Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

X Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to X Zhou.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

Study of B Decays to Charmonium States: B-->eta(c)K and B --> chi(c0)K.

In a sample of 9.66x10(6)B&Bmacr; pairs collected with the CLEO detector we make the first observation of B decays to an eta(c) and a kaon. We measure branching fractions B(B+-->eta(c)K+) = (0.69(+0.26)(-0.21)+/-0.08+/-0.20)x10(-3) and B(B degrees -->eta(c)K degrees ) = (1.09(+0.55)(-0.42)+/-0.12+/-0.31)x10(-3), where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is from the eta(c) branching fraction uncertainty. From these we extract the eta(c) decay constant in the factorization approximation, f(eta(c)) = 335+/-75 MeV. We also search for B decays to a chi(c0) and a kaon. No evidence for a signal is found and we set 90% C.L. upper limits: B(B+-->chi(c0)K+)<4.8x10(-4) and B(B degrees -->chi(c0)K degrees )<5.0x10(-4).

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Cell fingerprinting: an approach to classifying cells according to mass profiles of digests of protein extracts.

We present a statistical framework for classifying cells according to the set of peptide masses obtained by mass spectrometric analysis of digestions of whole cell protein extracts. The digest is separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled directly to a mass spectrometer either by an electrospray interface or by collection to a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization target plate. Here, the mass to charge ratio, intensity, and HPLC retention time of the peptides are measured. We have used defined bacterial strains to test this approach. For each bacterium, this process is repeated for extracts obtained at different points in the growth curve in order to try and define an invariant set of signals that uniquely identify the bacterium. This paper presents algorithms for the creation of this cell fingerprint database and develops a Bayesian classification scheme for deciding whether or not an unknown bacterium has a match in the database. Our initial testing based on a limited data set of three bacteria indicates that our approach is feasible. Via a jack-knife test, our Bayesian classification scheme correctly identified the bacterium in 67.8% of the cases.

Bacteria↗
PubMed2001

Modeling age x major gene interaction by a variance component approach.

The variance component method has become popular for linkage analysis due to its computational simplicity and generally high power. In this paper we model phenotypic variability of an individual as a mixed effects model in which both the major gene as well as the polygene effects interact with age. We applied the proposed model to the simulated data of Genetic Analysis Workshop 12. We considered the quantitative trait, Q4, in the outbred population. Two major genes influence this trait, each interacting with age independently. Consequently, trait variability is a function of age and also there is interaction of major gene effects with age. By using our model we were able to detect interaction between the major gene effects and age for this trait.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Glutamine enhances the gut-trophic effect of growth hormone in rat after massive small bowel resection.

Background. Bowel-specific nutrient, glutamine, growth hormone, and modified diet have been reported to jointly improve nutrient absorption in patients with short bowel syndrome. However, controversy exists about the exact treatment factor. In this study we attempted to analyze the individual and combined effect of glutamine supplementation and growth hormone on small bowel adaptation by using tube feeding to control luminal nutrition supply. Materials and methods. Thirty-two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (278 +/- 8 g) underwent 85% mid-small bowel resection and were randomly assigned to four groups: Control, receiving control liquid diet via a gastrotomy tube; GLN, receiving liquid diet enriched with 20 g. L(-1) glutamine; GH, receiving subcutaneous growth hormone (GH) (0.3 IU, bid); and GLN + GH, receiving both glutamine supplementation and GH treatment. All animals were provided with isocaloric (60 kcal/day) and isonitrogenous (0.686 g/day) nutrition. Absorption tests were performed in the form of oral nutrient tests with (14)C-labeled glucose and (3)H-labeled palmitic acid on the Postoperative Day 12. Results. GH treatment significantly increased the plasma insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) level, body weight, jejunal and ileal villous height and mucosal thickness, and peak plasma (14)C and (3)H levels. Glutamine supplementation did not produce a significant difference; however, combined with GH treatment, glutamine supplementation further increased body weight, plasma IGF-I level, jejunal and ileal villous height and mucosal thickness, and peak plasma (14)C and (3)H levels significantly. Conclusions. After massive small bowel resection, enteral glutamine supplementation alone has no remarkable beneficial effect on bowel adaptation. However, glutamine supplementation enhanced the gut-trophic effect of GH.

Absorption↗
PubMed2001

Complete nucleotide sequence and characterization of pUA140, a cryptic plasmid from Streptococcus mutans.

