Self-represented witnessing: the use of social media by asylum seekers in Australia's offshore immigration detention centres.

The act of witnessing connects audiences with distant suffering. But what happens when bearing witness becomes severely restricted? External parties, including the mainstream news media, are constrained from accessing Australia's offshore immigration detention centres. The effect is that people seeking asylum are hidden from the public and excluded from national debates.

Sulfated polysaccharides are required for collagen-induced vascular tube formation.

We have previously shown that soluble type I collagen can induce vascular tube formation when it contacts the apical side of a confluent endothelial monolayer. In this study we have examined which soluble agent(s) are required for collagen-induced tube formation. Human neonatal foreskin microvascular endothelial cells, maintained in basal medium, were preincubated with each test agent for 2 h prior to the addition of solubilised type I collagen (100 micrograms/ml).

The chondroprotective drugs, Arteparon and sodium pentosan polysulphate, increase collagenase activity and inhibit stromelysin activity in vitro.

The effects of the chondroprotective drugs, sodium pentosan polysulphate (SP54) and Arteparon (glycosaminoglycan polysulphate), on the in vitro activities of the purified matrix metalloproteinases interstitial collagenase (matrix metalloproteinase 1, MMP1) and stromelysin (MMP3) were examined. Both drugs produced concentration-dependent enhancement of the degradation of type I collagen fibrils by purified human fibroblast collagenase and rat tumour collagenase. Rat collagenase activity was increased by drug concentrations above 0.

Interstitial collagenase from rat mammary carcinoma cells: interaction with substrates and inhibitors.

Functional characteristics of the interstitial collagenase purified from the BCl rat mammary carcinoma cell line were examined and compared with literature reports of the corresponding characteristics of collagenase from non-neoplastic cells. BCl collagenase degraded soluble collagen types I, II and III at the same rate and degraded fibrillar tendon collagen with an activation energy of 75 kcal/mol; these characteristics were identical to collagenase from normal rat uterine smooth muscle cells. Degradation of fibrillar collagen by BCl collagenase was completely inhibited by rat alpha 2-macroglobulin which was concomitantly cleaved into half-fragments.

Single-step purification of immunoglobulin M on C1q-Sepharose.

A rapid and simple affinity chromatography method for purifying IgM from myeloma serum and ascites fluid is described. Complement protein C1q is coupled to Sepharose with an efficiency of 35%, giving 1.7 mg of C1q bound/ml of gel.