A group of sixteen arylpiperazines had been previously synthesized and evaluated for atypical antipsychotic activity. Here we examined these compounds for their neuroprotective capacity. The affinity and agonist/antagonist action of the arylpiperazines at dopamine hD(2S) receptors were determined in vitro on membranes from stably transfected CHO-hD(2S) cell line. The assays ...

Aripiprazole is the only atypical antipsychotic drug known to cause the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in PC12 cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this phosphorylation in aripiprazole-treated PC12 cells have not yet been clarified. Here, using PC12 cells, we show that these cells incubated for 24 h with aripiprazole ...

Context:The thyroid contains two types of cells, the thyroid follicular cells and the calcitonin-producing cells. The site of origin of the thyroid follicular cells is the median thyroid anlage, an endothelial diverticulum in the midline of the ventral pharynx between the first and the second pharyngeal pouches. The ultimobranchial bodies ...

Background: Novel molecularly targeted drugs are undergoing preclinical and clinical testing to assess their efficacy against refractory thyroid carcinomas. The multikinase inhibitor Sunitinib has been shown to inhibit the kinase activity of the RET oncogene and reduce proliferation in differentiated thyroid cancer cells harboring the RET/PTC rearrangement. In this study, ...

Although differences in size of the right and left thyroid lobes are well defined, differences in morphology, follicles structure, cAMP production, thyrotropin receptor, and protein involved in cell signalling have not previously been reported. This study provides morpho-functional data of right and left thyroid lobes by biochemical, immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting and ...

Ghrelin is a 28-amino-acid peptide that stimulates pituitary growth-hormone secretion and modulates food-intake and energy metabolism in mammals. It is mainly secreted by the stomach, but it is also expressed in many other tissues such as cartilage or the thyroid gland. In the present study we have analyzed by RT-PCR ...

Since all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) has shown promising results in differentiation therapy, the present study was designed to investigate the effects of ATRA on thyroid carcinoma and to evaluate the effectiveness of ATRA in redifferentiation induction of thyroid carcinoma. Therefore, we investigated cell growth rate, morphological and nuclear: cytoplasmic ratio, ...

Sunitinib, a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is frequently incorporated into the management of papillary thyroid carcinoma refractory to standard therapies. Although clinical trials are in progress, the mechanism of action in papillary thyroid carcinomas is not clear, especially regarding the effect on BRAF mutation. We investigated the effect of sunitinib ...

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation that have crucial roles in several types of tumors, including papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). miR-146b-5p is overexpressed in PTCs and is regarded as a relevant diagnostic marker for this type of cancer. A computational search revealed that miR-146b-5p putatively ...

Experimental and clinical observations suggest that thyroid hormone (L-thyroxine, T4, and 3, 5, 3'-triiodo-L-thyronine, T3) can support cancer cell proliferation. T3 and T4 promote both tumor cell division and angiogenesis by activating mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) via binding to a hormone receptor on the αvβ3 integrin, over-expressed on many cancer ...

MicroRNA (miRNA or miR) are an important class of regulators that participate in such biological functions as development, cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of miRNA in cell proliferation using a unique cell system, namely thyroid cells that require thyrotropin for ...

Ex situ bioengineering is one of the most promising perspectives in the field of regenerative medicine allowing for organ reconstruction outside the living body; i.e. on the laboratory bench. A number of hollow viscera of the cardiovascular, respiratory, genitourinary, and digestive systems have been successfully bioengineered ex situ, exploiting biocompatible ...

In vertebrates the portion of the thyroid gland synthesizing the thyroid hormones develops from a small group of endodermal cells in the foregut. The nature of the signals that lead to the biochemical and morphogenetic events responsible for the organization of these cells into the adult thyroid gland has only ...

Thyroid carcinogenesis is accompanied by loss of thyroid-specific functions and refractory to radioiodine and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression therapy. Redifferentiating agents have been shown to inhibit tumor growth and improve the response to conventional therapy. Polyphenol phytochemicals (PPs) in fruits and vegetables have been reported to inhibit cancer initiation, ...

H(2)O(2) generation by dual oxidase (DUOX) at the apex of thyroid cells is the limiting factor in the oxidation of iodide and the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Its characteristics have been investigated using different in vitro models, from the most physiological thyroid slices to the particulate fraction isolated from transfected ...

The incidence of thyroid cancer is up to 3 folds higher in women than in men, suggesting that estrogenic effects may be involved in the pathogenesis of this malignancy. Here, we explore whether or not human thyroid cancer cell growth can be curbed by a novel isoflavone derivative generated in ...

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) usually has a high iodine uptake. However, dedifferentiation of DTC with decreased or no radioiodine ((131)I) uptake is observed in clinical practice, with poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of (131)I radiation on radioiodine uptake (RAIU) and the expression of ...