Approximately 5% of strains of Streptococcus mutans contain plasmid DNA. Strain UA140 harbors a 5.6-kb cryptic plasmid, pUA140, with an overall G+C content of 32.7%. Five open reading frames (ORF), encoding peptides of larger than 100 amino acid residues, were initially designated as ORF1 to ORF5. These five ORFs were located on the same strand of pUA140. ORF1 (258 amino acids) resembled a replication protein, Rep. Upstream of the putative Rep gene, a double-stranded origin for plasmid replication that showed strong similarity to those of a number of plasmids in the pT181 family was identified. Further upstream was a region constituting the single-stranded origin of replication. A single-stranded DNA intermediate was detected during plasmid replication. Taken together, these results suggest that pUA140 replicated by the rolling circle replication mechanism but exhibited several characteristics that differ from those of other members of the pT181 plasmid family.

Amino Acid Motifs↗
PubMed2001

Detection of complement C1-inhibitor with a piezoelectric immunosensor.

A novel piezoelectric immunosensor has been developed for the detection of human complement C1-inhibitor. Anti-C1-inhibitor antibody was immobilized onto the gold electrodes of a 9 MHz AT-cut piezoelectric crystal. Coating the crystal with polyethyleneimine adhesion, followed by a glutaraldehyde cross-linking method to immobilize antibody showed better results than the physical adsorption method with respect to sensitivity and reproducibility. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the sensor showed good response to the C1-inhibitor in the range from 2.0 x 10(-8) to 1.2 x 10(-6) g. Other proteins in human serum did not remarkably interfere with the detection. The crystals could be regenerated 5 times, when bound materials on the crystal surface were eluted by strong acid and strong alkali solution and subsequently cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner.

Biosensing Techniques↗
PubMed2001

The effect of sound intensity on duration-tuning characteristics of bat inferior collicular neurons.

Previous studies have shown that inferior collicular neurons of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, serve as short-, band-, long- and all-pass filters for sound durations. Neurons with band-, short- and long-pass filtering characteristics discharged maximally to a specific sound duration or a range of sound durations. In contrast, neurons with all-pass filtering characteristics do not have duration selectivity. To determine if duration-tuning characteristics of collicular neurons were tolerant to changes in sound intensity, we examined the duration-tuning characteristics of collicular neurons using a wide range of sound intensities. Duration-tuning characteristics examined included the type, bandwidth and slope of duration-tuning curves. Sound intensity delivered within 20 dB of minimum threshold did not affect duration-tuning characteristics of all collicular neurons studied. Sound intensities at still higher levels did not affect the tuning characteristics of two-thirds of collicular neurons but decreased the duration selectivity and changed the duration-tuning curves of the remaining one-third of neurons from one type to another. However, these two groups of duration-tuning collicular neurons were not separately organized inside the inferior colliculus. The biological relevance of these findings to bat echolocation is discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2001

Temporally patterned sound pulse trains affect intensity and frequency sensitivity of inferior collicular neurons of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.

This study examined the effect of temporally patterned pulse trains on intensity and frequency sensitivity of inferior collicular neurons of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Intensity sensitivity of inferior collicular neurons was expressed by the dynamic range and slope of rate-intensity functions. Inferior collicular neurons with non-monotonic rate-intensity functions have smaller dynamic ranges and larger slopes than neurons with monotonic or saturated rate-intensity functions. Intensity sensitivity of all inferior collicular neurons improved by increasing the number of non-monotonic rate-intensity functions when the pulse repetition rate of pulse trains increased from 10 to 30 pulses per second. Intensity sensitivity of 43% inferior collicular neurons further improved when the pulse repetition rate of pulse trains increased still from 30 to 90 pulses per second. Frequency sensitivity of inferior collicular neurons was expressed by the Q10, Q20, and Q30 values of threshold frequency tuning curves and bandwidths of isointensity frequency tuning curves. Threshold frequency tuning curves of all inferior collicular neurons were V-shape and mirror-images of their counterpart isointensity frequency tuning curves. The Q10, Q20, and Q30 values of threshold frequency tuning curves of all inferior collicular neurons progressively increased and bandwidths of isointensity frequency tuning curves decreased with increasing pulse repetition rate in temporally patterned pulse trains. Biological relevance of these findings to bat echolocation is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Mutation and overexpression of the beta-catenin gene may play an important role in primary hepatocellular carcinoma among Chinese people.

