• Title/Summary/Keyword: cellular structures

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Facially Amphiphilic Architectures as Potent Antimicrobial Peptide Mimetics: Activity and Biophysical Insight

  • Tew Gregory N.
    • Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2006.10a
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    • pp.261-261
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    • 2006
  • Membranes are a central feature of all biological systems and their ability to control many cellular processes is critically important. As a result, a better understanding of how molecules bind to biological membranes is an active area of research. In this report, the interaction between our biomimetic structures and different biological membranes is reported using both model vesicle and in vitro bacterial cell experiments. These results show that lipid composition is more important for selectivity than overall net charge. An effort is made to connect model vesicle studies with in vitro data and naturally occurring lipid compositions.

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Electrophysiological and Parmacological Properties of Acutely-Isolated Single Subfornical Organ Neurons

  • Kim, Seong-Nam;Han, Seong-Kyu;Ryu, Pan-Dong
    • Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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    • 1999.06a
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    • pp.60-60
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    • 1999
  • The subfornical organ (SFO) represents neuroglial circumventricular organ structures bordering the anterior third cerebral ventricle. Owing to the absence of the blood-brain barrier, the cellular elements of subfornical organ can be reached by circulating messenger molecules transferring afferent information and provide a good coding model of chemical information processing in the body.(omitted)

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Composition and Partial Structure Characterization of Tremella Polysaccharides

  • Khondkar, Proma
    • Mycobiology
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.286-294
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    • 2009
  • Heteropolysaccharides isolated from liquid cultures of nine Tremella species contained 0.3 to 1.2% protein, 2.7 to 5% ash, 0.9 to 3.4% acetyl groups, 76.5 to 84.2% carbohydrates and trace amounts of starch. The polysaccharides in aqueous solution were slightly acidic (pH 5.1 to 5.6). They consisted of the following monomeric sugars: fucose, ribose, xylose, arabinose, mannose, galactose, glucose and glucuronic acid. The backbones of the polysaccharide structures consisted of $\alpha$-(1$\rightarrow$3)-links while the side chains were $\beta$-linked.

Nanofibrous Meshes Promoting Celular Proliferation

  • Yu, Hyeok-Sang;Choe, Ji-Suk;Kim, Hye-Seong
    • Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2011.10a
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    • pp.2.1-2.1
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    • 2011
  • Biomedical applications of electrospun nanofibrous meshes have been receive tremendous attentions because of their unique structures and versatilities as novel biomaterials. Incorporation of growth factors in fibrous meshes can be performed by surface-modification and encapsulation. Those growth factors stimulate differentiation and proliferation of specific types of cells and thus lead tissue regenerations of specific cell types. Topographical cues of electrospun nanofibrous meshes also increase differentiation of specific cell types according to alignments of fibrous structures. Wound healing treatments of diabetic ulcers were performed using nanofibrous meshes encapsulating multiple growth factors. Aligned nanofibrous meshes and those with random configuration were compared for differentiating mesenchymal stem cells into neuronal cells. Thus, nanofibrous meshes can be applied to novel drug delivery carriers and matrix for promoting cellular proliferation.

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Modeling of Microstructural Evolution in Squeeze Casting of an Al-4.5wt%Cu Alloy (용탕단조시 Al-4.5%Cu합금의 조직예측)

  • Cho, In-Sung;Hong, Chun-Pyo;Lee, Ho-In
    • Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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    • v.16 no.6
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    • pp.550-555
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    • 1996
  • A stochastic model, based on the coupling of the finite volume(FV) method for macroscopic heat flow calculation and a two-dimensional cellular automaton(CA) model for treating microstructural evolution was applied-for the prediction of microstructural evolution in squeeze casting. The interfacial heat transfer coefficient at the casting/die interface was evaluated as a function of time using an inverse problem method in order to provide a quantitative simulation of solidification sequences under high pressure. The effects of casting process variables on the formation of solidification grain structures and on the columnar to equiaxed transition of an Al-4.5wt%Cu alloy in squeeze casting were investigated. The calculated solidification grain structures were in good agreement with those obtained experimentally.

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Structure and catalytic mechanism of human protein tyrosine phosphatome

  • Kim, Seung Jun;Ryu, Seong Eon
    • BMB Reports
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    • v.45 no.12
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    • pp.693-699
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    • 2012
  • Together with protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs), protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) serve as hallmarks in cellular signal transduction by controlling the reversible phosphorylation of their substrates. The human genome is estimated to encode more than 100 PTPs, which can be divided into eleven sub-groups according to their structural and functional characteristics. All the crystal structures of catalytic domains of sub-groups have been elucidated, enabling us to understand their precise catalytic mechanism and to compare their structures across all sub-groups. In this review, I describe the structure and mechanism of catalytic domains of PTPs in the structural context.

