15 research outputs found

    Dextran-Coated Magnetic Supports Modified with a Biomimetic Ligand for IgG Purification

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    The authors thank the financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through Grant PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2011 and contracts no. PTDC/EBB-BIO/102163/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/098961/2008, PTDC/EBB-BIO/118317/2010, SFRH/BD/72650/2010 for V.L.D, and Santander Totta Bank - Universidade Nova de Lisboa for the Scientific Award 2009/2010. The authors are grateful to Dr. Abid Hussain and M. Telma Barroso (REQUIMTE, FCT-UNL, Portugal) for the preparation of the synthetic affinity ligands, to Lonza Biologics, U.K. (Dr. Richard Alldread), and the Animal Cell Technology Unit of ITQB-UNL/IBET (Dr. Paula M Alves and Dr. Ana Teixeira) for providing the cells and the culture bulks and to Mr. Filipe Cardoso and Prof. Paulo Freitas (INESC-MN, Lisbon, Portugal) for the help with the VSM measurements.Dextran-coated iron oxide magnetic particles modified with ligand 22/8, a protein A mimetic ligand, were prepared and assessed for IgG purification. Dextran was chosen as the agent to modify the surface of magnetic particles by presenting a negligible level of nonspecific adsorption. For the functionalization of the particles with the affinity ligand toward antibodies, three methods have been explored. The optimum coupling method yielded a theoretical maximum capacity for human IgG calculated as 568 ± 33 mg/g and a binding affinity constant of 7.7 × 10⁴ M⁻¹. Regeneration, recycle and reuse of particles was also highly successful for five cycles with minor loss of capacity. Moreover, this support presented specificity and effectiveness for IgG adsorption and elution at pH 11 directly from crude extracts with a final purity of 95% in the eluted fraction.proofpublishe

    Effects of resveratrol in experimental and clinical non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

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    Plasma levels of OLFM4 in normals and patients with gastrointestinal cancer

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    Olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4) is a secreted glycoprotein predominantly expressed in bone marrow and gastrointestinal tissues. Aberrant expression of OLFM4 has been shown in several cancers. However, the clinical significance hereof is currently controversial. OLFM4 has been proposed as a candidate biomarker of gastrointestinal cancers. To address this, we developed monoclonal antibodies against synthetic peptides representing various segments of OLFM4. We examined expression of OLFM4 in epithelial cells by immunohistochemistry and found that OLFM4 is highly expressed in proliferating benign epithelial cells and in some carcinoma cells. We developed an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay for OLFM4 and investigated whether plasma levels of OLFM4 reflect colorectal malignancies, but were unable to see any such association. Instead, we observed two populations of individuals with respect to OLFM4 levels in plasma, the majority with OLFM4 in plasma between 0 and 0.1 lg/ ml, mean 0.028 lg/ml while 10 % of both normals and patients with cancers had OLFM4 between 4 and 60 lg/ml, mean 15 lg/ml. The levels were constant over time. The background for this high plasma level is not known, but must be taken into account if OLFM4 is used as biomarker for GI cancers

    Hepatic histology scores.

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    <p>Hepatic histology scores graded semi-quantitatively according to Kleiner et. al. non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) activity score (NAS), steatosis (0–3), lobular inflammation (0–2), ballooning (0–2) and fibrosis (0–4) in isocaloric controls, high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFHC) controls, two-week NPC2 (treatment) and four-week NPC2 (prevention) animals. No animal had significant histological fibrosis on HE (Panel A) or Masson trichrome staining (Panel B). *: P < 0.05 compared with Isocaloric Controls. #: P < 0.05 compared with HFHC Controls.</p
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