AIM: To study the role of beta-catenin gene mutation and expression in hepatocellular carcinogenesis. METHOD: Thirty-four hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) specimens and adjacent para-cancerous tissues, and four normal liver tissues were analyzed. Subcellular distribution of beta-catenin was examined by immunohistochemistry staining. Mutation and semiquantitative expression of beta-catenin gene exon 3 mRNA were detected by RT-PCR-SSCP and in situ hybridization. RESULT: Immunohistochemistry showed that all normal liver tissues and para-cancerous tissues examined showed membranous-type staining for beta-catenin protein, frequently with weak expression in the cytoplasm, but no beta-catenin accumulation in nuclei was found; while in liver cancer, 21 cases (61.8%) of HCC examined showed accumulated type in cytoplasms or nuclei. On SSCP, 15 cases (44.1%) of HCC altogether displayed three kinds of characteristic mutational mobility shifts. No abnormal shifting bands were found in tissues from normal liver or para-cancerous area. The beta-catenin gene exon 3 mRNA expression index of 34 HCCs was higher than that of para-cancerous tissue and normal liver tissue. Using in situ hybridization, the signal corresponding to beta-catenin gene exon 3 mRNA was particularly strong in cytoplasm of HCC when compared with those of paracancerous tissues and normal liver tissues. CONCLUSION: beta-catenin gene mutation and overexpression may have a critical role in malignant progression of hepatic carcinogenesis among Chinese people.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular↗
PubMed2001

Full-length cloning and 3'-terminal portion expression of human perforin cDNA.

BACKGROUND: Perforin (also known as pore-forming protein, PFP) is one of the main effector molecules which natural killer cells (NK) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) utilize to kill their targets both in vivo and in vitro. We report the full length of human perforin cDNA, which was cloned from liver tissue. RESULTS: Sequencing analysis showed that there were discrepancies of four nucleotides and three amino acids compared with previously published sequence of human PFP. The cDNA fragment was then inserted into fusion protein expressive vector pGEX-2T to construct a recombinant expressive plasmid. The C-terminal truncated 125 amino acids polypeptide (410-534aa) of human perforin (hPFP-C) was selectively expressed in a form of fusion protein. Under the induction of IPTG, GST/hPFP-C fusion protein was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The fusion protein GST/hPFP-C was purified by affinity chromatography with glutathione agarose. The recombinant hPFP-C obtained by thrombin cleavage showed a significant hemolytic activity when tested with rabbit erythrocytes. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the domain responsible for lytic function lies not only in the N-terminal portion but also in the C-terminal portion of perforin molecule. The recombinant hPFP-C protein will be useful as a highly purified biological factor for immunological, pathological and structural studies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

The kinetic properties and sensitivities to inhibitors of lactate dehydrogenases (LDH1 and LDH2) from Toxoplasma gondii: comparisons with pLDH from Plasmodium falciparum.

Toxoplasma gondii differentially expresses two forms of lactate dehydrogenase in tachyzoites and bradyzoites, respectively, designated LDH1 and LDH2. Previously it was demonstrated that LDH1 and LDH2 share a unique structural feature with LDH from the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum (pLDH), namely, the addition of a five-amino acid insert into the substrate specificity loops. pLDH exhibits a number of kinetic properties that previously were thought to be unique to pLDH. In the present study, kinetic properties of LDH1 and LDH2 were compared with those of pLDH. LDH1 and LDH2 exhibit broader substrate specificity than pLDH. For both LDH1 and LDH2, 3-phenylpyruvate is an excellent substrate. For LDH2, 3-phenylpyruvate is a better substrate even than pyruvate. By comparison, pLDH does not utilize 3-phenylpyruvate. Both LDH1 and LDH2 can utilize the NAD analog 3-acetylpyridine adenine dinucleotide (APAD) efficiently, similar to pLDH. LDH1 and LDH2 are inhibited competitively by a range of compounds that also inhibit pLDH, including gossypol and derivatives, dihydroxynaphthoic acids, and N-substituted oxamic acids. The lack of substrate inhibition observed with pLDH is also observed with LDH2. By comparison, LDH1 differs from LDH2 in exhibiting substrate inhibition in spite of an identical residue (M163) at a cofactor binding site that is thought to be critical for production of substrate inhibition. For gossypol and gossylic iminolactone, but not the other gossypol derivatives tested, the in vitro inhibition of T. gondii LDH activity correlated with specific inhibition of T. gondii tachyzoite growth in fibroblast cultures.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Prevention of intimal hyperplasia with recombinant soluble P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-immunoglobulin in the porcine coronary artery balloon injury model.

