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- Ahuja, Sat pal, et al.
(författare)
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Glutathione S-transferase µ(GST) modifies activities of proteases and levels of cystatin C secreted by mouse retinal explants
- 2004
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Ingår i: Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. - 1552-5783. ; 45, s. 352-352
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: In one form of human autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa and in retinal degeneration (rd1) mouse, mutation occurs in the genes encoding ß subunit of rod photoreceptor cGMP phosphodiesterase. Therefore, rd1 mutant mouse is an appropriate model for human inherited retinal degeneration studies. Retinal explants are successfully cultured in serum free chemically defined R16 medium to evaluate effects of various rescue factors and retinal conditioned medium (RCM) for secreted molecules like proteases and their inhibitors. Cysteine protease inhibitor cystatin C has recently been identified in rodent neuroretina and RPE. RCM of explants treated with GST were analyzed for proteases and cystatin C to explain, in part, mode of action of GST in protection of degenerating retina. Methods: Postnatal day 2 (PN2) and PN7 control (wt) and rd1 were cultured with (10 ng / ml GST) and without GST in R16 medium, respectively, for 26 and 21 days in vitro (div). Retinal extracts (RE) and RCM were analyzed by fluorometry using casein green fluorescent labeled with BODIPY–FL (Molecular Probes) for total proteases; Z–Phe–Arg–NMec or Z–Arg–Arg–NMec for cysteine proteases and by ELISA for cystatin C, respectively, for levels and secretion of proteases and cystatin C. The protein content of RE was measured. Results: Protein content (µg) of RE from wt and rd1 retinal extracts respectively increased and decreased with age. Cystatin C (ng/ml RCM) content in wt and rd1 RE increased with age (was always higher in wt) up to PN14 and then decreased but was higher than that at PN2. Progressive secretion of cystatin C by PN2 explants was lower than that by PN7 explants; and that by rd1 PN2 and PN7 explants was initially lower up to in vitro age of PN19 and subsequently it was higher than that by wt explants. Secretion of total cystatin C by PN2 and PN7 wt and rd1 explants was similar and was increased by GST. During initial stage of culture total protease activity ({Delta} F / 100 µl RCM) in RCM of rd1 PN2 and PN7 explants was higher and was decreased in GST treated explants. Conclusions: Cystatin C content and secretion by wt RE is always higher and that of proteases is lower than that of rd1. Treatment with GST increases content of cystatin C and consequently decreases that of proteases especially cysteine proteases.
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| 4. |
- Ekström, Erika, 1968-
(författare)
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Essays on Inequality and Education
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of an introduction and four self-contained essays.Essay I examines the contribution of socio-economic variables to Namibian income inequality. I examine the extent to which total income inequality is due to within-group inequality or between-group inequality. Income inequality in Namibia ranks among the highest in the world. The within-group inequality seems to be the principal determinant of total inequality. Education is an important factor in determining degrees of between-group inequality.Essay II examines the differences in earnings between males and females in manufacturing, services and the public sector in Namibia. The estimated earnings differences are decomposed into endowment and discrimination components. The results suggest that females are discriminated, but that females have a productivity advantage over the males, which reduces the gross wage differential. Comparing the OLS results with the results accounting for selection, the endowment component is not affected, whereas the discrimination component is reduced.Essay III evaluates the 1991-reform adding a third year in Swedish upper secondary vocational education. One purpose with the additional year was to facilitate university enrolment for students from vocational paths. Reduced forms are applied to estimate the effect of a third year on three outcomes: years of upper secondary education, university enrolment and the rate of inactivity. The results suggest positive effects on university enrolments within six years for individuals with a three-year vocational education, and negative effects on activity.Essay IV evaluates adult secondary education (ASE) in Sweden. ASE offers courses at the compulsory and upper secondary level and is aimed to give adults who lack these types of education. Controlling for pre-programme annual earnings, the estimates suggests that participating in adult secondary education significantly reduces the earnings of native-born males. No effects are found for native-born females, but the results indicate weakly significant positive effects for female immigrants.
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| 5. |
- Ekström, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Antiferromagnetism in Zn-doped La2CuO4 as observed by muon spin resonance spectroscopy
- 2001
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Ingår i: Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - 0163-1829. ; 64:18, s. 1845221-1845226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The local fields seen by positive muons implanted in Zn-doped La2CuO4 show a distribution with a main peak attributed to muon sites far from the Zn ions and a satellite structure corresponding to muons residing closer to the Zn. The temperature dependence indicates a strong loss of magnetic order for Cu moments near the Zn atoms. The data can be understood in terms of a model where a Zn ion not only introduces a vacancy in the magnetic Cu lattice but also creates a RKKY-type disturbance. The electron spin polarization around the Zn ions induces a change of the magnetic moments on surrounding Cu ions. The AF lattice is found to be strongly perturbed within a radius of 10 Angstrom around each Zn ion. Possible consequences for the superconductivity of the corresponding Sr-doped materials are discussed.
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| 6. |
- Ekström, Patrik, 1971-
(författare)
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A Dark Matter Search with AMANDA : Limits on the Muon Flux from Neutralino Annihilations at the Centre of the Earth with 1997-99 Data
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the greatest mysteries in modern astronomy. The neutralino is a nonbaryonic dark matter candidate in minimal supersymmetric extensions to the standard model of particle physics. If the dark matter halo of our galaxy is made up of neutralinos some would become gravitationally trapped inside massive bodies like the Earth. Their pair-wise annihilation produces neutrinos that can be detected by neutrino experiments looking in the direction of the centre of the Earth.The AMANDA neutrino telescope, currently the largest in the world, consists of an array of light detectors buried deep in the Antarctic glacier at the geographical South Pole. The extremely transparent ice acts as a Cherenkov medium for muons passing the array and using the timing information of detected photons it is possible to reconstruct the muon direction.A search has been performed for nearly vertically upgoing neutrino induced muons with AMANDA-B10 data taken over the three year period 1997-99. No excess above the atmospheric neutrino background expectation was found. Upper limits at the 90 % confidence level has been set on the annihilation rate of neutralinos at the centre of the Earth and on the muon flux induced by neutrinos created by the annihilation products.
