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Osteoporosis is a devastating disease that is characterized not only by a reduction in bone quantity but also by deterioration in bone quality. The quality of bone tissue is greatly influenced by its mechanical properties and, therefore, investigations into the etiology and enhanced det ...

The primary responsibility of the skeleton is to bear the loads involved in physical activity without sustaining damage. This capability involves a mecha-nism in which bone cells “assess” the suitability of the bones' existing architecture in relation to their prevailing loading envi ...

Thyroid hormone (T3) is an important signaling molecule for cardiac function. Chronic exposure of the heart to either elevated levels of thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism) or lower thyroid hormone levels (hypothyroidism) have profound effects on cardiac output. Hyperthyroidi ...

As an increasing number of human diseases are linked to the effects of altered genes, new methods are being sought for detection of mutations and their relationship to the presence of disease. Since total genomic DNA usually cannot be analyzed directly, target sequences are amplified by the pol ...

Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) are a heterogeneous group of pulmonary fibrotic disorders consisting of several clinicopathologic entities with differing histopathologic patterns, clinical course, response to therapy, and prognosis (1–3). It is now recogniz ...

The ability to express cloned genes in mammalian cells has proved invaluable in the study of gene expression and function and in clinical applications for the correction of functional gene loss by gene therapy. Despite the wide use of DNA-mediated transfection of genes into eukaryotic cells, ...

Prothrombotic evaluation of patients with a history—and in particular a family history—of venous thromboembolic disease is becoming increasingly important as our understanding of the molecular abnormalities that underlie this clinical disorder increases. A recently des ...

Familial clustering of thrombosis suggests that genetic risk factors are important in the pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism. However, until recently, well defined genetic defects such as antithrombin, protein C and protein S deficiencies accounted for less than 10% of patien ...

In the past 5 yr, advances in technology have been made that allow efficient somatic transfer of functional genes to target cells in the eye in vivo. The ability to deliver functional genes to these cells is due primarily to the development of viral vectors-viruses in which various replicative func ...

Caveolae and rafts are specialized microdomains of the endothelial cell plasma membrane, which play an important role in signal transduction, transcellular transport, and cholesterol homeostasis. The dynamic protein composition of these subcellular lipid domains has been im ...

Northern-blot hybridization, also referred to as Northern blotting, is one of several methods developed to detect the presence, to determine the size, and to quantify specific cellular mRNAs. By this method, total RNA or poly(A)+mRNA, prepared from the cells or tissue of interest, is fractiona ...

Studies in the field of microarray technology have exploded onto the scene to delve into the unknown underlying mechanisms and pathways in molecular disease. Diseases of the cardio-vascular system, particularly those with unexplained molecular etiologies, such as heart failure, h ...

Alveolar type II pneumocytes (alveolar type II cells; TII cells) play an important role in the homeostasis of the alveolar unit. They are the progenitor cells to the type I pneumocyte and are therefore responsible for regeneration of alveolar epithelium following alveolar epithelial cell ...

Horseshoe crabs fight off infectious agents with a complex array of proteins present in amebocytes, the major cell type in their hemolymph. These amebocytes contain both large and small granules (1). When exposed to bacteria or other infectious agents the amebocytes release proteins into t ...

Endotoxins have been recognized for decades as important structural components of the outer cell wall/cell membrane complex of Gram-negative microorganisms. These chemically heterogeneous macromolecular structures were recognized very early on to consist of lipid, polys ...

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) constitute components of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Chemically, they consist of a heteropolysaccharide and a covalently linked lipid, termed lipid A. The polysaccharide region is made up of the O-specific chain (built from repeating u ...

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) play a prominent role in host defense in mammals against invading bacteria (1,2). Among the essential attributes of these highly specialized cells are the elaboration of an array of cytotoxic peptides and polypeptides that can be targeted at bacteri ...

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein (LBP) is a critical component of innate immunity, implicated in the initiation of host defences against Gram-negative bacteria. LBP alerts the host to the presence of minute amounts of LPS (1). LPS released from Gram-negative bacteria is prese ...

Group A streptococci secrete a variety of molecules, many of which are recognized as virulence factors important in the establishment of streptococcal infections. Among these extracellular products is streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SPE A, scarlet fever toxin A, erythrogenic ...

This chapter describes a quantitative assay for the streptococcal superantigen, streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SPEA), which can be used in broth, tissue-culture media, and certain sera. The protocol can be adapted to allow measurement of any bacterial superantigen or protein to ...