In the past several years, the αv integrin subfamily has been repeatedly found to be involved in tumor progression and angiogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the integrin αv subfamily in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), and to correlate the expression rate with tumor ...

Podocytes in the glomerular filtration barrier regulate the passage of plasma proteins into urine. Capillary pressure and ultrafiltration impact the structure and function of podocytes. The mechanism of podocyte injury by fluid flow shear stress (FFSS) from hyperfiltration in chronic kidney disease (CKD) is not completely understood. Recently, we demonstrated ...

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) have been implicated in chronic inflammatory conditions and carcinogenesis. However, little is known about the biological significance of iNOS and COX-2 in cholangiocarcinoma or its precursors or metastatic lesions. We examined iNOS and COX-2 immunohisotochemical expression in 40 biliary intraepithelial neoplasias, 134 ...

Morphea is a disease included in the group of scleroderma type autoimmune diseases. Interleukin (IL)-17A may play a role at every stage of its pathogenesis. The study aimed at evaluation of IL-17A and IL-23 (as the main cytokine which is supposed to stimulate and maintain synthesis of IL-17) in pathogenesis ...

Background:  Ustekinumab is a fully human anti-p40 mAb which neutralizes IL-12 and IL-23, thereby interfering with Th1/Th17 pathways and keratinocyte activation, and is highly effective in psoriasis. During ustekinumab treatment, some of our patients noticed reduced koebnerisation of non-involved skin and less new plaque formation. Objectives:  To determine whether ustekinumab ...

PURPOSE: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a devastating disease. Recent studies suggest that the stem cell properties of GBM contribute to the development of therapy resistance. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: The expression of Survivin and Ran was evaluated by immunohistochemistry with GBM tissues, and qRT-PCR and immunocytochemistry with patient-derived GBM sphere cultures. With ...

Environmental factors such as outside temperature at the time of death are very important for forensic diagnoses and police investigations. In particular, death in a cold environment is associated with factors of forensic interest, including hypothermia, drowning in cold water, or postmortem body movement by a suspect. Hypothermia raises a ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of NEDD9 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Expressional levels of NEDD9 mRNA and protein in paired pancreatic cancer lesions and adjacent noncancerous tissues were examined by quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting. NEDD9 expression was analyzed by ...

PURPOSE: Activation or dysregulation of the Sonic hedgehog (Shh) and Wnt signaling pathways is suggested to lead to the development of many human malignancies. In this study, we investigated Shh and Wnt signaling protein expression in eyelid sebaceous gland carcinoma, and analyzed their correlation with clinical characteristics of the tumor. ...

The SWI/SNF-like chromatin remodeler ATRX has recently garnered renewed attention. ATRX mutations were first identified in patients bearing the syndrome after which it is named, alpha thalassemia/mental retardation, X-linked. While ATRX has long been implicated in transcriptional regulation through multiple mechanisms, recent studies have identified a role for ATRX in ...

Abstract Brainstem gliomas are usually associated with serious dysfunction and poor prognosis especially for diffuse intrinsic brainstem gliomas, however the reasons are still unclear. Some clinical studies have suggested that the invasive ability may be different among brainstem gliomas, and the dysfunction of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin appears to ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The CD133 antigen is a marker of radio- and chemo-resistant stem cell populations in glioblastoma (GBM). The O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) enzyme is related with temozolomide (TMZ) resistance. Our propose is to analyze the prognostic significance of the CD133 antigen and promoter methylation and protein expression of MGMT ...

PROBLEM: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are innate immune receptors that mediate the pattern recognition of, and response toward, pathogens and host-derived danger signals. We reported that cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase (mPGES) mRNA were expressed in cases of endometriosis. The relationship between COX-2, mPGES-1, and TLR4 in endometriotic lesions ...

Aim: to determine if the NADPH oxidase isoform Nox4 contributes to increased H2O2 generation in PPHN pulmonary arteries (PA), and to identify downstream signaling targets of Nox4 that contribute to vascular remodeling and vasoconstiction. Results: PPHN was induced in lambs by antenatal ligation of the ductus arteriosus at 128 days ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Acute lung injury is characterised by disruption of lung epithelial and endothelial cells, leading to increased membrane permeability and loss of barrier function. Claudins are key components of tight junctions, which regulate para-cellular permeability and play an important role in alveolar epithelial barrier function and fluid clearance. ...

BACKGROUND: Downstream activation through receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) plays important roles in carcinogenesis. In this study, we assessed the clinical involvement of Axl, an RTK, and its ligand, Gas6, in surgically treated lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Axl and Gas6 mRNA and protein expression levels were quantified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain ...