OBJECTIVES: The role of P-selectin in the process of restenosis was evaluated using a recombinant immunoglobulin (Ig) chimera form of its ligand, soluble P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-Ig (rPSGL-Ig), as a competitive inhibitor for the natural ligand on leukocytes. BACKGROUND: Inflammation and coagulation activation after vascular injury may be an important factor in the development of restenosis. P-selectin has been shown to mediate leukocyte-endothelium and leukocyte-platelet interaction. These interactions are mediated through binding of P-selectin to P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) located on the surface of leukocytes. METHODS: Balloon injury was induced in the left anterior descending and right coronary arteries of 16 pigs at a balloon/artery diameter ratio of 1.5:1. Either rPSGL-Ig (1 mg/kg) or saline was randomly administered 15 min before balloon injury as an intravenous bolus. Four weeks after injury, morphometric analysis, immunohistochemistry and histological evaluation were performed on injured arterial segments. RESULTS: Increased luminal area was found in the rPSGL-Ig group compared with the placebo group (1.63 +/- 0.57 mm2 vs. 1.26 +/- 0.32 mm2, p = 0.044) owing to significantly reduced neointimal hyperplasia (cross-sectional area, 0.46 +/- 0.45 mm2 vs. 0.13 +/- 0.11 mm2, p = 0.013). Immunohistochemistry and histological evaluation showed a significant decrease in the presence of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and infiltration of macrophages in the injured vessel segments in the rPSGL-Ig group. CONCLUSIONS: P-selectin antagonism using rPSGL-Ig decreases neointimal hyperplasia following balloon injury, by inhibiting the inflammatory and thrombotic responses at the site of balloon injury, which appears to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of restenosis.

Angioplasty, Balloon↗
PubMed2001

Both retinoic acid and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 inhibit thyroid hormone-induced terminal differentiaton of growth plate chondrocytes.

Thyroid hormone has been known for over 50 years to be a potent regulator of skeletal maturation at the growth plate. The receptor for thyroid hormone has been discovered to be a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily. Retinoic acid and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3, whose receptors also belong to this nuclear hormone receptor family, have been implicated in the control of chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation at the growth plate. Recent studies demonstrate that the receptors for thyroid hormone, retinoic acid, and vitamin D bind to a similar DNA response element in the promoter region of target genes and may form heterodimers to regulate gene transcription in target cells. These observations led us to hypothesize that the retinoic acid and/or vitamin D signaling pathways may interact with thyroid hormone signaling at the molecular level to modulate growth plate chondrocyte differentiation. Using a chemically defined, serum-free model of growth plate chondrocyte maturation, both all-trans retinoic acid and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 markedly inhibited thyroid hormone-induced terminal differentiation in a dose-dependent manner. In the absence of thyroid hormone, retinoic acid stimulated alkaline phosphatase activity modestly at the highest dose used, however neither retinoic acid nor 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 induced expression of type X collagen mRNA. We conclude that retinoic acid and vitamin D are likely to be antagonists of thyroid hormone signaling in the growth plate.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Chemiluminescence flow sensor for folic acid with immobilized reagents.

A novel chemiluminescence (CL) sensor for folic acid combined flow-injection (FI) technology was presented in this paper. The analytical reagents involved in the CL reaction, including luminol and hexacyanoferrate(III), were both immobilized on an anion-exchange column in FI system. The CL signal produced by the reaction between luminol and hexacyanoferrate(III), which were eluted from the column through sodium phosphate injection, was decreased in the presence of folic acid. The CL emission was correlated with the folic acid concentration in the range from 0.01 to 15 microg ml(-1), and the detection limit was 3.5 ng ml(-1) folic acid (3sigma). At a flow rate of 2.0 ml min(-1), including sampling and washing, could be performed in 2 min with a relative standard deviation of < 2.5%. The flow sensor could be reused more than 300 times and has been applied to the analysis of folic acid in pharmaceutical preparations. and the recovery was from 97.4% to 100.4%.

Ferricyanides↗
PubMed2001

Vibrational spectra study of the isomerizational reaction of nitryl hydride.

The vibrational spectral study of the isomerization reaction of nitryl hydride is presented in this paper. The isomerizational reaction includes old bond rupture, new bond formation and electronic transfer in the intramolecule. For the isomerizational reaction, the vibrational modes, the vibrational frequencies and the force constants of the reactant, the transition states and product are analyzed. The relationship and the change among them can confirm the rupture of bond, the formation of bond and the process of electron transfer.

Isomerism↗