Role of insulin and nutritional factors in intestinal glycoprotein fucosylation during postnatal development.

This study deals with the role of insulin in the regulation of the intestinal glycoprotein fucosylation process during postnatal development in the rat. Circulating insulin level was found to increase at weaning time in parallel with alpha-1, 2-fucosyltransferase activity and with the appearance of alpha-1, 2-fucoproteins in brush-border membranes. Insulin treatment of young suckling rats induced a precocious increase in fucosyltransferase activity and in the biosynthesis of its substrate (GDP-fucose), but the sensitivity to insulin disappeared after weaning.

A specific immunoradiometric assay of cationic trypsin(ogen) that does not recognize trypsin-alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor complex.

An immunoradiometric assay using two monoclonal antibodies directed to human trypsin 1 was developed for measuring trypsin(ogen) in biological fluids. The assay is different from other assays in that it is specific for cationic trypsinogen and does not recognize the alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor-trypsin complex. It can be used as a complement to classical immunoassays to characterize trypsinogen activation in pathological cases.

Detection of RET oncogene activation in human papillary thyroid carcinomas by in situ hybridisation.

We have recently reported the activation of a new oncogene in human papillary thyroid carcinomas. This oncogene, named PTC, is a novel rearranged version of the ret proto-oncogene. In fact PTC is the product of the fusion of the tyrosine kinase domain of the ret proto-oncogene with the 5'-terminal region of another gene that we have named H4.