This article evaluates patient-related and procedure-related risk factors for ERCP-related adverse events, and discusses strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and management of these events. Tarun Rustagi and Priya A. Jamidar Post–endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis (PEP) is the most common complication High Content Screening of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and not uncommonly is the reason behind ERCP-related lawsuits. Patients at high risk for PEP include young women with abdominal pain, normal liver tests, and unremarkable imaging. Procedure-related factors include traumatic and persistent cannulation attempts, multiple injections of the pancreatic duct, pancreatic

sphincterotomy, and, possibly, use of precut sphincterotomy. NLG919 order Aggressive hydration, use of rectal indomethacin, and prophylactic pancreatic stenting can diminish the risk (and likely severity) of PEP. Though hugely beneficial, these measures do not supersede careful patient selection and technique. Nayantara Coelho Prabhu and Louis M.

Wong Kee Song Videos demonstrating endoscopic hemostasis accompany this article Acute gastrointestinal bleeding is a common cause for hospitalization. Endoscopic hemostasis plays a central role in the management of lesions with active bleeding or high-risk stigmata for rebleeding. The efficacy and safety of endoscopic hemostasis rely on the identification of lesions suitable for endoscopic therapy, selection of the appropriate hemostatic devices, attention to technique, and prompt recognition and management of procedure-related adverse events. In this article, practical applications of hemostatic devices and pitfalls related to endoscopic hemostasis are discussed. John J. Vargo II Defining the risk of procedural sedation for gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures remains a vexing challenge. The definitions as to what constitutes a cardiopulmonary unplanned event are beginning to take focus but the existing literature is an amalgam of various definitions and subjective outcomes,

providing a challenge to patient, practitioner, and researcher. Gastrointestinal endoscopy when undertaken by trained personnel after the appropriate Phosphoglycerate kinase preprocedural evaluation and in the right setting is a safe experience. However, significant challenges exist in further quantifying the sedation risks to patients, optimizing physiologic monitoring, and sublimating the pharmacoeconomic and regulatory embroglios that limit the scope of practice and the quality of services delivered to patients. Nikhil A. Kumta, Christine Boumitri, and Michel Kahaleh Increasingly invasive therapeutic endoscopic and laparoscopic procedures have resulted in endoscopists more frequently encountering complications including perforations, fistulas, and anastomotic leakages, for which nonsurgical closure is desired. Devices and techniques are available and in development for endoscopic closure of gastrointestinal wall defects.

Similarly, a cyclonic gyre exists at the entrance of the Thermaikos Gulf, transporting water inwards along the eastern coastline and outwards along the western coast of this gulf (Zervakis et al., 2005 and Olson et al., 2007).

The current work presents collected hydrographic data and examines the surface distribution of water parameters (temperature, salinity, density and geopotential anomaly) during the summer periods of 1998–2001 with the aim of studying meteorological influences on the surface water patterns of the North Aegean Sea. In this work, special emphasis was placed on the BSW plume expansion, the BSW-LIW frontal characteristics and the variability of permanent and transient sub-basin gyre features. The North Aegean Sea was visited www.selleckchem.com/products/BAY-73-4506.html during the summer PD0332991 ic50 periods in 1998–2001, on board the fishing trawler ‘Evagelistria’, for the conducting of experimental fishery research within the framework of the MEDITS (Mediterranean International Trawling Survey) programme. The area covered represents the whole North Aegean Sea and the northern part of the Central Aegean Sea, between 38–41°N and 22.5–26.3°E. Table 1 presents the starting and ending dates of each MEDITS summer cruise, together with the number of stations sampled per year. Standard hydrographic measurements were undertaken using a Seabird Electronics SBE 19 plus CTD. Sensor accuracy was 0.01°C for temperature

and 0.01 mS cm−1 for conductivity. A total of 360 CTD casts were obtained during summers 1998–2001. The 1998 and 1999 cruises commenced from the Thracian Sea coastline (northern Aegean Sea border), Progesterone followed

