205 research outputs found
Dynamic visualization of membrane-inserted fraction of pHluorin-tagged channels using repetitive acidification technique.
Background
Changes in neuronal excitability, synaptic efficacy and generally in cell signaling often result from insertion of key molecules into plasma membrane (PM). Many of the techniques used for monitoring PM insertion lack either spatial or temporal resolution.
Results
We improved the imaging method based on time-lapse total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and pHluorin tagging by supplementing it with a repetitive extracellular acidification protocol. We illustrate the applicability of this method by showing that brief activation of NMDA receptors ("chemical LTP") in cultured hippocampal neurons induced a persistent PM insertion of glutamate receptors containing the pHluorin-tagged GluR-A(flip) subunits.
Conclusion
The repetitive acidification technique provides a more accurate way of monitoring the PM-inserted fraction of fluorescently tagged molecules and offers a good temporal and spatial resolution
Formal conserved quantities for isothermic surfaces
Isothermic surfaces in are characterised by the existence of a pencil
of flat connections. Such a surface is special of type if there
is a family of -parallel sections whose dependence on the
spectral parameter is polynomial of degree . We prove that any
isothermic surface admits a family of -parallel sections which is a
formal Laurent series in . As an application, we give conformally invariant
conditions for an isothermic surface in to be special.Comment: 13 page
NCS-1 Inhibits insulin stimulated GLUT4 translocation in 3T3L1 adipocytes through a phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase dependent pathway
Expression of NCS-1 (neuronal calcium sensor-1, also termed frequenin) in 3T3L1 adipocytes strongly inhibited insulin-stimulated translocation of GLUT4 and insulin-responsive aminopeptidase. The effect of NCS-1 was specific for GLUT4 and the insulin-responsive aminopeptidase translocation as there was no effect on the trafficking of the cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor or the GLUT1 glucose transporter isoform. Moreover, NCS-1 showed partial colocalization with GLUT4-EGFP in the perinuclear region. The inhibitory action of NCS-1 was independent of calcium sequestration since neither treatment with ionomycin nor endothelin-1, both of which elevated the intracellular calcium concentration, restored insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation. Furthermore, NCS-1 did not alter the insulin-stimulated protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) phosphorylation or the recruitment of Cbl to the plasma membrane. In contrast, expression of the NCS-1 effector phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase (PI 4-kinase) inhibited insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation, whereas co-transfection with an inactive PI 4-kinase mutant prevented the NCS-1-induced inhibition. These data demonstrate that PI 4-kinase functions to negatively regulate GLUT4 translocation through its interaction with NCS-1
Constructing solutions to the Bj\"orling problem for isothermic surfaces by structure preserving discretization
In this article, we study an analog of the Bj\"orling problem for isothermic
surfaces (that are more general than minimal surfaces): given a real analytic
curve in , and two analytic non-vanishing orthogonal
vector fields and along , find an isothermic surface that is
tangent to and that has and as principal directions of
curvature. We prove that solutions to that problem can be obtained by
constructing a family of discrete isothermic surfaces (in the sense of Bobenko
and Pinkall) from data that is sampled along , and passing to the limit
of vanishing mesh size. The proof relies on a rephrasing of the
Gauss-Codazzi-system as analytic Cauchy problem and an in-depth-analysis of its
discretization which is induced from the geometry of discrete isothermic
surfaces. The discrete-to-continuous limit is carried out for the Christoffel
and the Darboux transformations as well.Comment: 29 pages, some figure
The PT-symmetric brachistochrone problem, Lorentz boosts and non-unitary operator equivalence classes
The PT-symmetric (PTS) quantum brachistochrone problem is reanalyzed as
quantum system consisting of a non-Hermitian PTS component and a purely
Hermitian component simultaneously. Interpreting this specific setup as
subsystem of a larger Hermitian system, we find non-unitary operator
equivalence classes (conjugacy classes) as natural ingredient which contain at
least one Dirac-Hermitian representative. With the help of a geometric analysis
the compatibility of the vanishing passage time solution of a PTS
brachistochrone with the Anandan-Aharonov lower bound for passage times of
Hermitian brachistochrones is demonstrated.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, strongly extended versio
Willmore Surfaces of Constant Moebius Curvature
We study Willmore surfaces of constant Moebius curvature in . It is
proved that such a surface in must be part of a minimal surface in
or the Clifford torus. Another result in this paper is that an isotropic
surface (hence also Willmore) in of constant could only be part of a
complex curve in or the Veronese 2-sphere in . It is
conjectured that they are the only examples possible. The main ingredients of
the proofs are over-determined systems and isoparametric functions.Comment: 16 pages. Mistakes occured in the proof to the main theorem (Thm 3.6)
has been correcte
Generalized isothermic lattices
We study multidimensional quadrilateral lattices satisfying simultaneously
two integrable constraints: a quadratic constraint and the projective Moutard
constraint. When the lattice is two dimensional and the quadric under
consideration is the Moebius sphere one obtains, after the stereographic
projection, the discrete isothermic surfaces defined by Bobenko and Pinkall by
an algebraic constraint imposed on the (complex) cross-ratio of the circular
lattice. We derive the analogous condition for our generalized isthermic
lattices using Steiner's projective structure of conics and we present basic
geometric constructions which encode integrability of the lattice. In
particular, we introduce the Darboux transformation of the generalized
isothermic lattice and we derive the corresponding Bianchi permutability
principle. Finally, we study two dimensional generalized isothermic lattices,
in particular geometry of their initial boundary value problem.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures; v2. some typos corrected; v3. new references
added, higlighted similarities and differences with recent papers on the
subjec
Connecting Cancer Pathways to Tumor Engines: A Stratification Tool for Colorectal Cancer Combining Human In Vitro Tissue Models with Boolean In Silico Models
To improve and focus preclinical testing, we combine tumor models based on a decellularized tissue matrix with bioinformatics to stratify tumors according to stage-specific mutations that are linked to central cancer pathways. We generated tissue models with BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer (CRC) cells (HROC24 and HROC87) and compared treatment responses to two-dimensional (2D) cultures and xenografts. As the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib is—in contrast to melanoma—not effective in CRC, we combined it with the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib. In general, our 3D models showed higher chemoresistance and in contrast to 2D a more active HGFR after gefitinib and combination-therapy. In xenograft models murine HGF could not activate the human HGFR, stressing the importance of the human microenvironment. In order to stratify patient groups for targeted treatment options in CRC, an in silico topology with different stages including mutations and changes in common signaling pathways was developed. We applied the established topology for in silico simulations to predict new therapeutic options for BRAF-mutated CRC patients in advanced stages. Our in silico tool connects genome information with a deeper understanding of tumor engines in clinically relevant signaling networks which goes beyond the consideration of single drivers to improve CRC patient stratification
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