Purpose: The objective of our study was to make morphological and functional analysis of thyroid C cells in rats chronically exposed to cadmium (Cd). Methods: The study was carried out on female albino Wistar rats (n=22, age=35-37 days, body mass 120-140 g), divided in control (n=11) and experimental group (n=11). ...

Tumor cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are more prone to apoptosis when cultured ex vivo, because they lack prosurvival signals furnished in vivo via B-cell receptor (BCR)-dependent and -independent pathways. This study compared the susceptibility of unmutated (UM) and mutated (M) CLL B cells to spontaneous apoptosis and prosurvival ...

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has a high prevalence in western countries and remains incurable to date. Here, we provide evidence that the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib induces apoptosis in primary CLL cells. This strong pro-apoptotic effect is not restricted to any subgroup of patients, based on Binet stage and the expression ...

Previously, three distinct populations of putative primordial germ cells (PGCs), namely gonocytes, intermediate cells and pre-spermatogonia, have been described in the human foetal testis. According to our knowledge, these PGCs have not been studied in any other species. The aim of our study was to identify similar PGC populations in ...

Combined phenotypes of cells with membrane and intracellular expression of apoptosis and proliferation regulation markers (p53, bcl-2, CD95, CD95L, Ki-67) were studied by flow cytometry of cell suspension from thyroid tissue specimens from patients with autoimmune diseases, adenoma, and thyroid cancer. The incidence of cell groups with phenotypes p53/Ki-67, p53/CD95, ...

FOXO proteins are Akt-regulated transcription factors involved in the control of cell cycle, DNA repair, stress defense, apoptosis, and tumor suppression. We reported that plasmid-based overexpression of constitutively active FOXO3 in cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) reduced their survival, suggesting that increasing FOXO3 activity in hematologic malignancies may represent ...

Thyroid hormone (TH) is important for normal reproductive function. Our previous studies indicate that FSH increases preantral follicle growth in vitro, a response markedly enhanced by triiodothyronine (T3). However, the nature of this hormonal interaction is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine if and how T3 ...

A cell surface receptor for thyroid hormone that activates extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 has been identified on integrin αvβ3. We have examined the actions of thyroid hormone initiated at the integrin on human NCI-H522 non-small cell lung carcinoma and NCI-H510A small cell lung cancer cells. At a physiologic total ...

Undifferentiated (anaplastic) thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most aggressive human malignancies and no effective therapy is currently available. We show here that PPARγ levels are elevated in cells derived from ATC. Depletion of PPARγ in HTh74 ATC cells resulted in decreased cell growth, cell cycle arrest and a ...

Testicular germ cell tumors are the most frequent malignant tumors in young Caucasian males, with increasing incidence. The actual model of tumorigenesis is based on the theory that a block in maturation of fetal germ cells lead to formation of the intratubular germ cell neoplasia unclassified. Early fetal germ cells ...

Nucleoside analogs (NAs) represent an important class of anticancer agents that induce cell death after conversion to triphosphate derivatives. One of their most important mechanisms of action is the activation of p53, leading to apoptosis through the intrinsic pathway. Classically, the activation of p53 also induces p21 accumulation, which leads ...

Early germ-like cells (GLCs) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have presented new opportunities to study germ cell differentiation in vitro. However, differentiation conditions that facilitate the formation of haploid cells from the derived GLCs have eluded the field. The inability to propagate GLCs in culture is a further ...

Germ cell development is controlled by unique gene expression programs and involves epigenetic reprogramming of histone modifications and DNA methylation. The central event is meiosis, during which homologous chromosomes pair and recombine, processes that involve histone alterations. At unpaired regions, chromatin is repressed by meiotic silencing. After meiosis, male germ ...

The promoter sequence of sperm-expressed gene, PzIPT isolated from the S(vn) (sperm associated with the vegetative nucleus) of Plumbago zeylanica, was fused to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter sequence and transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana to better visualize the live behavior of angiosperm sperm cells. Angiosperm sperm cells are not ...

Mouse embryos lacking Lhx1 (Lim1) activity display defective gastrulation and are deficient of primordial germ cells (PGCs) (Tsang et al. [2001] International Journal of Developmental Biology 45:549-555). To dissect the specific role of Lhx1 in germ cell development, we studied embryos with conditional inactivation of Lhx1 activity in epiblast derivatives, ...

The maintenance of genomic integrity is crucial to embryonic stem cells (ESC) considering the potential for propagating undesirable mutations to the resulting somatic and germ cell lineages. Indeed, mouse ESC (mESC) exhibit a significantly lower mutation frequency compared to differentiated cells. This could be due to more effective elimination of ...