a meridian transect through Lemnos, Lesvos and Chios Islands, and then moved north-westwards to the Sporades Islands, where the cruise ended. The 2000 and 2001 cruises followed a similar track, but extended to the northern Evoikos, Thermaikos and Strymonikos Gulfs (Figure 2). The 2000 and 2001 castings were limited to the first 200 m of the water column depth, to monitor surface dynamics and associate the collected data with the distribution of the ichthyofauna, which was sampled concurrently using a bongo net (0–50 m depth). The 1999 survey profiles were limited to 50 m depth. The raw data were filtered and processed according to the SBE software manual to derive water temperature and salinity as a 1-dbar bin average, together with potential temperature and density (σt-values). Standard routines (SeaMat library, available at http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov) were used to produce geopotential anomaly values (dynamic height in m multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity, expressed in J kg−1 or m2 s−2) at 5 dbars relative to 40 (ΔФ5/40) and 100 dbars (ΔФ5/100). Based on these values, geostrophic velocity vectors were then produced. Although a deeper reference level may be desirable (e.g.

Referring to the idea of the Roman ‘forum’ as an emblematic place for interactivity and exchange, PARAFORUM has seven main interactive sections, broadly subdivided under three main themes: information on SCI, dealing with challenges and SCI and society (Fig. 1). Two sections of

PARAFORUM aim to disseminate information in relation to SCI: the Library and the Research Corner. In the Library users can access material developed by different experts on SCI as a health condition and on its impact at the level the body functions, activities and participation. The Research Corner is the section of PARAFORUM dedicated to disseminate research learn more findings on SCI. In the Research of the week the PARAFORUM team identifies and presents an article every week in the format of a lay summary. In the Research with us users are invited by the PARAFORUM team to participate in online questionnaires, online polls, and research studies. Users of PARAFORUM can identify

challenges in living with SCI and co-create solutions through three main sections of the website: My Ideas, the Forum and My Diary. In My Ideas users can share and rate ideas on environmental and design features, tools, and devices that aid individuals with SCI in performing daily activities at home, at work and during leisure time. Challenges to be addressed in My Ideas can be published by users themselves or by the PARAFORUM team. The Forum is the section selleck products where users can interact in a question-and-answer format about aspects related to health and in two main areas targeted to aspects of primary relevance to

individuals with SCI and their families. The Forum is also characterized by the presence of a Doctor Online who 5-Fluoracil research buy can answer specific questions asked by users. My Diary is an online diary where individuals with SCI can self-track what matters to them in relation to their health, the activities they perform, and the environment. Users can select and rate aspects from a pool of items from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) [27]. Information logged in My Diary can be used to generate cross-sectional and longitudinal reports of the items self-tracked that show how they have developed. These reports can be saved, printed and can be used for discussion within networks of peers, families, and health professionals. Two main sections of PARAFORUM specifically focus on the sharing of stories and personal experiences, namely Life & Culture and Get Connected. Life & Culture is the blog of PARAFORUM. It operationalizes interactivity from a humanities perspective and users are invited to write articles in the context of SCI, disability, and society. They publish their own texts about literature, arts, traveling, and personal stories, and they can comment on what other users publish.

However, this behavior is less evident for films plasticized with glycerol. At the same aw, the equilibrium moisture content is higher for amaranth flour films in the presence of glycerol ( Fig. 5a), compared with films containing sorbitol ( Fig. 5b). Therefore, the glycerol-plasticized flour films are able to retain more water at equilibrium, compared with the sorbitol-plasticized samples. In the other words, films prepared

with glycerol are more hygroscopic than films prepared with sorbitol, even at high temperatures. This observation confirms the higher affinity of glycerol for water, which generates a more pronounced plasticizing effect. Chaudhary, Adhikari, and Kasapi (2011) listed several reasons for this behavior, such as the lower molecular weight of glycerol (92.09 g mol−1) compared with sorbitol OTX015 (182 g mol−1) and the better interaction 5-Fluoracil cost of sorbitol with starch macromolecules. Furthermore, glycerol is highly hydrophilic and a strong humectant; at 25 °C and 50% RH, its hygroscopicity is 25 g H2O/100 g, while the hygroscopicity of sorbitol is 1 g H2O/100 g ( Takahashi, Yamada, & Machida, 1984). Because sorbitol crystallizes at room temperature

and high RH, the edible films plasticized with this compound are less hygroscopic than those plasticized with glycerol ( Talja, Helén, Roos, & Jouppila, 2007). Table 3 shows that glycerol increases the value of the monolayer water content (mo) and the value of constant C, related to the water–substrate interaction energy, at all the studied temperatures. This result suggests that the hydrophilic groups of the starch and protein present in the amaranth flour are

