Complement activation leads to membrane attack complex formation, which can lyse not only pathogens but also host cells. Histones can be released from the lysed or damaged cells and serve as a major type of damage-associated molecular pattern, but their effects on the complement system are not clear. In this study, we pulled down two major proteins from human serum using histone-conjugated beads: one was C-reactive protein and the other was C4, as identified by mass spectrometry. In surface plasmon resonance analysis, histone H3 and H4 showed stronger binding to C4 than other histones, with KD around 1 nM. The interaction did not affect C4 cleavage to C4a and C4b. Because histones bind to C4b, a component of C3 and C5 convertases, their activities were significantly inhibited in the presence of histones. Although it is not clear whether the inhibition was achieved through blocking C3 and C5 convertase assembly or just through reducing their activity, the outcome was that both classical and mannose-binding lectin pathways were dramatically inhibited. Using a high concentration of C4 protein, histone-suppressed complement activity could not be fully restored, indicating C4 is not the only target of histones in those pathways. In contrast, the alternative pathway was almost spared, but the overall complement activity activated by zymosan was inhibited by histones. Therefore, we believe that histones inhibiting complement activation is a natural feedback mechanism to prevent the excessive injury of host cells.
A series of new aromatic polyesters have been synthesized by polycondensation of different aromatic diols (M1, M2 ,M3) with different dicarboxlic acids (4,4'azo di benzoic acid, malic acid and adipic acid) using dibutyltine dilaurate as catalyst . The preparation of thermally stable polyesters was successfully applied with good yields (60-85%). All polyesters (PE1-PE4) containing aliphatic methylene linkage, and azo group in the main chain. The resulted polymers are readily soluble in aprotic polar solvents , such as (pyridine , CHCl3 , CH2Cl2 , NaOH , H2SO4 , HNO3 , acetone , benzene , DMF , DMSO , THF) without need for heating. Thermal analysis of polyesters by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) reveals that these aromatic polyesters po
... Show More4-[(2-Amino-4-phenylazo)-methyl]-cyclo hexane carboxylic acid, a new Azo (LH2) ligand, was synthesized by reaction of the diazonium salt of trans-4-(amino-methyl) cyclo hexane carboxylic acid with 3-amino phenol. The azo ligand was characterized by micro elemental analysis (C.H.N.O.) and TGA as well as spectroscopic techniques (UV-Vis, FTIR, 1H-NMR, and LC-Mass). Atomic absorption, elemental analysis, infrared, LC-Mass, TGA, and UV-Vis spectral methods, as well as conductivity and magnetic susceptibility, were used to characterize the complexes of Ni (II), Pd (II), and Pt (IV). The following general formula has been given for the produced compounds based on the results obtained, which are as followi
... Show MoreIn this study Oscillatoria limnetica and Chroococus minor were isolated ?purified and identification from water canal around Baghdad University Campus. The water of this canals originally from Tigris River. BG-11 culture media was used for their cultivation in suitable laboratory conditions (25c°, 200µE/m2/sec) for 16:8 hrs. Light: dark. Each culture was harvested at the end of exponential phase .Organic solvents used for extraction were Ethanol? Hexane and Methanol 95% to extract the crude active Intracellular and Extracellular substances, and evaporated down to dryness .Antibacterial and antifungal activity of these different extracts were evaluated against 6 strains of gram positive bacteria and gram negative bacteria in additi
... Show MoreHigh concentrations of prolactin (PRL) during the lactation period have an essential role in milk production by mammary glands stimulation. PRL may have an impact on calcium regulation and bone mineral density. We investigated if the PRL concentration during the lactation period could influence osteoclast (OC) activation and bone mineral density (BMD). In vivo, the Calcium Detection Assay, and ELISA were used to detect serum calcium, PRL, and inflammatory cytokines, respectively. BMD was evaluated by µ-CT in six months old female mice during lactation. The osteoclast (OC) activity was detected by Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), Immunohistochemistry (IHC), and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). In vitro, osteoclast dif
... Show MoreThis paper tackles with principal component analysis method (PCA ) to dimensionality reduction in the case of linear combinations to digital image processing and analysis. The PCA is statistical technique that shrinkages a multivariate data set consisting of inter-correlated variables into a data set consisting of variables that are uncorrelated linear combination, while ensuring the least possible loss of useful information. This method was applied to a group of satellite images of a certain area in the province of Basra, which represents the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Shatt al-Arab in the province of Basra.
... Show MoreIn the present paper, Arabic Character Recognition Edge detection method based on contour and connected components is proposed. First stage contour extraction feature is introduced to tackle the Arabic characters edge detection problem, where the aim is to extract the edge information presented in the Arabic characters, since it is crucial to understand the character content. The second stage connected components appling for the same characters to find edge detection. The proposed approach exploits a number of connected components, which move on the character by character intensity values, to establish matrix, which represents the edge information at each pixel location .
... Show MoreTNF-α-induced osteoclastogenesis is central to post-menopausal and inflammatory bone loss, however, the effect of phytoestrogens on TNF-α-induced bone resorption has not been studied. The phytoestrogens genistein, daidzein, and coumestrol directly suppressed TNF-α-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. TRAP positive osteoclast formation and resorption area were significantly reduced by genistein (10(-7) M), daidzein (10(-5) M), and coumestrol (10(-7) M), which was prevented by the estrogen antagonist ICI 182,780. TRAP expression in mature TNF-α-induced osteoclasts was also significantly reduced by these phytoestrogen concentrations. In addition, in the presence of ICI 182,780 genistein and coumestrol (10(-5) -10(-6) M) augmente
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to design fast neural networks to approximate periodic functions, that is, design a fully connected networks contains links between all nodes in adjacent layers which can speed up the approximation times, reduce approximation failures, and increase possibility of obtaining the globally optimal approximation. We training suggested network by Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm then speeding suggested networks by choosing most activation function (transfer function) which having a very fast convergence rate for reasonable size networks. In all algorithms, the gradient of the performance function (energy function) is used to determine how to
... Show MoreSeventy five adult virgin female Norway rats (60 experimental and 15 controls) were used to evaluate the effect of seeds of three herbs (Fennel, Cumin and Garden cress) on their mammary glands. Experimental animals were fed with these herbs (each type of herb seeds was given to twenty experimental rats) for fourteen days. Rats were sacrificed and mammary gland sections were obtained, stained then morphometrically assessed. Serum prolactin level was performed too. Results revealed that Garden cress seeds are the strongest lactogenic agent among the three. Both Fennel and Cumin seeds were shown to be very weak galactagogues.