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Intraportal tumour cell (TC) injection activates platelets which release serotonin (5-HT). Thrombocytopenia or 5-HT blockade decrease the hepatic lodgement of the injected TCs. A hypothetical explanation of this is 5-HT inhibition of TC killing by phagocytes (e.g. leukocytes and Kupffer cells). In this study, leukocyte phagocytosis was analysed by a chemiluminescence technique at different 5-HT co
The local structures of Ga(III) in aqueous oxalate and malonate complexes were studied by means of Ga K-edge EXAFS spectroscopy. Irrespective of the number and type of coordinated ligands, the EXAFS results showed very regular first coordination shells consisting of six oxygen atoms. Scattering paths from more distant atoms revealed that both oxalate and malonate form mononuclear chelate structure
1. The mechanisms by which cAMP stimulates Ca(2+)-dependent insulin secretion were investigated by combining measurements of whole-cell Ca2+ currents, the cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and membrane capacitance in single mouse B-cells maintained in tissue culture. 2. Cyclic AMP stimulated exocytosis > 4-fold in whole-cell experiments in which secretion was evoked by intracellular di
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The effect of pixel size on shape determination in screening digital mammography systems was studied using a shape identification task as the measured outcome. Ten microcalcifications on screen-films were digitised to a range of pixel sizes (2.5-200 μm) and extracted from computed radiography (CR) images (50 μm) acquired under equivalent imaging conditions. Fifteen observers attempted to identify
Pollen records from 21 sites were used to reconstruct Holocene hydrological changes in northern Fennoscandia. The inferred dominance of maritime-type Betula-forests from c. 9600 BP onwards indicate an oceanic climate in the region during the early Holocene, with high amounts of precipitation and low seasonal contrasts. This interpretation is supported by oxygen isotope records obtained on lacustri
Avian sex determination is chromosomal; however, the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood. There is no conclusive evidence for either of two proposed mechanisms: a dominant genetic switch or a dosage mechanism. No dominant sex-determining gene on the female-specific W chromosome has been found. Birds lack inactivation of one of the Z chromosomes in males, but seem to compensate for a doubl
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of central nervous system (CNS) which is thought to arise from a breakdown of immunological tolerance in CD4 cells. The aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of regulation mechanisms of T cell-dependent chronic inflammation in the CNS and explore ways to overcome the onset and progression of the disease, which can be an importa
By direct sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified DNA from different individuals, three point mutations have been found in a 220-bp fragment from the promoter region of the human cystatin C gene. The three mutations are all localized within a short segment of 85 bp on the same allele. One of the base substitutions results in the generation of a novel SstII restriction site and anot
This paper presents a methodology to gain process knowledge and assist in the robustness analysis of an ion-exchange step in a protein purification process using a model-based approach. Factorial experimental design is common practice in industry today to obtain robustness characterization of unit operations with respect to variations in process parameters. This work aims at providing a better ins
Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are chronic diseases that cannot be prevented or cured. If the pathologic basis of such diseases would be known, it might be easier to develop new drugs interfering with critical pathways. Genetic analysis of animal models for autoimmune diseases can result in discovery of proteins and pathways that play a key function in pathogenesis, which ma
OBJECTIVE: The underlying mechanisms of the differences in sex distribution of patients with atrioventricular (AV) nodal re-entrant tachycardia and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine potential gender differences in the electrophysiological properties of the normal AV conduction system that may be attributable to differences in sex dis
We report a case of a large, deep-seated, diagnostically difficult angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma. The neoplastic cells were positive for vimentin, calponin, CD99, and, focally, for desmin and contained intertwining cytoplasmic processes joined by desmosomelike junctions. Fusion of codon 175 of the FUS gene to codon 110 of the ATF1 gene was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reac
1. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the effect of propofol on sympathetic neurotransmission in isolated human omental vessels. 2. Segments of both arteries and veins were exposed to 0, 10(-7), 10(-6), 10(-5) or 10(-4)M propofol, and studied in vitro to determine effects on: (i) isometric tension after electrical field stimulation (EFS) or after exogenous administration of noradrenalin
With a simplified model in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) approximation, the behavior of weakly bound s(1/2) neutrons in the many-body pair correlation is studied by solving the HFB equation in coordinate space with the correct asymptotic boundary conditions. It is shown that in one-neutron pickup reactions on the even-even neutron-drip-line nuclei, which contain loosely bound s(1/2) neutrons,
Aim: Results from several studies indicate that the total homocysteine (tHcy) concentration in plasma is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease in hemodialysis patients. Folic acid is the established mainstay of homocysteine-lowering treatment, but since such treatment does not normalize plasma tHcy concentration in hemodialysis patients, it is of importance to search for additional
1 Recent studies have indicated that mast cells play an intermediate role in chemokine-induced neutrophil recruitment in vivo. 2 The aim of the present investigation was to determine the role of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in neutrophil recruitment provoked by the CXC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2). For this purpose, we used mast cell- and TNF-alpha-deficient mice