less available for interaction with water molecules Flucloronide in the presence of sorbitol; and that stronger water association might occur in the presence of glycerol. In other words, sorbitol is more compatible with the polymers existing in the flour, thereby strongly interacting with these macromolecules. Moreover, the mo values found in this study agree with values reported for soy protein isolate/poly(vinyl alcohol)/glycerol blend, methylcellulose/glycerol, cassava starch/sorbitol, and pea protein/sorbitol films ( Kowalczyk & Baraniak, 2011; Mali, Sakanaka, Yamashita, & Grossmann, 2005; Müller, Yamashita, & Borges-Laurindo, 2008; Su et al., 2010; Vargas, Albors, Chiralt, & González-Martínez, 2011). The k values obtained for the films plasticized with glycerol or sorbitol are <1. These values do not appear to be affected by the temperature or plasticizer type. The desirability function (G) was formulated from the models calculated for the tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (E), and solubility (S) of the flour films plasticized with glycerol (equations (6), (7) and (12)) and sorbitol (equations (9), (10) and (13)).

Endogenous PolyP levels were measured as described (Ruiz et al., 2001). Briefly, 24-h-old eggs were homogenized in distilled water at 4 °C. For long-chain PolyP, egg homogenate was added to lysis buffer (6 M Guanidine Thiocyanate, 50 mM Tris–HCl pH 7.0) and powdered glass was used to bind Neratinib PolyP. After DNase and RNase treatment, bound PolyP was eluted at 95 °C in 50 mM Tris–HCl pH 8.0. For short chain PolyP, egg homogenate was

added to 0.5 N HClO4 followed by neutralization using KOH and KHCO3. Both long chain and short chain PolyP levels were determined as the amount of Pi released upon treatment with an excess of recombinant exopolyphosphatase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (scPPX). Aliquots of short chain or long chain polyP were incubated for 15 min at 37 °C in reaction medium (60 mM Tris–HCl pH 7.5, 6 mM MgCl2) containing purified scPPX and the malachite green assay was used for Pi quantification

( Gomes et al., 2010). Following, the ability of agAP to hydrolyze endogenous PolyP was evaluated by addition of 1.5 μg of agAP in a reaction medium (10 mM DTT, 10 mM EDTA, 0.1 M sodium acetate buffer pH 4.0) containing either short chain or long chain PolyP obtained from A. gemmatalis eggs. Incubation was held for 60 min at 37 °C. After that, PolyP levels were determined by the scPPX assay. Freshly-laid eggs were collected and left to develop for different times before homogenization in 20 mM Hepes pH 7.5 supplemented with P8340 protease inhibitor cocktail. After centrifugation (10,000g, 10 min, 4 °C), supernatants were submitted to 12.5% SDS–PAGE Venetoclax and stained this website with Coomassie blue. Egg homogenates were prepared using 24- and 48-h-old egg extracts in 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5.0 followed by two washing steps (10,000g, 10 min, 4 °C). Protease assays were performed at room temperature in a reaction medium (0.2 M NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 2.5 mM DTT, sodium acetate buffer 50 mM pH

5.0) containing 5 μM z-Phe-Arg-AMC. Steady-state velocities were obtained by linear regression of the hydrolysis curve ( Lima et al., 2001) as followed in an Fmax fluorescence microplate reader (molecular Devices) using 380/440 nm as excitation/emission wavelengths for 30 min. When expressed, the influence of PolyP was determined by the addition of PolyP-3, -25 or -75 into the reaction medium. As yolk granule hydrolases are strongly associated with yolk mobilization, we wondered whether yolk mobilization was correlated with hydrolase activity during Anticarsia development. From homogenates prepared from eggs at different times after oviposition, we observed a smooth mobilization of major storage proteins around 80, 30, and 10 kDa ( Fig. 1A). The first evidences of yolk mobilization were observed 20–40 h after oviposition – the same period where an increase of acid phosphatase activity was also detected in egg extracts ( Fig.