In vitro follicle growth has emerged as a technology that can provide new information about folliculogenesis and serve as part of a suite of methods currently under development to assist women whose fertility is threatened by cancer treatments. Though it has been shown that in vitro-grown follicles secrete peptide and ...

The oral mucosa plays critical roles in protection, sensation, and secretion and can be classified into masticatory, lining, and specialized mucosa that are known to be functionally, histologically, and clinically distinct. Each type of oral mucosa is believed to develop through discrete molecular mechanisms, which remain unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ...

Mid-dermal elastolysis (MDE) is a rare disorder that is histopathologically characterized by selective loss of elastic fibres in the mid-dermis. Aetiopathogenesis of MDE is still obscure. We report for the first time on the expression of lysyl oxidase-like (LOXL) proteins in lesional and non-lesional skin of a patient with reticular ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Latent membrane protein (LMP) 1 and LMP2A encoded by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are associated with the development of malignancies, but their expression in extranodal NK/Tcell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL) and the relationship with clinical characteristics of this disease remain poorly understood. In the present study, we examined the ...

Mir-17-5p and mir-20a, members of the mir-17-92 family, down-regulate E2F1, which is over-expressed in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Moreover, let-7a down-regulates KRAS, which is aberrantly expressed in MDS. We evaluated the expression of the aforementioned microRNAs in CD34+ cells of 43 MDS patients using real-time PCR and their target proteins (E2F1, ...

Deregulation of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) compartment represents a hallmark of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Recently, in vivo screening for genes that are involved in the regulation of HSCs has led to the discovery of Musashi-2 (MSI2) as a key regulator of HSCs and as a suppressor of NUMB. ...

Exposure to atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) is a modifiable risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Ultrafine particles (UFP, diameter <0.1 μm), a subfraction of PM(2.5), promote vascular oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. Epidemiologic studies suggest that PM exposure promotes vascular calcification. Here, we assessed whether UFP exposure promotes vascular calcification ...

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) induced expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and p21 in renal mesangial cells (MCs) plays a major role in glomerulosclerosis and hypertrophy, key events in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. However, the involvement of histone acetyl transferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) that regulate epigenetic histone ...

Recently, cereblon (CRBN) expression was described to be essential for the activity of Thalidomide and Lenalidomide. We investigated if clinical efficacy of Thalidomide in multiple myeloma is associated with CRBN expression in myeloma cells. Patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma were included in the HOVON-65/GMMG-HD4 trial, in which post-intensification treatment ...

The role of liver kinase B1 (LKB1) as a tumor suppressor has emerged from the observation of increased risk of malignancy in gastrointestinal tract in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome patients harboring LKB1 gene mutations. LKB1 gene inactivation has recently been demonstrated in a subset of lung carcinoma and has been proven to ...

Psoriasis is characterized by a specific microRNA expression profile, distinct from that of healthy skin. MiR-31 is one of the most highly overexpressed microRNAs in psoriasis skin; however, its biological role in the disease has not been studied. In this study, we show that miR-31 is markedly overexpressed in psoriasis ...

The multiprotein exon junction complex (EJC) that is deposited upstream of spliced junctions orchestrates downstream events in the life of a metazoan mRNA, including its surveillance via the nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway. However, the mechanism by which the spliceosome mediates EJC formation is not well understood. We show that human ...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an EBV-associated cancer. We analysed Siah1 expression as well as LMP1 and HIF1α expression by immuno-histochemical staining in 74 NPC biopsy specimens and found that the expression of Siah1 was significantly correlated with advanced tumour status and stage. Moreover, Siah1-positive and HIF1α-positive cases had significantly worse ...

Vascular calcification, especially medial artery calcification, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus and end-stage kidney disease. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) accumulated in these patients may be associated with vascular calcification, although their actions are obscure. Since AGEs can induce oxidative stress, which leads ...

MicroRNAs play crucial roles in bone metabolism. In the present study, we found that miR-148a is dramatically upregulated during osteoclastic differentiation of circulating CD14+ peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) induced by macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL). Overexpression of miR-148a in CD14+ PBMCs ...

The enzyme DNASE1 plays an important role in the hydrolysis of double-stranded DNA and might be related to autoimmunity. Therefore, the authors hypothesized that patients with autoimmune thyroid disease show a reduced expression of the DNASE1 gene. DNASE1 mRNA was quantitatively analyzed in 20 patients (10 with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and ...

ABSTRACT:: The c-myc proto-oncogene is involved in various cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. Overexpression and deregulated expression of the gene have been previously linked to several lineage-unrelated, aggressive, and poorly differentiated tumors. The expression of c-myc has also been implicated in hematopoiesis and has been shown to ...

