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Biomedical subjects

Lei Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Lei Liu.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

[Preparation and identification of rabbit-anti-human nestin antiserum].

Nestin belongs to the class VI intermediate filament family and it is a marker for neural progenitor cells. In this work, the 3'-terminal coding sequence(396 bp) of human nestin gene was cloned into pGEX-3X plasmid and introduced into BL21 E. coli cells. The GST-nestin protein was purified with an affinity column. Anti-human nestin antiserum was raised by immunizing a rabbit with the fusion protein. The high specificity of the antibody against human nestin was confirmed by western-blot and immunocytochemistry analysis.

Animals↗

[Nonlinear regression analysis of cardiac enzyme kinetic model with modified simplex method and DUD method using SAS software].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of modified simplex method and DUD method using SAS software for nonlinear regression analysis of cardiac enzyme kinetic model. METHOD: By using cardiac enzyme kinetic one-compartment mathematical model, nonlinear regression results obtained from DUD methods using SAS software and modified simplex method were compared with the same starting values to fit the creatine kinase curves in 22 patients with acute myocardial infarction. RESULTS: The parameters calculated by DUD method and modified simplex method were the same in 4 cases, and smaller least square was resulted from DUD method in 4 cases. In the other 14 cases, modified simplex method yielded smaller least square. The mean value of the least square calculated by modified simplex method was less than that by DUD method (867 747 vs 6 712 989, P=0.013). CONCLUSION: Modified simplex method appears to be more adequate than DUD method in estimating circulatory parameters of the one-compartment model.

Humans↗

[Different levels of nitric oxide in seminal plasma of fertile and abnormospermic men].

OBJECTIVES: To understand the relation between nitric oxide (NO) level in seminal plasma and male fertility. METHODS: The levels of NO in seminal plasma of 174 fertile males and 217 abnormospermia patients were measured by using the reductase of nitric acid, Greiss reagent and spectrophotometry. RESULTS: 1. NO was found in all 174 samples (20-49 years) of fertile males which was (27.78 +/- 5.81) mumol/L. The NO level in seminal plasma in fertile males was became higher after age 40, and there was no significant difference between 20-29-year-old [(26.25 +/- 5.52) mumol/L] and 30-39-year-old[(28.11 +/- 5.87) mumol/L]. But the group of 40-49-year-old[(30.17 +/- 6.14) mumol/L] had a higher level of NO in seminal plasma than 20-29-year-old (P < 0.05). 2. The seminal plasma samples from nine types of abnormospermia were measured, which all had a higher level of NO than fertile males. In abnormospermia, the level of NO in seminal plasma of the patients with single abnormality increased slightly, two abnormality obviously increased, and the highest level of NO in seminal plasma appeared in three abnormality. CONCLUSIONS: This results confirmed that proper level of NO in seminal plasma may regulate the spermatogenesis.

Adult↗

The analysis of epidemiological characteristics of road traffic crashes in a mountain city in western China.

OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiological characteristics and preventive methods of road traffic crashes in a mountain city in western China through sampling investigation of traffic crashes in different regions of Chongqing city in recent years. METHODS: Two police teams of traffic management in downtown, two teams in suburb, one team in county and one freeway team were randomly selected, and road traffic crashes between 1988 and 1997 were investigated and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 13121 road traffic crashes with 6201 crashes with casualties were analyzed. The incidence of crashes was higher in May, June and July, and on Friday and Wednesday and at 8:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 within a day. Casualties were 44.0% in pedestrians and 42.5% in passengers of total casualties. The deaths and severe injuries in pedestrians were 59.1% of total deaths and 56.4% of total severe injuries. The age of drivers and passengers were mainly at 18-30 years, followed by 31-40 years. People over 60 years old accounted for 24.1% of total pedestrian casualty. Head injury was the most common reason for deaths. The main reasons for these crashes were improper driving and violating traffic laws. Violating traffic laws by pedestrian was one of the main reasons for pedestrian casualty. CONCLUSIONS: The crashes are related to the characteristics of geography, climate, society activity of people, and the sense of traffic safety, the basic traffic construction and management in Chongqing. The traffic casualty of pedestrian is a big problem in Chongqing. To prevent and decrease road traffic injuries effective methods should be worked out and propaganda on traffic safety and traffic management should be strengthened according to different characteristics of different regions. To strengthen the first aid and treatment of cranium-brain injury and chest-back injury is also helpful in decreasing traffic deaths.

Accident Prevention↗

Unique biochemical and behavioral alterations in Drosophila shibire(ts1) mutants imply a conformational state affecting dynamin subcellular distribution and synaptic vesicle cycling.