Likewise, there is enough evidence on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in pathophysiological features of diabetes, including insulin deficiency

and insulin resistance. Pancreatic beta cell failure has been reported to be associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and can be caused by exposure to pesticides (Jamshidi et al., 2009 and Pournourmohammadi et al., 2007). On the other hand, exposure to pesticides inhibiting complex I and III mitochondrial respiratory chain can lead to a diminished oxygen consumption and cellular energy supply which in turn can result in reduced insulin signaling cascade. In this way, organochlorines, atrazine, and some dioxin-like pesticides have been shown to decrease mitochondrial capacity in beta oxidation of fatty acids resulting in accumulation of intracellular fat, a situation considered to develop obesity and insulin resistance (Lee, 2011 and Lim et al., 2009). Increased production of Selleckchem AZD2281 ROS and/or decreased capacity of antioxidant Metformin manufacturer defense can disrupt oxidative balance and result in damaging all components of the cell, including lipids, proteins, and DNA. Further, oxidative stress can disrupt various parts of cellular signaling because ROS are considered as one of the main messengers in redox signaling. However, the role of oxidative stress has been uncovered

in induction and development of different kinds of human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, neurodegeneration, atherosclerosis, schizophrenia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and renal and respiratory disorders (Ahmad et al., 2010, Ciobica et al., 2011, Fendri et al., 2006, Lushchak and Gospodaryov, 2012 and Nathan et al., 2011). On the other hand, there is a huge body of literature on induction of oxidative stress by pesticides, and it has been implicated in development of health problems mediated by exposure to pesticides (Grosicka-Maciag, 2011, Olgun

and Misra, 2006, Slaninova et al., 2009 and Soltaninejad and Abdollahi, 2009). It has been revealed that pesticides can disturb oxidative homeostasis through direct or indirect pathways, including mitochondrial or extramitochondrial production of free radicals, thiol Protein tyrosine phosphatase oxidation, and depletion of cellular antioxidant reservoirs (Abdollahi et al., 2004b, Abdollahi et al., 2004c, Braconi et al., 2010 and Mostafalou et al., 2012a). Considering the oxidative stress as a powerful promoter of other cellular pathways involved in disease process and as a unique attendant in inflammatory response, it has been put in the spotlight of the most mechanistic studies regarding the association of pesticide’s exposure with chronic disorders. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the onset and progression of pesticide induced Parkinson disease (Singh et al., 2007). In this regard, organochlorine pesticides have been reported to cause degeneration of dopaminergic neurons by an oxidative dependent pathway in Parkinson model (Kanthasamy et al., 2002 and Sharma et al., 2010).

During the first 12 h period, the animals displayed blood in the abdominal cavity, signs of lung hemorrhage (hemorrhagic spots), spleen and kidney enlargement and congestion (Fig. 1). The kidneys also seemed to have darkened slightly and had black spots on their surface (Fig. 1). The bladder was often edematous and enlarged. The brain and gastrointestinal system appeared to be macroscopically normal (not shown). To evaluate the acute systemic physiopathological effects of the venom, several biochemical and hematological markers of tissue see more lesions were measured (Table 1). Subcutaneous injection of L. obliqua venom caused a marked increase in serum AST, peaking between 12 and

48 h. Although less markedly than AST, serum ALT also increased rapidly after the first 2 h, reaching a maximum at 12 h. Serum levels of γ-GT increased over the first 6 h and remained elevated until 48 h. In comparison to the controls, high levels of plasma free hemoglobin, LDH and bilirubin were detected at 6 and 12 h, indicating that intravascular hemolysis had occurred. Markers of renal damage, such as creatinine, BUN and uric acid, also displayed important

alterations. Serum creatinine increased mainly between 6 and 96 h, reaching maximal values at 48 h, whereas BUN increased 12, 24 and 48 h after venom injection, returning to normal levels thereafter. The animals had hyperuricemia throughout the time of envenomation, with the levels of uric acid reaching 8 times the control values (p < 0.001) ( Table 1). Hematological parameters were evaluated at 6, 12 and 48 h post-envenomation. Buparlisib in vitro The obtained results are summarized in Table 2. LOBE injection caused a statistically significant Orotidine 5′-phosphate decarboxylase decrease in red blood cell count and hemoglobin at 12 and 48 h, whereas the platelet count decreased slightly at 12 h and returned to normal after 48 h. Hematocrit values were lower when compared

