Biochemical evidence of key residues for the activation and autoprocessing of tomato type II metacaspase.

To investigate the autolysis pattern and activation of metacaspase in higher plants, the biochemical characteristics of purified recombinant type II metacaspase (LeMCA1) from tomato were explored. Western blotting analysis indicated that four cleaved bands were formed; two N-terminal fragments and two C-terminal fragments. N-terminal sequencing confirmed that LeMCA1 cleaves at Lys223 and Arg332.

[Study on of deferrization mechanism of apoferritin and the effect of spectra variation with holoferritin].

The deferrization mechanism of apoferritin was established, and the spectra variation of apoferritin was compared with that of holoferritin. Sodium hyposulfite is a strong reducing agent, therefore, was applied to deoxidize holoferritin to release iron ion, and connection of iron of buffer was measured by the 2,2-dipyridyl. Apoferritin was detected by ICP-MS.

[A double labial-arch retaining appliance after correction of Class III osteal malocclusion].

A double labial-arch retaining appliance to retain the treatment effective of Class III osteal malocclusion were introduced and used to retain 60 patients with Class III osteal malocclusion. At the same time, 60 patients with Class III osteal malocclusion were retained with conventional Hawley retainer as the control group. The results indicated that the double labial-arch retaining appliance has good effect to the retain of Class III osteal malocclusion.

Biological properties of different protein extracts from selenium-enriched Ganoderma lucidum.

Our previous studies showed that Ganoderma lucidum bio-transformed 20-30% of inorganic selenium from substrate to organic forms by preferentially incorporating selenium into proteins. In the present study, four kinds of protein extracts from selenium-enriched G. lucidum were prepared with different extracting solvents, which contain water-soluble, alkaline-soluble, salt-soluble and alcohol-soluble protein extracts, and the effects on antioxidant activity of characterizations of protein extracts were studied.

Synthesis, characterization and biological activity of lanthanum(III) complexes containing 2-methylene-1,10-phenanthroline units bridged by aliphatic diamines.

Two novel lanthanum(III) complexes containing 2-methylene-1,10-phenanthroline units bridged by aliphatic diamines were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR, thermal analysis and conductance measurements. They have been assayed for anticancer activity in vitro against HL-60 (human leukocytoma) cells, PC-3MIE8 (human prostate carcinoma) cells, BGC-823 (human stomach carcinoma) cells, MDA-MB-435 (human galactophore carcinoma) cells, Bel-7402 (human liver carcinoma) cells, and Hela (human cervix carcinoma) cells. The results show that the two complexes exhibit good cytotoxic activities against different cell lines in general, especially more effective than cisplatin against Bel-7402, BGC-823 and MDA-MB-435 cell lines.

Effect of Zn(II) on the structure and biological activity of natural beta-NGF.

Only beta-NGF, the subunit of the 7S NGF complex, exhibits NGF activity, but the function of the zinc ion in native beta-NGF has received little attention. Flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) measurements reveal that native beta-NGF contains Zn(II) with a Zn(II)/beta-NGF stoichiometry of 1:14.6.