Lowering of Blood Glucose Levels with the Peptide Mixture Deglusterol in and Models.

This study aimed to investigate the blood glucose-lowering effect of the peptide complex Deglusterol, which was isolated from corn extract, in insulin-resistance models. It was found to inhibit insulin receptor substrate (IRS) Ser302 phosphorylation, known as the insulin resistance mechanism, through the inhibition of tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) signaling and the induction of AMP-activated protein kinase phosphorylation. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of IRS Tyr632, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and AKT that is involved in the insulin action mechanism was decreased by TNF-, whereas Deglusterol increased their phosphorylations, leading to an increase of glucose uptake rate by 190% through glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) compared with TNF--treated group in C2C12 cells.

Soluble pig lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3; CD223) inhibits human-to-pig xenogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction.

Lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3; CD223) is a transmembrane protein that is structurally similar to CD4. Since LAG-3 has a much higher binding affinity to MHC class II than that of CD4, several approaches using soluble LAG-3 were used to modulate immune responses by activation or inhibition of MHC class II expressing antigen presenting cells. In this study, we constructed soluble pig LAG-3 containing a critical binding site (D1 and D2 region) to MHC class II molecules, combined with a constant region of an immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain.

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of pig lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3; CD223).

Lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3; CD223) is a co-receptor that may function as a down-modulator of T cell activity via an interaction with MHC class II molecules. In this study, we cloned and sequenced the complete cDNA sequence of pig Lag3. Pig Lag3 cDNA contains an open reading frame (1524bp) encoding 507 amino acids.