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| 7. |
- Ekström, Per A R, et al.
(författare)
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Leukemia inhibitory factor null mice : Unhampered in vitro outgrowth of sensory axons but reduced stimulatory potential by nerve segments
- 2000
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Ingår i: Neuroscience Letters. - 0304-3940. ; 281:2-3, s. 107-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is locally up-regulated after peripheral nerve injury and may be involved in the subsequent regeneration. Here, adult mice with or without LIF gene deletions were used to study the role of LIF in regeneration. The results show that axonal regeneration in vitro from dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) was unaffected by LIF deletion. However, segments from wild type mice promoted DRG axonal outgrowth better than segments from LIF deleted animals when in vivo-injured sciatic nerve segments were co-cultured with DRGs from normal adult mice. Addition of LIF could not restore the deficit. This suggests that LIF is engaged in the local regulation of regeneration but not in the regenerative events occuring at the cell body level. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.
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| 8. |
- Ekström, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Involvement of alpha 7 beta 1 integrin in the conditioning-lesion effect on sensory axon regeneration
- 2003
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Ingår i: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. - 1044-7431. ; 22:3, s. 383-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conditioning lesions of peripheral nerves improve axonal regeneration after injury and involve changes in expression of proteins required for axonal growth. Integrin alpha7beta1 expression in motor and sensory neurons increases following nerve lesions and motor axon regeneration is impaired in alpha7 integrin KO mice (J. Neurosci. 20, 1822-1830). To investigate the role of alpha7beta1 integrin in sensory axon regeneration, dorsal root ganglia of adult mice were cultured in gels of laminin-rich extracellular matrix (Matrigel) or collagen. Normal dorsal root ganglia in Matrigel or collagen supplemented with laminin showed spontaneous axonal outgrowth, which was greatly increased in conditioned preparations, but only in the presence of laminin. Conditioned dorsal root ganglia from normal mice cultured with a blocking antibody to beta1 integrin and from alpha7 integrin KO mice showed reduced axonal growth in both Matrigel- and laminin-supplemented collagen gels. Enhanced axonal regeneration after conditioning lesions therefore involves increased responsiveness to laminin and integrin alpha7beta1 expression. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
- Knutsen Rydberg, Ellen, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Hypoxia increases LDL oxidation and expression of 15-lipoxygenase-2 in human macrophages
- 2004
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Ingår i: Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. ; 24:11, s. 2040-2045
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Macrophage-mediated oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by enzymes, such as the lipoxygenases, is considered of major importance for the formation of oxidized LDL during atherogenesis. Macrophages have been identified in hypoxic areas in atherosclerotic plaques. METHODS AND RESULTS: To investigate the role of hypoxia in macrophage-mediated LDL oxidation, we incubated human monocyte-derived macrophages with LDL under normoxic (21% O2) or hypoxic (0% O2) conditions. The results showed that hypoxic macrophages oxidized LDL to a significantly higher extent than normoxic cells. Interestingly, the mRNA and protein expression of 15-lipoxygenase-2 (15-LOX-2) as well as the activity of this enzyme are elevated in macrophages incubated at hypoxia. Both the unspliced 15-LOX-2 and the spliced variant 15-LOX-2sv-a are found in macrophages. In addition, 15-LOX-2 was identified in carotid plaques in some macrophage-rich areas but was only expressed at low levels in nondiseased arteries. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, these observations show for the first time that 15-LOX-2 is expressed in hypoxic macrophages and in atherosclerotic plaques and suggest that 15-LOX-2 may be one of the factors involved in macrophage-mediated LDL oxidation at hypoxia.
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| 10. |
- Sjögreen, B., et al.
(författare)
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Mitogen activated protein kinase inhibition by PD98059 blocks nerve growth factor stimulated axonal outgrowth from adult mouse dorsal root ganglia in vitro
- 2000
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Ingår i: Neuroscience. - 0306-4522. ; 100:2, s. 407-416
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nerve growth factor stimulated axonal outgrowth from explanted mouse dorsal root ganglia is dependent on mitogen activated protein kinase. PD98059 ([2-(2'amino-3'-methoxyphenyl)-oxanaphthalen-4-one]) blocks mitogen activated protein kinase by inhibiting its immediate upstream activator, mitogen activated protein kinase kinase (also known as MEK). Here we used PD98059 to study the role of mitogen activated protein kinase in the axonal outgrowth of adult dorsal root ganglia explants. Whereas PD98059 at 50μM left spontaneous axonal outgrowth unaffected, it markedly inhibited nerve growth factor stimulated axon growth when assessed after two days in culture. A mitogen activated protein kinase assay and immunoblotting using antibodies discriminating between activated and inactivated kinase, both confirmed that PD98059 reduced the amount of activated enzyme in nerve growth factor stimulated preparations, while the total amounts of the kinase remained unchanged. Immunohistochemistry revealed the presence of neuronal mitogen activated protein kinase kinase and mitogen activated protein kinase itself. The latter enzyme was found to be activated in the growing axons, as seen by whole-mount labelling. At the ganglionic level activated mitogen activated protein kinase was preferentially detected in satellite cells.The results show that nerve growth factor stimulated axonal outgrowth in vitro from adult mouse dorsal root ganglia utilizes the mitogen activated protein kinase pathway. Copyright (C) 2000 IBRO.
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