Dynamin is a GTPase protein that is essential for clathrin-mediated endocytosis of synaptic vesicle membranes. The Drosophila dynamin mutation shi(ts1) changes a single residue (G273D) at the boundary of the GTPase domain. In cell fractionation of homogenized fly heads without monovalent cations, all dynamin was in pellet fractions and was minimally susceptible to Triton-X extraction. Addition of Na(+) or K(+) can extract dynamin to the cytosolic (supernatant) fraction. The shi(ts1) mutation reduced the sensitivity of dynamin to salt extraction compared with other temperature-sensitive alleles or wild type. Sensitivity to salt extraction in shi(ts1) was enhanced by GTP and nonhydrolyzable GTP-gammaS. The shi(ts1) mutation may therefore induce a conformational change, involving the GTP binding site, that affects dynamin aggregation. Temperature-sensitive shibire mutations are known to arrest endocytosis at restrictive temperatures, with concomitant accumulation of presynaptic collared pits. Consistent with an effect upon dynamin aggregation, intact shi(ts1) flies recovered much more slowly from heat-induced paralysis than did other temperature-sensitive shibire mutants. Moreover, a genetic mutation that lowers GTP abundance (awd(msf15)), which reduces the paralytic temperature threshold of other temperature-sensitive shibire mutations that lie closer to consensus GTPase motifs, did not reduce the paralytic threshold of shi(ts1). Taken together, the results may link the GTPase domain to conformational shifts that influence aggregation in vitro and endocytosis in vivo, and provide an unexpected point of entry to link the biophysical properties of dynamin to physiological processes at synapses.

Animals↗

Hydrophobic effects on rates and substrate selectivities in polymeric transaminase mimics.

The amination of ketoacids to amino acids by pyridoxamine is greatly accelerated when the pyridoxamine is covalently linked to polyethylenimine carrying N-methyl and N-lauryl groups. Michaelis-Menten kinetics is seen with all substrates, from which the effect of the lauryl groups and the methyl groups can be determined with respect to the strength of binding of the substrate and the rate constant k2 within the complex. The polyamine catalyzes the reaction using acid and base groups, the lauryl groups increase k2 by producing a nonpolar medium in which the reaction occurs, and the lauryl groups promote binding of hydrophobic substrates. The result is that the amination of indolepyruvic acid to produce tryptophan is accelerated by 240000-fold.

Kinetics↗

Remote substituent effects on bond dissociation energies of para-substituted aromatic silanes.

UB3LYP/6-31G(d) and ROMP2/6-311++G(d,2p) methods were used to calculate the Si-X bond dissociation energies (BDEs) of a number of para-substituted aromatic silanes (4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)X, where X = H, F, Cl, or Li). It was found that the substituent effect on the Si-H BDE of 4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(3) was small, as the slope (rho(+)()) of the BDE- regression was only 0.09 kJ/mol. In comparison, the substituent effect on the Si-F BDE of 4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)F was much stronger, whose rho(+ )()value was -2.34 kJ/mol. The substituent effect on the Si-Cl BDE of 4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)Cl was also found to be strong with a rho(+)() value of -1.70 kJ/mol. However, the substituent effect on the Si-Li BDE of 4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)Li was found to have a large and positive slope (+9.12 kJ/mol) against. The origin of the above remarkably different substituent effects on the Si-X BDEs was found to be associated with the ability of the substituent to stabilize or destabilize the starting material (4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)X) as well as the product (4-Y-C(6)H(4)-SiH(2)* radical) of the homolysis. Therefore, the direction and magnitude of the effects of Y-substituents on the Z-X BDEs in compounds such as 4-YC(6)H(4)Z-X should have some important dependence on the polarity of the Z-X bond undergoing homolysis. This conclusion was in agreement with that from earlier studies (for example, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 9363). However, it indicated that the proposal from a recent work (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 5518) was unfortunately not justified.

Journal Article↗

On the physical origin of blue-shifted hydrogen bonds.

For blue-shifted hydrogen-bonded systems, the hydrogen stretching frequency increases rather than decreases on complexation. In computations at various levels of theory, the blue-shift in the archetypical system, F(3)C-H.FH, is reproduced at the Hartree-Fock level, indicating that electron correlation is not the primary cause. Calculations also demonstrate that a blue-shift does not require either a carbon center or the absence of a lone pair on the proton donor, because F(3)Si-H.OH(2), F(2)NH.FH, F(2)PH.NH(3), and F(2)PH.OH(2) have substantial blue-shifts. Orbital interactions are shown to lengthen the X-H bond and lower its vibrational frequency, and thus cannot be the source of the blue-shift. In the F(3)CH.FH system, the charge redistribution in F(3)CH can be reproduced very well by replacing the FH with a simple dipole, which suggests that the interactions are predominantly electrostatic. When modeled with a point charge for the proton acceptor, attractive electrostatic interactions elongate the F(3)C-H, while repulsive interactions shorten it. At the equilibrium geometry of a hydrogen-bonded complex, the electrostatic attraction between the dipole moments of the proton donor and proton acceptor must be balanced by the Pauli repulsion between the two fragments. In the absence of orbital interactions that cause bond elongation, this repulsive interaction leads to compression of the X-H bond and a blue-shift in its vibrational frequency.

