The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.

wikigene or wiki gene protein drug chemical gene disease author authorship tracking collaborative publishing evolutionary knowledge reputation system wiki2.0 global collaboration genes proteins drugs chemicals diseases compound
Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 
 
 

Dystrophin (Xp21), a new phenotype marker of cultured rat aortic myocytes.

Dystrophin is a low-abundance cytoskeletal protein involved in the maintenance of membrane integrity in striated muscle. Very little is known about its role in smooth muscle. Utrophin (a dystrophin-related protein) is an ubiquitous protein whose role is still unclear. Changes in the expression of both proteins (if any) during phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle have not yet been reported. In contrast, modulated expression of heavy-molecular-weight caldesmon (h-CaD), a well-known specific regulatory protein of the contractile apparatus in smooth muscle, is well documented, along with its nonmuscle isoform, low-molecular-weight caldesmon (1-CaD), and other cytoskeletal proteins. We investigated three properties of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells: morphology, contractile ability, and expression of dystrophin, utrophin, h-CaD, and 1-CaD. Cells were grown either in serum substitute supplemented medium (U-medium), where they reexpressed contractility, or in fetal calf serum-supplemented medium (F-medium), where they did not. It was found that only cultures grown in U-medium continued expressing dystrophin, even during the proliferation phase, contrary to cells grown in F-medium. However, when F-medium was changed for U-medium the cells recovered their contractility and reexpressed dystrophin. Expression of utrophin, h-CaD, and 1-CaD was similar in both culture types. Dystrophin was demonstrated to be a true phenotype marker of cultured rat aortic smooth muscle cells, particularly with respect to their actual contractility.[1]

References

  1. Dystrophin (Xp21), a new phenotype marker of cultured rat aortic myocytes. Lees, D., Fabbrizio, E., Mornet, D., Harricane, M.C., Travo, P. Exp. Cell Res. (1994) [Pubmed]
 
WikiGenes - Universities