[Synergistic protective effect of testicular cells expressing Fas ligand and cyclosporine A on the survival of islet allografts].

Objective: To explore the synergistic protective effect of co-transplanted testicular cells expressing FasL and CsA on survival of islet allografts.

Methods: The allogeneic islets and testicular cells were co-transplanted into the renal subcapsular space of the diabetic recipients with or without CsA after operation. Allografts survival period and the testicular cells or islets function were analyzed.

Polymer-assisted solution-phase (PASP) Suzuki couplings employing an anthracene-tagged palladium catalyst.

A general method for polymer-assisted solution-phase (PASP) Suzuki reactions employing a combination of anthracene-tagged palladium catalyst and anthracene-tagged boronic acid with a polymer-supported carbonate base is reported. The anthracene-tagged catalyst allows for the easy removal of the Pd catalyst along with the dissociated phosphine ligand and phosphine oxide byproducts by sequestration through a chemoselective Diels-Alder reaction with a maleimide resin. The polymer-supported carbonate base facilitates the removal of excess boronic acid and the borane-containing byproducts present at the end of the coupling reaction.

Gene therapy for mice sarcoma with oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 lacking the apoptosis-inhibiting gene, icp34.5.

A mutant herpes simplex virus 1, mtHSV, was constructed by inserting the E. coli beta-galactosidase gene into the loci of icp34.5, the apoptosis-inhibiting gene of HSV.

Conditional replication of a recombinant adenovirus studied using neomycin as a selective marker.

An E1B-defective adenovirus, named r2/Ad carrying the neo expression cassette, was constructed by homologous recombination. The construction, selection (using neomycin as a selective marker), and propagation of the recombinant virus was performed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells (HEK 293). An in vitro study demonstrated that this recombinant virus has the ability to replicate in and lyse some p53-deficient human tumor cells such as human glioma tumor cells (U251) and human bladder cells (EJ), but not in some cells with functional p53, such as human adenocarcinoma cells (A549) and human fibroblast cells (MRC-5).

The novel endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-targeted protein HAP induces cell apoptosis by the depletion of the ER Ca(2+) stores.

HAP, a novel human apoptosis-inducing protein, was identified to localize exclusively to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in our previous work. In the present work, we reported that ectopic overexpression of HAP proteins caused the rapid and sustained elevation of the intracellular cytosolic Ca(2+), which originated from the reversible ER Ca(2+) stores release and the extracellular Ca(2+) influx. The HeLa cells apoptosis induced by HAP proteins was not prevented by establishing the clamped cytosolic Ca(2+) condition, or by buffering of the extracellular Ca(2+) with EGTA, suggesting that the depletion of ER Ca(2+) stores rather than the elevation of cytosolic Ca(2+) or the extracellular Ca(2+) entry contributed to HAP-induced HeLa cells apoptosis.