Effects of dietary active soybean trypsin inhibitors on pancreatic weights, histology and expression of STAT3 and receptors for androgen and estrogen in different tissues of rats.

Our previous study showed that soy milks could contain high levels of active soybean trypsin inhibitors (SBTI) if they were not properly processed. This study investigated the effects of consuming active SBTI on pancreatic weights, histology, trypsinogen production and expression of STAT3, receptors for androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) in pancreas, liver and uterus of rats. Weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (8 females and 8 males/group) and fed diets containing either 20% casein protein (Casein) or 20% soy protein (SP) in the presence of high (1.

Sigma receptor type 1 knockout mice show a mild deficit in plasticity but no significant change in synaptic transmission in the CA1 region of the hippocampus.

The sigma-1 receptor (σ-1R) is a chaperone protein located at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) mitochondrial interface with roles in neuroprotection and cognition. Increasing evidence suggests that loss of σ-1R function could contribute to neurological disease states making it a target for therapeutic intervention. Our objective was to elucidate the consequences to synaptic transmission and plasticity when σ-1R is absent.

Molecular basis for convergent evolution of glutamate recognition by pentameric ligand-gated ion channels.

Glutamate is an indispensable neurotransmitter, triggering postsynaptic signals upon recognition by postsynaptic receptors. We questioned the phylogenetic position and the molecular details of when and where glutamate recognition arose in the glutamate-gated chloride channels. Experiments revealed that glutamate recognition requires an arginine residue in the base of the binding site, which originated at least three distinct times according to phylogenetic analysis.