Journal Article↗

Colossal paramagnetic moments in metallic carbon nanotori.

Carbon nanostructures with unusually large paramagnetic moments have been discovered in a theoretical study of the electronic and magnetic properties of carbon nanotubes bent into toroids. Specifically, nanotori formed from metallic nanotubes with lambda(F) = 3T, where lambda(F) is the Fermi wavelength and T the translation vector of the nanotube, exhibit giant paramagnetic moments at selected radii ("magic radii"), while the ones with lambda(F) = T are paramagnetic at any radius. The large paramagnetic moment is due to the interplay between the toroidal geometry and the ballistic motion of the pi electrons in the metallic nanotube.

Journal Article↗

A potent polymer/pyridoxamine enzyme mimic.

An enzyme mimic consisting of pyridoxamines covalently linked to polyethyleneimine carrying long-chain alkyl groups converts pyruvic acid to dl-alanine with as much as an 8000-fold acceleration relative to the reaction with simple pyridoxamine at the same pyridoxamine concentration. The acceleration by polymer is a strong function of the length of the alkyl chains that are appended. The polymer furnishes acid and base groups to catalyze the proton transfers that are involved in transamination.

Kinetics↗

Photoinduced electron transfer in a supramolecular species building of mono-6-p-nitrobenzoyl-beta-cyclodextrin with naphthalene derivatives.

Photoinduced electron transfer was observed in the supramolecular complexes of p-nitrobenzoyl-beta-cyclodextrin (NBCD) with a number of naphthalene derivatives, which were stabilized clearly via hydrophobic interactions in aqueous solution. Both steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements were conducted, which revealed that there were two routes of electron transfer, i.e., electron transfer between the free donor and free acceptor in solution and electron transfer between the donor and acceptor bound in a supramolecular assembly. The evidence collected demonstrates that the latter route was very efficient. As a result, the rate and quantum yield of the fluorescence quenching in the present supramolecular system were appreciably large.

Cyclodextrins↗

Cloning of a novel rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) CC chemokine with a fractalkine-like stalk and a TNF decoy receptor using cDNA fragments containing AU-rich elements.

An activation-specific cDNA library was made from phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-activated haematopoietic cells of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) using the technique of suppression subtractive hybridization. Several immune system genes were identified, including an interleukin (IL)1 receptor related protein and two invariant chain-like proteins. Many clones showed no similarity by BLAST search, but had AU-rich elements. These fragments were labelled and used for hybridization with a PHA-activated head kidney cDNA library. Several immune system genes were isolated by this technique, including a tumour necrosis factor (TNF) decoy receptor and a novel chemokine, designated trout chemokine 2. The TNF receptor is 285 amino acids in length and is 32-36% identical to a brook trout and human homologue. The CC chemokine is 44% identical at the amino acid level to a carp CC chemokine and approximately 20% identical to several mammalian CC chemokines. However, it has a 91 amino acid stalk-like structure at its COOH end, which is similar to the glycosylated stalk of fractalkine, a mammalian CX(3)C chemokine. In summary, AU-rich fragments obtained from an activation-specific library proved useful as hybridization probes for isolating trout immune system genes.

Adenine↗

Early diagnosis of keratoconus with Orbscan-II anterior system.

Orbscan-II anterior system was used for early diagnosis of keratoconus. 48 Eyes of 24 patients with suspicious keratoconus were examined by Orbscan-II anterior system from Dec. 1999 to Dec. 2000 and followed up. The values of Diff and anterior chamber depth (ACD) were recorded. Results indicated that values of Diff and ACD were increased in 4 eyes of 2 patients with keratoconus trend during follow-up. Taking advantage of Orbscan-II anterior system to observe the values of Diff and ACD can early diagnose the sub-clinical keratoconus. The values of Diff and ACD can sensitively report the progression of keratoconus.

Adolescent↗

Stereoselectivity in reactions of amino acids catalyzed by pyridoxal derivatives carrying rigidly-attached chirally-mounted basic groups--transamination, racemization, decarboxylation, retro-aldol reaction, and aldol condensation.

