Search results for "Intracellular"

Swelling, Intracellular Acidosis, and Damage of Glial Cells

1996

Cerebral ischemia and severe head injury among others are associated with a limited availability of oxygen, leading to cell catabolism as well as anaerobic glycolysis. Resulting metabolites, such as arachidonic- and lactic acid, can be expected to leak into perifocal brain areas, contributing there to cytotoxic swelling and damage of neurons and glia. Since elucidation of mechanisms underlying cell swelling and damage in the brain is difficult in vivo, respective investigations were carried out in vitro using suspended glial cells. Thereby, effects of arachidonic acid (AA) and of lactacidosis on glial cell volume, intracellular pH (pHi), and cell damage were analyzed utilizing flow cytometr…

IL-1β-converting enzyme (caspase-1) in intestinal inflammation

2001

IL-1β-converting enzyme (ICE; caspase-1) is the intracellular protease that cleaves the precursors of IL-1β and IL-18 into active cytokines. In the present study, the effect of ICE deficiency was evaluated during experimental colitis in mice. In acute dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis, ICE-deficient (ICE KO) mice exhibited a greater than 50% decrease of the clinical scores weight loss, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and colon length, whereas daily treatment with IL-1 receptor antagonist revealed a modest reduction in colitis severity. To further characterize the function of ICE and its role in intestinal inflammation, chronic colitis was induced over a 30-day time period. During this chron…

Role of magnesium in insulin action, diabetes and cardio-metabolic syndrome X

2003

Magnesium (Mg) is one of the most abundant ions present in living cells and its plasma concentration is remarkably constant in healthy subjects. Plasma and intracellular Mg concentrations are tightly regulated by several factors. Among them, insulin seems to be one of the most important. In vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that insulin may modulate the shift of Mg from extracellular to intracellular space. Intracellular Mg concentration has also been shown to be effective in modulating insulin action (mainly oxidative glucose metabolism), offset calcium-related excitation-contraction coupling, and decrease smooth cell responsiveness to depolarizing stimuli. A poor intracellular M…

DNA fragmentation index, pAKT and pERK1/2 in cumulus cells are related to oocyte competence in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization programme

2019

SummaryActivated pERK1/2 and pAKT are key players in supporting cell survival and proliferation pathways. Translocation of pERK1/2 into the nucleus, where it interacts with transcription factors and DNA itself, is instrumental in exerting an anti-apoptotic effect. In this study, pAKT levels, pERK1/2 nuclear localization and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) in cumulus cells of single cumulus–oocyte complexes of patients undergoing in vitro fertilization programmes were evaluated and correlated with the clinical outcome of the related embryos. For a positive clinical outcome of blastocyst development, pERK1/2 nuclear localization and DFI value had a significant inverse relationship, whereas the …

The vesicular transfer of CLIC1 from glioblastoma to microvascular endothelial cells requires TRPM7.

2018

Chloride intracellular channel 1 (CLIC1) is highly expressed and secreted by human glioblastoma cells and cell lines such as U87, initiating cell migration and tumor growth. Here, we examined whether CLIC1 could be transferred to human primary microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC). We previously reported that the oncogenic microRNA, miR-5096, increased the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) by which it increased its own transfer from U87 to surrounding cells. Thus, we also examined its effect on the CLIC1 transfer. In homotypic cultures, miR-5096 did not increase the expression of CLIC1 in U87 nor in HMEC. However, the endothelial CLIC1 level increased after exposure to EVs released b…

Water Dynamics in Biological Systems investigated using Neutron Scattering Techniques

Living systems can not survive in absence of the water environments which play a fundamental role in living functions. Thus in the scienti?c community many studies were and are addressed to characterize water and its dynamics properties in biological systems. However, a clear description of water in such systems has been not reached yet. In fact, the investigations performed with di?erent techniques - those based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or those based on Neutron Scattering - look at di?erent di?usive motions and interactions water-biomolecules, leading controversial results and hence generating many debates between scientists. In this thesis we support the idea that two water populati…

Putative sorting signals involved in PIN1 trafficking

2013

Las auxinas son hormonas vegetales involucradas en muchos procesos fisiológicos, tales como el crecimiento y diferenciación celular, la maduración de los frutos, la floración o los tropismos. Su transporte a través de la planta es polar, jugando un papel esencial en la regulación del crecimiento y el desarrollo y contribuyendo al mantenimiento de la polaridad global de la planta. La polaridad en el flujo de auxinas es debida, al menos en parte, a la distribución polar de los transportadores de salida de auxina de la familia PIN. En Arabidopsis thaliana se han identificado 8 transportadores PIN diferentes. Todos ellos presentan una estructura similar, con un dominio citosólico central que se…

SERS detection of cell surface and intracellular components of microorganisms using nano-aggregated Ag substrate

2016

Abstract The intracellular and cell surface composition and structural features of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria were identified using near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The structural differences of components that reside in the cell envelope are manifested by their SERS spectra, e.g. gram-negative vs. gram-positive. Silver particles were used as a SERS substrate by exploiting the existence of strong local electromagnetic fields (hot spots) within nanoscale aggregates of the particles. The aggregation of silver nanoparticles was induced by magnesium ions. These hot spots reduce the screening length of the double layer. The obtained SERS spectra showed excell…

Flow cytometric analysis of chronic and acute toxicity of copper(II) on the marine dinoflagellateAmphidinium carterae

2001

Background Copper(II) is a heavy metal whose levels have increased in some marine ecosystems to polluting levels. Dinoflagellates, an important phytoplankton group, are at the base of aquatic food chains and bioaccumulation of copper by these microorganisms can result in complex ecosystem alterations, so we investigated how copper disturbs those cells. Methods Cytotoxic effects of sublethal and lethal copper concentrations ranging from 4.2 nM (control condition) to 3.13 μM estimated labile copper were studied in batch cultures of Amphidinium carterae. Cell morphology, motility, autofluorescence, and fluorescein diacetate (FDA)–dependent fluorescence generation were evaluated by flow cytomet…

Nuclear localization but not PML protein is required for incorporation of the papillomavirus minor capsid protein L2 into virus-like particles.

2004

ABSTRACT Recent reports suggest that nuclear domain(s) 10 (ND10) is the site of papillomavirus morphogenesis. The viral genome replicates in or close to ND10. In addition, the minor capsid protein, L2, accumulates in these subnuclear structures and recruits the major capsid protein, L1. We have now used cell lines deficient for promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein, the main structural component of ND10, to study the role of this nuclear protein for L2 incorporation into virus-like particles (VLPs). L2 expressed in PML protein knockout (PML −/− ) cells accumulated in nuclear dots, which resemble L2 aggregates forming at ND10 in PML protein-containing cells. These L2 assemblies also attracted…