Effects of phosphorylated estrogen receptor alpha on apoptosis in human endometrial epithelial cells.

It is known that the activities of estrogen receptor α (ERα) can be modulated by epidermal growth factor (EGF) through the phosphatidylinostitol 3-kinase-alpha serine/threonine protein kinase (PI3K-AKT) pathway by phosphorylation. To clarify how ERα functions are regulated in endometrial cells during menstrual cycle, molecules related to phosphorylation of ERα (pERα) were examined. It was found that the expression of phosphorylated AKT on serine 473 (pAKT-Ser473) was increased during the proliferative phase, but decreased in the secretory phase.

Biopanning of antibody-phage clones using immunoplates coated with gel slices of electrophoresis: immunogel-biopanning.

Biopanning of a phage library using a Western blotting membrane is difficult because of high background binding. We propose a reliable biopanning method, namely, immunogel-biopanning, which is performed using immunoplates coated with a molecular species fractionated from a crude sample by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The efficacy of this method was determined in model experiments using a human interleukin-18 (IL-18)-specific single chain Fv (scFv) phage clone.