal and malignant cells. Because the [Ca(2+)](o)-sensing receptor (CaR) is a key mediator of [Ca(2+)](o)-regulated hormone secretion [e.g., of parathyroid hormone (PTH) by parathyroid chief cells], we investigated the expression of the CaR and PTHrP in normal and neoplastic glial cells and studied the effects of [Ca(2+)](o) on PTHrP secretion. Our results show that primary embryonic human astrocytes (HPA) express CaR mRNA and protein as detected by RT-PCR and Western analysis, respectively. Furthermore, astrocytomas and meningiomas also express the CaR at similar levels as assessed by RT-PCR and Northern and Western blot analyses. HPA and astrocytomas express transcripts encod...

Successful use of liposomes as immunological adjuvants in vaccines requires simple, easy to scale up technology capable of high-yield antigen entrapment. Recent work from this laboratory has led to the development of techniques that can generate liposomes of various sizes containing soluble antigens such as proteins or particulate antigens such as whole, live, or attenuated bacteria or viruses. Entrapment of proteins is carried out by the dehydration-rehydration procedure, which entails freeze-drying of a mixture of "empty" small unilamellar vesicles and free antigens. Upon rehydration, the large multilamellar vesicles that are formed incorporate up to 80% of the antigen used. When such liposomes are microfluidized in the presence of nonentrapped material, their size is reduced to about 100 nm in diameter, with much of the originally entrapped antigen still associated with the vesicles. A similar technique applied to the entrapment of particulate antigens (e.g., Bacillus s...

Tumors evade host immunity at both the induction and effector phases. Most studies have focused on tumor evasion at the induction phase, and, due in part to poor antitumor CTL responses to most tumors, the mech- anism for evasion of CTL effector function is less clear. Here we have taken advantage of the strong CTL responses to a costimulator B7-1- transfected tumor to study the mechanism for tumor evasion of preexist- ing host immunity. We have investigated six independent recurrent tu- mors isolated from mice that were challenged with and had rejected B7-1-transfected J558 (J558-B7) tumors. Because the mice had developed strong antitumor CTL responses, these recurrent tumors must have evaded preexisting antitumor CTLs. Indeed, whereas the parental J558-B7 cell line is efficiently lysed by the ex vivo tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, all of the recurrent tumors are resistant to such lysis. Interestingly, the recurrent tumors can be divided into two groups. The group 1 tumors have va...

Neuronal growth cones navigate over long distances along specific pathways to find their correct targets. The mechanisms and molecules that direct this pathfinding are the topics of this review. Growth cones appear to be guided by at least four different mechanisms: contact ...

The interaction of leech-derived tryptase inhibitor (LDTI) with bovine liver capsule tryptase (BLCT) and bovine trypsin has been studied using both thermo-dynamic and kinetic approaches. Several differences were detected: (i) the equilibrium affinity of LDTI for BLCT (Ka = 8.9 105 M–1) is about 600-fold lower than that for bovine trypsin (Ka = 5.1 108 M–1); (ii) LDTI be-haves as a purely non-competitive inhibitor of BLCT, while it is a purely competitive inhibitor of bovine tryp-sin. These functional data are compared with those previously reported for the LDTI binding to human tryptase, where tight inhibition occurs at two of the four active sites of the tetramer (Ka = 7.1 108 M–1). Amino acid sequence alignment of BLCT, human II-tryptase and bovine trypsin allows us to infer some possible structural basis for the observed functional differences.

The binding of warfarin to the following human serum albumin (HSA) mutants was examined: K195M, K199M, F211V, W214L, R218M, R222M, H242V, and R257M. Warfarin bound to human serum albumin (HSA) exhibits an intrinsic fluorescence that is approximately 10-...