Coexistence of Antiferromagnetism and Triplet Superconductivity

The authors discuss the possibility of coexistence of antiferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity as a particular example of a broad class of systems where the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity is important. This paper focuses on the case of quasi-one-dimensional metals, where it is known experimentally that antiferromagnetism is in close proximity to triplet superconductivity in the temperature versus pressure phase diagram. Over a narrow range of pressures, the authors propose an intermediate non-uniform phase consisting of alternating insulating antiferromagnetic and triplet superonducting stripes.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. 2004 Conference of Magnetism and Magnetic Material

Truncated human endothelin receptor A produced by alternative splicing and its expression in melanoma

In this study, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify human endothelin receptor A (ETA) and ETB receptor mRNA. A truncated ETA receptor transcript with exons 3 and 4 skipped was found. The skipping of these two exons results in 109 amino acids being deleted from the receptor. The truncated receptor was expressed in all tissues and cells examined, but the level of expression varied. In melanoma cell lines and melanoma tissues, the truncated receptor gene was the major species, whereas the wild-type ETA was predominant in other tissues. A 1.9-kb ETA transcript was identified in melanoma cell lines by Northern blot, which was much smaller than the transcript in heart and in other tissues reported previously (4.3 kb). The cDNA coding regions of the truncated and wild-type ETA receptors were stably transfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The truncated ETA receptor-transfected CHO cells did not show binding affinity to endothelin 1 (ET-1) or endothelin 3 (ET-3). The function and biological significance of this truncated ETA receptor is not clear, but it may have regulatory roles for cell responses to ETs