Determination of coumarins in the roots of Angelica dahurica by supercritical fluid chromatography.

The fact that supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) offers many desirable features is known for a long time. Yet, the number of applications on natural products is still limited, because robust and user-friendly instrumentation became available just a few years ago. As coumarins hardly have been studied by this technique we developed the first SFC assay for their determination in crude plant material.

Cervical trophoblasts for non-invasive single-cell genotyping and prenatal diagnosis.

Objective: We aimed at developing a method to recover trophoblastic cells from the cervix through a completely non-invasive approach and obtaining a genetic proof of their fetal nature implying that they can be used for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD).

Methods: We studied obstetrical samples from 21 pregnant women between 8 and 12 weeks of gestation scheduled for chorionic villus sampling or undergoing elective termination of pregnancy. A cytobrush was used to extract cells from the external parts of the cervix and transferred to 10 ml of preservative solution.

NFAR-1 and -2 modulate translation and are required for efficient host defense.

We report here that the alternatively spliced nuclear factors associated with double-stranded RNA, NFAR-1 (90 kDa) and -2 (110 kDa), are involved in retaining cellular transcripts in intranuclear foci and can regulate the export of mRNA to the cytoplasm. Furthermore, the NFAR proteins were found to remain associated with exported ribonucleoprotein complexes. Loss of NFAR function, which was embryonic-lethal, caused an increase in protein synthesis rates, an effect augmented by the presence of the mRNA export factors TAP, p15, or Rae1.

The development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for Trypanosoma vivax antibodies and its use in epidemiological surveys.

There are data indicating that the distribution of Trypanosoma vivax in the Brazilian territory is expanding with potential to reach other areas, where the vectors are present. The detection of anti-trypanosomal antibodies in serum provides important information of the trypanosomal status in cattle herds. For this reason, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Tv-ELISA-Ab) with crude antigen from one Brazilian isolate of T.

Redefining the structure of the mouse connexin43 gene: selective promoter usage and alternative splicing mechanisms yield transcripts with different translational efficiencies.

The connexin43 (cx43) gene was originally described as consisting of two exons, one coding for most of the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR), and the other for the protein sequence and 3'-UTR. We now report that in mouse four additional exons are expressed, all coding for novel 5'-UTRs. Altogether, we found nine different cx43 mRNA species (GenBank accession numbers NM010288, and AY427554 through AY427561) generated by differential promoter usage and alternative splicing mechanisms.