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) silence transposable elements in animal germ cells. In Drosophila ovaries, piRNAs are produced by two distinct pathways: the "ping-pong" amplification cycle that operates in germ cells and a ping-pong-independent pathway termed the primary pathway that mainly operates in somatic cells. AGO3, one of three PIWI proteins in ...

Primordial germ cell (PGC) development in Xenopus embryos relies on localised maternal determinants. We report on the identification and functional characterisation of such one novel activity, a germ plasm associated mRNA encoding for the Xenopus version of a kinesin termed KIF13B. Modulations of xKIF13B function result in germ cell mismigration ...

Over the first 4 days of their life, primordial germ cells invade the endoderm, migrate into and through the developing hindgut, and traverse to the genital ridge where they cluster and ultimately inhabit the nascent gonad. Specific signal-receptor combinations between primordial germ cells and their immediate environment establish successful migration ...

In many species, primordial germ cells (PGCs) migrate from the position where they are specified to the site where the gonad develops, where they differentiate into sperm and egg. Germ cells thus serve as an excellent model for studying cell migration in the context of the live organism. In recent ...

Germ cells and somatic cells have the identical genome. However, unlike the mortal fate of somatic cells, germ cells have the unique ability to differentiate into gametes that retain totipotency and produce an entire organism upon fertilization. The processes by which germ cells differentiate into gametes, and those by which ...

Molecular mechanisms underlying the commitment of cells to the germ cell lineage during mammalian embryogenesis remain poorly understood due to the limited availability of cellular materials to conduct in vitro analyses. Although primordial germ cells (PGCs)-precursors to germ cells-have been generated from embryonic stem cells (ESCs)-pluripotent stem cells derived from ...

A previous study suggested that mesendoderm (ME) cell arrest occurred at the 64-cell stage and a ring of eight presumptive naupliar mesoderm cells or crown cells surrounded the blastopore in the Kuruma shrimp Penaeus (Marsupenaeus) japonicus. Since this varied from the pattern observed in other penaeoidean shrimp, cleavage and gastrulation ...

Apoptosis and the subsequent removal of dying cells are crucial processes for tissue development and maintenance. Although we are beginning to understand the signaling pathways that control the phagocytic clearance of apoptotic cells, the physiological relevance of these pathways is lacking. During spermatogenesis, over half of the developing germ cells ...

Background: B-cell chronic lymphocitic leukemia (B-CLL) still remains as an uncurable disease. Even the newest antineoplastic agents have demonstrated limitations in their efficacy. For this reason, further research of new compounds must be done. New pharmacological properties can be obtained from a great diversity botanical species. Among these products, Magnolia ...

The immunohistochemical (IHC) localization of oestrogen receptor alpha (ERα) was studied in the developing left ovary of 14.5-day-old chick embryos. The study was focused in particular on distinguishing in cortex and medulla the different cell categories that proved positive to the reaction, in order to gain further understanding of gonadal ...

Vitamin A (retinol) is required for maintenance of adult mammalian spermatogenesis. In adult rodents, vitamin A withdrawal is followed by a loss of differentiated germ cells within the seminiferous epithelium and disrupted spermatogenesis that can be restored by vitamin A replacement. However, whether vitamin A plays a role in the ...

The initial segment of the caput epididymidis, the most proximal part of the rat epididymis, has specific functional characteristics. In the present study, the behavior of the epididymal epithelium from this region was evaluated after the exposure to a massive number of immature germ cells in the luminal fluid. The ...

Germ cell-deficient fish usually develop as phenotypic males. Thus, the presence of germ cells is generally considered to be essential for female gonadal differentiation or the maintenance of ovarian structure. However, little is known of the role of germ cells in the determination of the sexual fate of gonadal somatic ...

Apoptosis and the subsequent clearance of dying cells occurs throughout development and adult life in many tissues. Failure to promptly clear apoptotic cells has been linked to many diseases. ELMO1 is an evolutionarily conserved cytoplasmic engulfment protein that functions downstream of the phosphatidylserine receptor BAI1, and, along with DOCK1 and ...

Germ cells serve as intriguing examples of differentiated cells that retain the capacity to generate all cell types of an organism. Here we used functional genomic approaches in planarians to identify genes required for proper germ cell development. We conducted microarray analyses and in situ hybridization to discover and validate ...

Sex determination of mammalian germ cells occurs during fetal development and depends on signals from gonadal somatic cells. Previous studies have established that retinoic acid (RA) triggers ovarian germ cells to enter meiosis and thereby commit to oogenesis, whereas in the developing testis, the enzyme CYP26B1 degrades RA and germ ...

This study was performed to produce transgenic pigs expressing the human complement regulatory protein CD59 (hCD59) using the nuclear transfer (NT) of embryonic germ (EG) cells, which are undifferentiated stem cells derived from primordial germ cells. Because EG cells can be cultured indefinitely in an undifferentiated state, they may provide ...