PreSMo Target-Binding Signatures in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

  • Kim, Do-Hyoung;Han, Kyou-Hoon
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.41 no.10
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    • pp.889-899
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    • 2018
  • Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are highly unorthodox proteins that do not form three-dimensional structures under physiological conditions. The discovery of IDPs has destroyed the classical structure-function paradigm in protein science, 3-D structure = function, because IDPs even without well-folded 3-D structures are still capable of performing important biological functions and furthermore are associated with fatal diseases such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and viral pandemics. Pre-structured motifs (PreSMos) refer to transient local secondary structural elements present in the target-unbound state of IDPs. During the last two decades PreSMos have been steadily acknowledged as the critical determinants for target binding in dozens of IDPs. To date, the PreSMo concept provides the most convincing structural rationale explaining the IDP-target binding behavior at an atomic resolution. Here we present a brief developmental history of PreSMos and describe their common characteristics. We also provide a list of newly discovered PreSMos along with their functional relevance.

Quantitative Image Analysis of Fluorescence Image Stacks: Application to Cytoskeletal Proteins Organization in Tissue Engineering Constructs

  • Park, Doyoung
    • Journal of Advanced Information Technology and Convergence
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.103-113
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    • 2019
  • Motivation: Polymerized actin-based cytoskeletal structures are crucial in shape, dynamics, and resilience of a cell. For example, dynamical actin-containing ruffles are located at leading edges of cells and have a significant impact on cell motility. Other filamentous actin (F-actin) bundles, called stress fibers, are essential in cell attachment and detachment. For this reason, their mechanistic understanding provides crucial information to solve practical problems related to cell interactions with materials in tissue engineering. Detecting and counting actin-based structures in a cellular ensemble is a fundamental first step. In this research, we suggest a new method to characterize F-actin wrapping fibers from confocal fluorescence image stacks. As fluorescently labeled F-actin often envelope the fibers, we first propose to segment these fibers by diminishing an energy based on maximum flow and minimum cut algorithm. The actual actin is detected through the use of bilateral filtering followed by a thresholding step. Later, concave actin bundles are detected through a graph-based procedure that actually determines if the considered actin filament is enclosing the fiber.

A primo vessel-like structure in a dog with inflammatory pseudotumor

  • Cho, Sung-Jin;Hong, Sun-Hwa;Han, Sang-Jun;Kim, Ok-Jin
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.77-82
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    • 2012
  • Inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) is a term defining a mass characterized microscopically by a proliferation of bland mesenchymal spindle cells infiltrated by diffuse mixed inflammatory cells with a predominance of plasma cells and lymphocytes. Here, we show the primo vessel-like structure of the primo-vascular system (PVS) in a dog with IPT. A 6-years old male Mongrel dog was diagnosed with an abnormal mass (diameter 5.5 cm, weight 22 g) near left preputial area. The dog was submitted to the surgical detectomy of the mass. During the surgical operation, we observed primo vessel-like material. After fixations, the masses appeared macroscopically as lipoid-like, firm, white to grey masses, measuring $5{\times}8cm$. Histologically, cellular infiltration into the muscular layers was frequently seen. The mesenchymal proliferation remained the main component of the mass and was composed of myofibroblastic-like spindle cells characterized by globular, irregular nuclei containing open chromatin and a prominent nucleolus. On the basis of the histopathologic lesions, the subcutaneous mass was diagnosed as IPT. Also, we detected a primo vessel-like structures in some areas of the IPT tissues. These were observed as novel thread-like structures and bundle of tubular structures. To our knowledge, this report is the first case of primo vessel-like structure in a dog with IPT.

Structural and Mechanistic Insights into the Tropism of Epstein-Barr Virus

  • Mohl, Britta S.;Chen, Jia;Sathiyamoorthy, Karthik;Jardetzky, Theodore S.;Longnecker, Richard
    • Molecules and Cells
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    • v.39 no.4
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    • pp.286-291
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    • 2016
  • Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the prototypical ${\gamma}$-herpesvirus and an obligate human pathogen that infects mainly epithelial cells and B cells, which can result in malignancies. EBV infects these target cells by fusing with the viral and cellular lipid bilayer membranes using multiple viral factors and host receptor(s) thus exhibiting a unique complexity in its entry machinery. To enter epithelial cells, EBV requires minimally the conserved core fusion machinery comprised of the glycoproteins gH/gL acting as the receptor-binding complex and gB as the fusogen. EBV can enter B cells using gp42, which binds tightly to gH/gL and interacts with host HLA class II, activating fusion. Previously, we published the individual crystal structures of EBV entry factors, such as gH/gL and gp42, the EBV/host receptor complex, gp42/HLA-DR1, and the fusion protein EBV gB in a postfusion conformation, which allowed us to identify structural determinants and regions critical for receptor-binding and membrane fusion. Recently, we reported different low resolution models of the EBV B cell entry triggering complex (gHgL/gp42/HLA class II) in "open" and "closed" states based on negative-stain single particle electron microscopy, which provide further mechanistic insights. This review summarizes the current knowledge of these key players in EBV entry and how their structures impact receptor-binding and the triggering of gB-mediated fusion.