PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Alessandra Gentile

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandra Gentile.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Rheological properties and sugar composition of locust bean gum from different carob varieties (Ceratonia siliqua L.).

The seeds of the main Italian carob varieties, Latinissima and Tantillo, and those of two selected accessions of Latinissima were evaluated in terms of yield, rheological properties, and sugar composition of the endosperm (LBG). The separation of the seed components in Latinissima and its seedlings yielded meanly 52.2% gum, 17.4% germ, and 30.5% tegument, whereas Tantillo furnished a lower gum yield (38.5%) and a higher yield of tegument (45.8%). The viscosity of 1% LBG aqueous solutions was measured at different shear rates (3-60 rpm), pH values (3.0-6.0), and temperatures (10-60 degrees C). The best results were shown by Latinissima, whereas Tantillo provided always the poorest thickening capacity. The content of free simple sugars and sucrose in the raw flours, the total monosaccharide residues after acidic hydrolysis, the mannose/galactose ratio, and the distribution of polysaccharides by size exclusion chromatography accounted for the observed viscosities. The seeds of Latinissima showed the highest technological potential.

Carbohydrates↗
PubMed2004

Promoter trapping reveals significant differences in integration site selection between MLV and HIV vectors in primary hematopoietic cells.

Recent reports have indicated that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and murine leukemia virus (MLV) vectors preferentially integrate into active genes. Here, we used a novel approach based on genetic trapping to rapidly score several thousand integration sites and found that MLV vectors trapped cellular promoters more efficiently than HIV vectors. Remarkably, 1 in 5 MLV integrations trapped an active promoter in different cell lines and primary hematopoietic cells. Such frequency was even higher in growth-stimulated lymphocytes. We show that the different behavior of MLV and HIV vectors was dependent on a different integration pattern within transcribed genes. Whereas MLV-based traps showed a strong bias for promoter-proximal integration leading to efficient reporter expression, HIV-based traps integrated throughout transcriptional units and were limited for expression by the distance from the promoter and the reading frame of the targeted gene. Our results indicate a strong propensity of MLV to establish transcriptional interactions with cellular promoters, a behavior that may have evolved to enhance proviral expression and may increase the insertional mutagenesis risk. Promoter trapping efficiency provides a convenient readout to assess transcriptional interactions between the vector and its flanking genes at the integration site and to compare integration site selection among different cell types and in different growth conditions.

Cell Line↗
PubMed2004

Invasive growth: a genetic program.

Invasive growth is defined as a complex biological program which instructs cells to dissociate, migrate, degrade the surrounding matrix, proliferate and survive. Together, these processes account for tissue morphogenesis, homeostasis and repair, and can be aberrantly implemented for cancer dissemination and metastasis. Individual aspects of this process can be controlled by many cytokines and growth factors. However, coordinated regulation of invasive growth as a whole is specifically accomplished by Hepatocyte Growth Factor, a soluble factor which acts through the tyrosine kinase receptor Met. Here we discuss the different biological facets of invasive growth and analyze the intracellular signals which lead to its execution.

Animals↗