New insights on the molecular and cell biology of human cholangiopathies

Cholangiopathies are diseases of high social impact representing the main indication for liver transplantation in the infanthood and the third in adulthood. Despite the heterogeneous etiology and pathogenesis, cholangiopathies share many different common morphological features and, chronically progress toward a ductupenic condition clinically evidenced by the classical features of a cholestatic syndrome. The primary target of damage in the course of cholangiopathies are cholangiocytes, the epithelia cells lining the biliary tree. A bulk of researches performed in the last decade, highlighted the extraordinary biological properties of cholangiocytes involved in a number of important processes such as bile formation, proliferation, injury repair, fibrosis, angiogenesis and regulation of blood flow. Recent advances on the molecular and cell biology of human cholangiopathies are opening new potential therapeutic perspectives for these diseases.     

The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology

By Arthur C. Aufderheide and Conrado Rodríguez-Martín, with a dental chapter by Odin Langsjoen. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1998. 478 pp. ISBN 0–521–55203–6. $100.00 (cloth).     

The molecular biology of human renin and its gene

The molecular biology of renin, prorenin, and the renin gene have been studied. A tissue-specific pattern of expression was found in rat and human tissues. In the human placenta, the transfected and endogenous renin promoters are active, and renin mRNA levels and transfected promoter activity are increased by a calcium ionophore plus cAMP. Cultured pituitary AtT-20 cells transfected with a preprorenin expression vector mimick renal renin release by converting prorenin to renin and releasing renin in response to 8Br-cAMP. Studies with mutant renin genes suggest that the body of renin directs renin to the regulated secretory pathway, and renin glycosylation affects its trafficking. Chinese hamster ovary cells were used to produce recombinant prorenin. Infused prorenin was not converted to renin in monkeys. Renin crystals were used to determine its three-dimensional structure. Renin resembles other aspartyl proteases in the active site and core, but it differs in other regions that probably explain renin's unique substrate specificity. Based on structural and mutational analysis, a model for human prorenin was built that suggests lysine -2 of the prosegment interacts with active site aspartate residues, and that the prosegment inactivation of renin is stabilized by binding of an amino terminal beta strand into a groove on renin.     

人细小病毒B19分子生物学研究进展

人细小病毒B19 (Human parvovirus B19,简称B19病毒),是目前为止已知能够感染并引起人类疾病的两种细小病毒科成员之一。B19病毒作为一种重要病原,能够引起如儿童传染性红斑、急性再障危象、胎儿水肿甚至死胎等疾病。文中从B19病毒基因型、病毒受体、基因组结构特点与复制、病毒转录与转录后调控、病毒非结构和结构蛋白特点与功能以及病毒诊断及抗病毒药物研究策略6个方面来综述B19病毒的最新研究进展,以期为B19病毒致病机制的深入研究与治疗诊断策略的制定提供参考。     

The Cambridge encyclopedia of human growth and development

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development. Edited by Stanley J. Ulijaszek, Francis E. Johnson, and Michael A. Preece. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1998. 497 pp. ISBN 0-521-56046-2. $95.00 (cloth).     

人超氧化物歧化酶分子生物学研究进展

人超氧化物歧化酶是一类极有开发前景的药用蛋白。hCu/Zn-SOD为二聚体,主要存在于细胞质,hMn-SOD为四聚体,主要存在于线粒体基质,hEC-SOD也为四聚体,主要存在于分泌液。各种同工酶的分子量、氨基酸序列、基因结构已经研究清楚,并进行了基因克隆和表达。细菌表达产物以包含体形式存在。复性工作复杂而困难。利用真核细胞进行克隆和表达是该酶今后的发展方向。     

Computer modeling of human movements]

A dynamic model for studying man's movements is proposed. Lagrange equations of the second order are used. Differential equations of the model are presented in the matrix form, and all the coefficients involved are calculated from recurrent formulae. The dynamic model described is easily algorythmized. Differentiating operations can be thus avoided which are realized on electron computers with difficulities.     

Some remarks on molecular biology

The binding energy of a very long molecular chain, composed of different classes of molecules, depends in general on the order of the molecules. It is shown that under very general conditions there exists for a givenbrutto chemical composition of a chain, a class of chains which is characterized by a total binding energy which is equal to the total binding energy of any other prescribed chain of different composition within the limits of unsharpness of the energy level. This establishes a criterion formapping of a class of configurations of long chain molecules on another class. To the extent that a mapping constitutes a generalized code those results contribute to the theory of molecular codes. Applying to our results the results of a previous paper (1959,Bull. Math. Biophysics,21, 309–326), we arrive at the conclusion that the self-replication of a living molecule may be the property not of a particular structure but of classes of structures.     

Biochemistry and molecular biology

The following article was written by Professor Campbell for the Pergamon Encyclopaedia of Higher Education. It seeks to define Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the 1990s, traces some of the history, highlights what are the ‘growing edges’ of the subject, and gives something of a personal view. It also describes the international organisation, the literature, funding and careers. It is re-published here in a slightly modified form in the hope that a brief knowledge of the background for our discipline will be interesting and useful to readers of Biochemical Education.