to the controls at all of the time points evaluated. The reticulocyte number (immature red cells) increased in the blood stream as a result of hemolysis and anemia. The hematimetric indices, MCV and MCH, also increased at 48 h, whereas MCHC and total protein remained unchanged. Envenomed rats displayed leukocytosis between 6 and 12 h, mainly due to high neutrophil (6–48 h) and lymphocyte (6–12 h) counts. Compared to control values, a 15-fold increase was observed only in neutrophil numbers at 6 h. A less expressive increase in monocytes and eosinophil counts was also observed at the same time. Under light microscopy, the blood smears revealed fragmented erythrocytes, spherocytes and significant anisocytosis. The leukocytes appeared to have normal morphology (data not shown). Evidence of tissue damage was observed mainly between 6 and 48 h of envenomation. Skin microscopy, at the site of LOBE injection, showed hemorrhagic lesions, muscle necrosis and focal inflammatory infiltration that was associated with edema of varying intensities (Fig. 2A and B).

[14]. Lipolysis was measured by the rate of glycerol released from adipocytes. To isolate adipocytes, the fat pads of epididymus were digested Atezolizumab with collagenase at 37 °C in a shaking water bath for 45 min. Next, cells were filtered through nylon mesh and washed three times with a HEPES buffer (pH 7.4) containing: 137 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 4.2 mM NaHCO3, 1.3 mM CaCl2, 0.5 mM MgCl2, 0.5 mM MgSO4, 0.5 mM KH2PO4, 20 mM HEPES and 1% BSA. After a period of incubation, an aliquot of the infranatant was removed for enzymatic determination of glycerol released into the medium. Glycerol levels were measured before and after isoproterenol (0.1 μmol/L) or isoproterenol

followed by insulin (12.5 ng/mL) incubation. At eighth week of treatment, fasting glucose was evaluated selleck chemicals llc in tail blood sample using an Accu-Check glucometer (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN). Glucose uptake was also measured in isolated adipocytes from epididymal fat tissue. The isolated adipocytes were incubated for 45 min at 37 °C in the presence or absence of insulin (50 ng/mL). The uptake of 2-deoxy-[3H]glucose (2DOG) was used to determine the insulin sensitivity in glucose uptake, as described by Green [7]. The assay was initiated by the addition of 2DOG (0.2 μCi/tube) for 3 min. Next, cells were separated

by centrifugation through silicone oil and cell-associated radioactivity was determined by scintillation counting. Nonspecific association of 2DOG was determined

by performing parallel incubations in the presence of 15 mmol/l phloretin, and this value was subtracted from glucose transport activity in each condition. Epididymal fat pads were homogenized in buffer Tris–HCl (pH 8.3) containing detergents. LPL activity was measured using a [9,10-3H]triolein containing substrate with lecithin [16] and 24 h fasted rat plasma as a source of apo CII. The reaction was stopped with a mixture of extraction Tenoxicam [1], and the released 3H-free fatty acids (FFAs) were quantified by liquid scintillation. The enzyme activity was expressed as nanomoles of FFA released per minute. Data were presented as mean ± SE. Differences between before and after were assessed by Student t test for paired observations. Differences among groups were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Newman–Keuls post hoc or two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc. Statistical analysis was performed using the GraphPad Prism Software (version 5.0). At the beginning of treatment, animals presented similar body weight (averaged of all animals = 322 ± 5 g, n = 40; Fig. 1A). After 14 weeks of oral treatment, animals of all groups had significantly increased body weight and the values obtained were not different among the groups (averaged of all animals = 391 ± 5 g, n = 40; Fig. 1A).

The injection targets in each experiment are shown in Table 1. All injections were made through glass micropipettes, and in each case a different pipette was used for each tracer. The animals made an uneventful

recovery from anaesthesia. After a 3-day survival period they were re-anaesthetised with pentobarbitone (300 mg i.p.) and perfused through the heart with a fixative that contained 4% freshly de-polymerised formaldehyde. The brain and lumbar spinal cord were dissected out and post-fixed for at least 4 h. The brain was cryoprotected in 30% sucrose overnight. The regions of the brainstem that contained the injection sites were cut into IOX1 mouse 100 μm thick coronal sections with a freezing microtome. Sections through the Flurogold check details injection were mounted in anti-fade medium and viewed with epi-fluorescent

