Search results for "PIGMENT"
showing 10 items of 626 documents
Daily Profile in Melanopsin Transcripts Depends on Seasonal Lighting Conditions in the Rat Retina
2007
The retinal photopigment melanopsin (Opn4) mediates photoentrainment of the circadian system. In the present study, seasonal regulation of the melanopsin gene was investigated in comparison with the arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AA-NAT) gene as an indicator of retinal pacemaker output. For this purpose, the daily profiles in the amount of melanopsin mRNA and AA-NAT mRNA were monitored under 8 : 16 h light/dark, 12 : 12 h light/dark and 16 : 8 h light/dark photoperiods using real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. We found that, under all of the lighting regimes, melanopsin and AA-NAT expression oscillated with a peak around dark onset and the middle of the dark phase, respective…
Singlet and triplet energy transfer rate acceleration by additions of clusters in supramolecular pigment-organometallic cluster assemblies
2011
Both S(1) and T(1) energy transfer rates (porphyrin → cluster) increase from mono- to di- to tetracarboxylate[tetraphenyl-(zinc)porphyrin] adducts with [Pd(3)(dppm)(3)(CO)](2+) clusters.
Identification of a polyketide synthase gene (pksP) of Aspergillus fumigatus involved in conidial pigment biosynthesis and virulence.
1998
Aspergillus fumigatus is an important pathogen of the immunocompromised host causing pneumonia and invasive disseminated disease with high mortality. Previously, we identified a mutant strain (white, W) lacking conidial pigmentation and, in addition, the conidia showed a smooth surface morphology, whereas wild-type (WT) conidia are grey-green and have a typical ornamentation. W conidia appeared to be less protected against killing by the host defence, e.g., were more susceptible to oxidants in vitro and more efficiently damaged by human monocytes in vitro than WT conidia. When compared to the WT, the W mutant strain showed reduced virulence in a murine animal model. Genetic analysis suggest…
Biofilm development by clinical strains of non-pigmented rapidly growing mycobacteria
2009
AbstractThe relationship between clinical significance of non-pigmented, rapidly growing mycobacteria (NPRGM), in vitro biofilm development and sliding motility was evaluated in this study. One hundred and sixty-eight clinical strains of NPRGM were included. Forty-one of these were clinically significant isolates. Biofilm was formed by 123 strains. Seventy-six biofilm-positive and 25 biofilm-negative strains showed sliding motility. There was a relationship between clinical significance and biofilm development (p <0.000 001), sliding motility (p 0.0037) and species (p <0.000 001). No relationship was found between motility and biofilm development. The ability to develop biofilm is a charact…
Electrostatic control of the photoisomerization efficiency and optical properties in visual pigments: on the role of counterion quenching.
2009
Hybrid QM(CASPT2//CASSCF/6-31G*)/MM(Amber) computations have been used to map the photoisomerization path of the retinal chromophore in Rhodopsin and explore the reasons behind the photoactivity efficiency and spectral control in the visual pigments. It is shown that while the electrostatic environment plays a central role in properly tuning the optical properties of the chromophore, it is also critical in biasing the ultrafast photochemical event: it controls the slope of the photoisomerization channel as well as the accessibility of the S(1)/S(0) crossing space triggering the ultrafast decay. The roles of the E113 counterion, the E181 residue, and the other amino acids of the protein pock…
Tyrosinase Enzyme: 1. An Overview on a Pharmacological Target
2014
The tyrosinase enzyme (EC 1.14.18.1) is an oxidoreductase inside the general enzyme classification and is involved in the oxidation and reduction process in the epidermis. These chemical reactions that the enzyme catalyzes are of principal importance in the melanogenesis process. This process of melanogenesis is related to the melanin formation, a heteropolymer of indolic nature that provides the different tonalities in the skin and helps to the protection from the ultraviolet radiation. However, a pigment overproduction, come up by the action of the tyrosinase, can cause different disorders in the skin related to the hyperpigmentation. Several studies mainly focused on the characteristics …
MyRIP, a novel Rab effector, enables myosin VIIa recruitment to retinal melanosomes
2002
Defects of the myosin VIIa motor protein cause deafness and retinal anomalies in humans and mice. We report on the identification of a novel myosin-VIIa-interacting protein that we have named MyRIP (myosin-VIIa- and Rab-interacting protein), since it also binds to Rab27A in a GTP-dependent manner. In the retinal pigment epithelium cells, MyRIP, myosin VIIa and Rab27A are associated with melanosomes. In transfected PC12 cells, overexpression of MyRIP was shown to interfere with the myosin VIIa tail localization. We propose that a molecular complex composed of Rab27A, MyRIP and myosin VIIa bridges retinal melanosomes to the actin cytoskeleton and thereby mediates the local trafficking of thes…
Leucine Aminopeptidase Activity in Mast Cells
1959
DURING investigations of the behaviour of leucine aminopeptidase activity of blood-serum in patients with dermatoses and tumours1–3, in a case of diffuse skin mastocytosis of a new-born, we detected heightened activity of leucine aminopeptidase. After mechanical friction of the affected skin, greater activity of leucine aminopeptidase occurred. From this we supposed a release of leucine aminopeptidase from the mast cell infiltrates of the skin. As is well known, in urticaria pigmentosa mechanical irritation of the skin lesions give rise to a degranulation of mast cells4,5 with liberation of histamine and serotonin. Indeed, there is no doubt that mast cells contain the enzyme leucine aminope…
Síntesis y caracterización de nanopartículas de TiO2 y ZrO2 dopadas con cationes de metales de transición. Aplicaciones como nanopigmentos y en fotoc…
2017
En la presente tesis doctoral se pretende por una parte sintetizar en la escala nanométrica pigmentos cerámicos clásicos de uso industrial, como son el pigmento de color amarillo V-ZrO2, y el pigmento de color naranja-amarillo Cr,Sb-TiO2, mediante métodos de síntesis no convencionales. Para llevar a cabo dichas síntesis se van a utilizar dos métodos de síntesis relativamente sencillos y fácilmente reproducibles a escala industrial, como son el método del poliol y el método hidrotermal, los resultados que se obtengan mediante los dos métodos serán comparados y se hará hincapié en sus ventajas e inconvenientes. Las composiciones nominales estudiadas serán en el caso del VxZr1-xO2 valores 0 ≤ …
Hyperspectral Imaging for Non-invasive Diagnostics of Melanocytic Lesions
2022
Malignant melanoma poses a clinical diagnostic problem, since a large number of benign lesions are excised to find a single melanoma. This study assessed the accuracy of a novel non-invasive diagnostic technology, hyperspectral imaging, for melanoma detection. Lesions were imaged prior to excision and histopathological analysis. A deep neural network algorithm was trained twice to distinguish between histopathologically verified malignant and benign melanocytic lesions and to classify the separate subgroups. Furthermore, 2 different approaches were used: a majority vote classification and a pixel-wise classification. The study included 325 lesions from 285 patients. Of these, 74 were invasi…