Although the prognosis of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients treated with imatinib is good, many fail to develop an optimal response or lose one. This heterogeneity could be attributed to the presence of human organic cation transporter-1 (hOCT1) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Here, we analyse the effect of 23 hOCT1 ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pulsed dye laser (PDL) is the most effective treatment for port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. However, regeneration and revascularization of photocoagulated blood vessels may result in poor therapeutic outcome. We have recently shown that rapamycin (RPM), an angiogenesis inhibitor, can reduce the regeneration and revascularization of photocoagulated ...

Interleukin (IL)-20, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, is a recently discovered member of the IL-10 family. This cytokine has been described in inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis and asthma. However, IL-20 expression in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients has not been yet described. The aim of this study was to evaluate IL-20 and ...

N-truncated and N-modified forms of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide are found in diffused and dense core plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain. Among them, the most abundant N-truncated peptide starts with pyroglutamyl at residue 3 (AβpE3). AβpE3 has increased aggregation potential and toxicity and its abundance has been reported to correlate ...

Abstract Background. Claudins, being part of the tight junction protein family, partially determine the integrity and paracellular permeability of the intestinal epithelium. The aim of this study was twofold. First, the authors set out to create an overview of claudin mRNA expression along the proximal-distal axis of the healthy human ...

We aimed to study intestinal immune activation status in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) by assessing intestinal human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class II expression and the mRNA expression levels of the pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators and pattern recognition receptors. HLA-D-related (HLA-DR) expression was assessed using immunohistochemical staining of frozen sections in ...

: To examine the relative gene expression levels of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2α and β isoforms and the pro-apoptotic Baxα and β isoforms in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and healthy controls (HC). : Peripheral blood was obtained from 36 patients diagnosed with CLL and 10 HC. CD19 B-lymphocytes were ...

Objective:  To explore the peripheral leucocytic messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) gene in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Methods:  Using TaqMan relative quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed leucocytic gene expression of GSK-3β in 48 AD patients and 49 healthy controls. Clinical data of AD patients ...

The haptoglobin is an acute phase protein that has been recently related with numerous events of mammalian reproduction. The objective of this study was to determine whether haptoglobin mRNA is expressed in the porcine oviduct and to analyse its expression during the different phases of the oestrus cycle. Porcine oviducts ...

Vulnerable plaques play an important role in the onset of sudden cardiac events and strokes. How to stabilize vulnerable plaques is still a challenge to medical science. Alprostadil is a biologically active substance with strong activity on vessel. Our study assessed the stabilizing effects of an alprostadil liposome microsphere preparation ...

Vascular calcification resembles bone formation and involves vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) transition to an osteoblast-like phenotype to express Runx2, a master osteoblast transcription factor. One possible mechanism by which Runx2 protein expression is induced is downregulation of inhibitory microRNAs (miR). Human coronary artery SMCs (CASMCs) treated with bone morphogenetic ...

EphA2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) that triggers keratinocyte differentiation upon activation and subsequent downregulation by ephrin-A1 ligand. The objective of this study was to determine whether the EphA2/ephrin-A1 signaling axis was altered in psoriasis, an inflammatory skin condition in which keratinocyte differentiation is abnormal. Microarray analysis of skin ...

Th1/Th17/Th2-related chemokines (CXCL10/CCL20/CCL2) and their receptors (CXCR3/CCR6/CCR2) have rarely been studied in acquired bone marrow failure syndromes (BMFs). We evaluated the concentrations of CXCL10, CCL20 and CCL2 in plasma and BM fluid from AA, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), and MDS patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Real-time quantitative polymerase chain ...

ABSTRACT Purpose: SATB1 protein, the altered levels of which are observed in tumour tissues, acts as a global regulator of gene expression. The aim of the study was to investigate the expression level of the SATB1 gene in gastric mucosa of dyspeptic patients in relation to the H. pylori infection, ...

Chronic non-healing wounds form a medical need which will expand as the population ages and the obesity epidemic grows. Whilst the complex mechanisms underlying wound repair are not fully understood, remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton plays a critical role. Elevated expression of the actin cytoskeletal protein Flightless I (Flii) is ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology. The term of immunoangiostasis has been addressed by various studies as potentially involved in the disease pathogenesis. The aim of the study was to investigate the expression of the master regulator of angiogenesis hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1a -- vascular endothelial ...

The FGF23 coreceptor αKlotho (αKL) is expressed as a membrane-bound protein (mKL) that forms heteromeric complexes with FGF receptors (FGFRs) to initiate intracellular signaling. It also circulates as an endoproteolytic cleavage product of mKL (cKL). Previously, a patient with increased plasma cKL as the result of a translocation [t(9;13)] in ...