illumination and an UV filter set. Sections through the CTb injection were reacted with goat anti-CTb (List Biological Laboratories, Campbell, CA, USA; diluted 1:50,000) by using an immunoperoxidase method as described previously (Todd et al., 2000). In all cases the spread of tracer from the injection sites was plotted onto drawings of the brainstem (Paxinos and Watson, 2005), and representative examples were photographed. The C7 segments from all experiments as well as the L4 segments from experiments 7 to 10 (see Table 1), were notched on the left side (ipsilateral to the injections), to allow subsequent orientation, and were cut into 60 μm transverse sections with a Vibratome. These were incubated free-floating at 4 °C for 3 days in a cocktail consisting of guinea-pig anti-Fluorogold (Protos Biotech Corp., New York, USA, 1:500), goat anti-CTb (1:5000) and rabbit anti-NK1r (Sigma-Aldrich, 1:10,000). They were then reacted with species-specific Parvulin secondary antibodies raised in donkey conjugated to either Alexa 488 (Invitrogen, Paisley, UK; 1:500), or to Rhodamine Red or Cy5 (Jackson Immunoresearch, West Grove, PA, USA; 1:100). The sections were mounted in

anti-fade medium and stored at − 20 °C. The NK1r immunostaining was used to define the borders of lamina I (Todd et al., 1998). Transverse sections from the C7 segments of all 10 experiments, and from the L4 segments of experiments 7–10 were used to determine the numbers of retrogradely labelled lamina I neurons on the right (contralateral) side that contained one or both tracers. Ten sections were randomly selected and scanned sequentially (to avoid fluorescent bleed-through) through their full thickness with a confocal microscope (Bio-Rad Radiance 2100; Bio-Rad, Hemel Hempstead; UK), using 20 × dry and 40× oil-immersion lenses. Confocal image stacks were analysed with Neurolucida for Confocal software (MicroBrightField Inc., Colchester, VT, USA). Cells were judged to be in lamina I if they lay within the dense plexus of NK1r-immunoreactivity that occupies this lamina (Todd et al., 1998).

The calculated molecular weights for the transit peptide and mature protein of rye isoamylase are 5.21 kD and 83.56 kD, respectively. The predicted pI for the mature isoamylase is 5.46. The aa sequences of mature isoamylases exhibited more than 83% homology Dasatinib among rye and other plant genomes, but especially more than 95% homology between rye and Ae. tauschii, wheat and barley. However, sequence homologies for the transit peptides of isoamylases between rye and rice or maize are 31.75% or 27.59%, respectively, significantly less than similar comparisons for the mature proteins (83.31% or 87.18%, respectively)

( Table 3). Our results indicate that the structural conservation of the transit peptides for this enzyme is generally lower than that of the mature proteins. Since the transit peptides are the N-terminal aa presequences that direct proteins to an organelle (e.g., chloroplast, mitochondria) and are required for their

transport across membranes from their synthesis sites in the cytoplasm [29], significant diversities in transit peptides of isoamylase between rye and rice or maize may be related to their different cellular structures DNA Damage inhibitor and metabolic functions, although the mature isoamylases share similar catalytic domains and elements. We used quantitative real-time PCR to analyze the expression of the rye isoamylase gene in various tissues Selleck Staurosporine and at different seed developmental stages. Our results showed that the isoamylase gene

is expressed in all rye tissues tested in this study, with seeds having significantly higher levels of isoamylase transcript than leaves, stems and roots (Fig. 3-A). A recent study showed that the ISA1 transcript level is relatively abundant in maize tissues where starch is synthesized [32]. As the leaf and other green tissues are temporary storage places for starch accumulation during photosynthesis, the expression of the isoamylase gene in rye leaves and stems demonstrated that amylase may have an important role for either starch synthesis or starch degradation. Isoamylase is termed as the debranching enzyme, essential for formation of crystalline amylopectin [6]. We analyzed the expression profiles of the rye isoamylase gene during endosperm development and found that its expression in rye endosperm reached a maximum level at the mid-development stage (15 DPA) and then dropped through 24 and 33 DPA (Fig. 3-B). Consistent with previous reports on wheat and maize [23] and [32], our results confirmed that the isoforms of isoamylase-type DBE genes are maximally expressed during endosperm development and then gradually decline during grain maturation. Studies on barley mutants and transgenic rice suggested that isoamylases play a crucial role in synthesis of phytoglycogen and starch granule structure and initiation [14] and [19].