Transfer of Fas (CD95) protein from the cell surface to the surface of polystyrene beads coated with anti-Fas antibody clone CH-11

Mouse monoclonal anti-Fas (CD95) antibody clone CH-11 has been widely used in research on apoptosis. CH-11 has the ability to bind to Fas protein on cell surface and induce apoptosis. Here, we used polystyrene beads coated with CH-11 to investigate the role of lipid rafts in Fas-mediated apoptosis in SKW6.4 cells. Unexpectedly, by treatment of the cells with CH-11-coated beads Fas protein was detached from cell surface and transferred to the surface of CH-11-coated beads. Western blot analysis showed that Fas protein containing both extracellular and intracellular domains was attached to the beads. Fas protein was not transferred from the cells to the surface of the beads coated with other anti-Fas antibodies or Fas ligand. Similar phenomenon was observed in Jurkat T cells. Furthermore, CH-11-induced apoptosis was suppressed by pretreatment with CH-11-coated beads in Jurkat cells. These results suggest that CH-11 might possess distinct properties on Fas protein compared with other anti-Fas antibodies or Fas ligand, and also suggest that caution should be needed to use polystyrene beads coated with antibodies such as CH-11

The ELFIN mission

The Electron Loss and Fields Investigation with a Spatio-Temporal Ambiguity-Resolving option (ELFIN-STAR, or heretoforth simply: ELFIN) mission comprises two identical 3-Unit (3U) CubeSats on a polar (∼93∘ inclination), nearly circular, low-Earth (∼450 km altitude) orbit. Launched on September 15, 2018, ELFIN is expected to have a >2.5 year lifetime. Its primary science objective is to resolve the mechanism of storm-time relativistic electron precipitation, for which electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are a prime candidate. From its ionospheric vantage point, ELFIN uses its unique pitch-angle-resolving capability to determine whether measured relativistic electron pitch-angle and energy spectra within the loss cone bear the characteristic signatures of scattering by EMIC waves or whether such scattering may be due to other processes. Pairing identical ELFIN satellites with slowly-variable along-track separation allows disambiguation of spatial and temporal evolution of the precipitation over minutes-to-tens-of-minutes timescales, faster than the orbit period of a single low-altitude satellite (Torbit ∼ 90 min). Each satellite carries an energetic particle detector for electrons (EPDE) that measures 50 keV to 5 MeV electrons with Δ E/E 1 MeV. This broad energy range of precipitation indicates that multiple waves are providing scattering concurrently. Many observed events show significant backscattered fluxes, which in the past were hard to resolve by equatorial spacecraft or non-pitch-angle-resolving ionospheric missions. These observations suggest that the ionosphere plays a significant role in modifying magnetospheric electron fluxes and wave-particle interactions. Routine data captures starting in February 2020 and lasting for at least another year, approximately the remainder of the mission lifetime, are expected to provide a very rich dataset to address questions even beyond the primary mission science objective.Published versio

Lipopolysaccharide responsiveness of malignant lymphoid cells in a patient with hairy cell leukemia

Abstract The malignant cells in a patient with hairy cell leukemia responded most evidently to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in in vitro culture for 3 1/2 days when the conventional tritiated thymidine uptake method was used. Since the malignant cells from patients with several other forms of leukemia and the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy individuals did not show a comparable degree of responsiveness to LPS, we could exclude the possibility that this response was due to effects on contaminating normal mononuclear cells or to the nonspecific conditioning effect through LPS-affected contaminating normal monocytes. Morphological changes were observed with photo- and electronmicroscopy. It is likely that the hairy cells from the patient did respond to LPS, and whether or not this phenomenon may be confined to this type of lymphoid leukemia is not being investigated.</jats:p

Asymmetric trimethylsilylcyanation of aldehydes utilizing chiral bismuth compounds. A frontier in bismuth mediated synthetic reactions

Bismuth(III) chloride (BiCl3) was found to work efficiently as a versatile catalyst for cyanation of aldehydes with trimethylsilyl cyanide to afford the corresponding cyanohydrins in high yields. Triphenylbismuthan (Ph3Bi) is also effective. The reaction has been applied to the asymmetric cyanation of a variety of aldehydes in high yields with moderate to good enantioselectivities by use of a chiral bismuth catalyst prepared in situ from BiCl3 and (2R,3R)-(+)-diethyl tartrate