A tetrahydroquinoline ring was used to mount the critical functional groups of pyridoxal, and also two examples of rigidly held chirally mounted basic groups. They were able to selectively catalyze decarboxylation, aldol reaction, and retro-aldol reaction of amino acids rather than transamination, and with stereoselectivity. In the aldol reaction of glycine with acetaldehyde to synthesize threonine and allo-threonine, one of the catalysts reversed its stereoselectivity when the basic group was protonated. The observed stereoselectivities were all consistent with prediction.

Acetaldehyde↗

The effect of pixel nonlinearity on cathode-ray tube-based visual acuity tests.

BACKGROUND: Pixel nonlinearity of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) display can cause differences between the actual image and the nominal image. One of the discrepancies, the anisotropy of interactions between neighboring pixels on the same raster line and between neighboring raster lines, may have an impact on the CRT-based visual acuity test where small horizontal and vertical gaps are used. We evaluated this impact. METHOD: Two high-quality color CRT monitors were tested. The stimulus target was a black square ring on a white background. White gaps of one stroke width were opened in the middle of the straight sides of the square ring. In a gap width comparison study, the up and down gaps were flanked with a one-pixel band on the left and right side. The pixel value of the bands was varied to determine the luminance that made up and down gaps appear to have the same width as left and right gaps. The comparison was made at 1 and 2 m. In a visual acuity study, horizontal gap (left/right) acuity and vertical gap (up/down) acuity were measured separately at several distances between 8 and 11 m. Similar measurements were made when the monitor was rotated 90 degrees. RESULTS: Gaps with edges that were parallel to raster lines (raster-parallel gaps) appeared wider than gaps with edges that were perpendicular to raster lines (raster-perpendicular gaps). To match the apparent width of the left and right gaps, the two one-pixel bands flanking the up and down gaps required a pixel value that corresponded approximately to a luminance of mid gray, indicating that the apparent width of a four-pixel left or right gap was similar to that of a five-pixel up or down gap. Raster-parallel gaps produced a higher percentage of correct responses than raster-perpendicular gaps in a visual acuity test. When nominal gap widths were equal, left and right gaps produced 10% or more correct responses than up and down gaps at some target sizes, which translated to a two-letter acuity difference. This acuity difference could not be accounted for by uncorrected astigmatism because the anisotropy persisted when the monitor was turned 90 degrees. CONCLUSIONS: Pixel nonlinearity of a CRT-display results in an anisotropy of gap width that can be observed at and above visual acuity size. This anisotropy may introduce uncertainties in the results of CRT-based visual acuity tests where gaps of different orientations are used.

Anisotropy↗

Annotated expressed sequence tags and cDNA microarrays for studies of brain and behavior in the honey bee.

To accelerate the molecular analysis of behavior in the honey bee (Apis mellifera), we created expressed sequence tag (EST) and cDNA microarray resources for the bee brain. Over 20,000 cDNA clones were partially sequenced from a normalized (and subsequently subtracted) library generated from adult A. mellifera brains. These sequences were processed to identify 15,311 high-quality ESTs representing 8912 putative transcripts. Putative transcripts were functionally annotated (using the Gene Ontology classification system) based on matching gene sequences in Drosophila melanogaster. The brain ESTs represent a broad range of molecular functions and biological processes, with neurobiological classifications particularly well represented. Roughly half of Drosophila genes currently implicated in synaptic transmission and/or behavior are represented in the Apis EST set. Of Apis sequences with open reading frames of at least 450 bp, 24% are highly diverged with no matches to known protein sequences. Additionally, over 100 Apis transcript sequences conserved with other organisms appear to have been lost from the Drosophila genome. DNA microarrays were fabricated with over 7000 EST cDNA clones putatively representing different transcripts. Using probe derived from single bee brain mRNA, microarrays detected gene expression for 90% of Apis cDNAs two standard deviations greater than exogenous control cDNAs. [The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to Genbank data library under accession nos. BI502708-BI517278. The sequences are also available at http://titan.biotec.uiuc.edu/bee/honeybee_project.htm.]

Animals↗

Upregulation of Ku expression in human neuroectodermal tumor cells after retroviral DNA integration.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK); including DNA-PKcs, Ku70 and Ku80 in human neuroectodermal tumor cells with or without retroviral DNA integration. METHODS: RT-PCR assay was used to examine the transcript of DNA-PK. Western blot and immunocytochemistry assays were used to examine the protein level of DNA-PK. RESULTS: The expression of DNA-PKcs was similar in the cells with or without retroviral DNA integration, but the expression of Ku (both mRNA and protein for Ku70 and only protein for Ku80) was higher in cells with retroviral DNA integration than in cells without retroviral DNA integration. CONCLUSION: The expression of Ku but not the expression of DNA-PKcs is induced by retroviral DNA integration. Ku70 may play an important role in the regulation of Ku function in response to retroviral DNA integration.

Antigens, Nuclear↗