Cytokinins and cytokinin nucleosides are purine derivatives with potential anticancer activity both in vitro and in vivo. N(6)-furfuryladenosine (kinetin riboside, KR) displays antiproliferative and apoptogenic activity against various human cancer cell lines and has recently been shown to suppress tumor growth in murine xenograft models of human leukemia and melanoma. ...

Wnt2B overexpression is thought to be involved in tumor progression through the activation of the canonical Wingless and INT-1 signaling pathway. However, the mechanism of Wnt2B signaling in oncogenesis is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether silencing Wnt2B expression could inhibit the invasiveness of ovarian cancer cells and reduce ...

New germ cells and new organs open new areas in the approach to treating infertility.

Cellular effects of ethanol in YD-15 tongue carcinoma cells were assessed by MTT assay, caspase activity assay, Western blotting and flow cytometry. Ethanol inhibited the growth and proliferation of YD-15 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner in an MTT assay. The effects of ethanol on cell cycle control at ...

Comment on: Guerra-Moreno A, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 1621-5.

When cell cycle re-activation occurs in post-mitotic neurons it places them at increased risk for death. The cell cycle/cell death association has been reported in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease (AD), yet the mechanisms by which a normal neuron suppresses the cycle remain largely unknown. Recently, our laboratory has ...

BACKGROUND: The size of organs and tissues is basically determined by the number and size of their cells. However, little attention has been paid to this fundamental concept. The liver has a remarkable ability to regenerate after surgical resection (partial hepatectomy [PHx]), and hepatocytes account for about 80% of liver ...

Developmental exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) causes reproductive tract malformations, affects fertility and increases the risk of clear cell carcinoma of the vagina and cervix in humans. Previous studies on a well-established mouse DES model demonstrated that it recapitulates many features of the human syndrome, yet the underlying molecular mechanism is ...

The endocrine pathways controlling vertebrate spermatogenesis are well established in mammals where pituitary gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), respectively, but exclusively activate the FSH receptor (FSHR) in Sertoli cells and the LH/choriogonadotropin receptor (LHCGR) in Leydig cells. In some teleosts, however, it has been shown that Lh ...

Intercellular gap junctional communication (GJC) plays an important role in ovarian cell physiology. Closure of GJC has been proposed to be involved in oocyte maturation, particularly in the resumption of meiosis, both in vivo and in vitro, by controlling the flow of meiosis inhibitors such as cAMP and cGMP. Understanding ...

Cyclin G1 protein is expressed in normal endometrial epithelial cells in a progesterone-dependent manner. It is an important mediator of the inhibiting effect of progesterone on cell proliferation. Moreover, the expression of cyclin G1 is also found to be decreased in human endometrial carcinoma cells (ECCs). To study the mechanism ...

Cytoskeleton-associated proteins play key roles not only in regulating cell morphology and migration but also in proliferation. Mutations in the cytoskeleton-associated gene filamin A (FlnA) cause the human disorder periventricular heterotopia (PH). PH is a disorder of neural stem cell development that is characterized by disruption of progenitors along the ...

The histogenesis of endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer is one of the most mysterious aspects of pathology. To better understand the histogenesis of endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer, we analyzed the possibility of a link of endometrium, ovarian surface epithelium, and a cortical inclusion cyst to ovarian endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ...

The therapeutic control of a solid tumour depends critically on the responses of the individual cells that constitute the entire tumour mass. A particular cell's spatial location within the tumour and intracellular interactions, including the evolution of the cell-cycle within each cell, has an impact on their decision to grow ...

Fibrosis, increased amounts of immune cells and expression of COX-2 in the testes of infertility patients provide circumstantial evidence for a specific testicular milieu, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) could be increased. If ROS level increase and/or ROS scavengers decrease, the resulting testicular oxidative stress may contribute to human ...

Cell cycle aberration was immunohistochemically examined in relation to preneoplastic liver cell foci expressing glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-P) at early stages of tumor-promotion in rats with thioacetamide (TAA), a hepatocarcinogen facilitating liver cell regeneration. Immunoexpression of p16(Ink4a) following exposure to other hepatocarcinogens/promoters and its DNA methylation status were also ...

The regulation of cell cycle rate is essential for the correct timing of proliferation and differentiation during development. Changes to cell cycle rate can have profound effects on the size, shape and cell types of a developing organ. We previously identified a zebrafish mutant ceylon (cey) that has a severe ...

We investigated spatio-temporal variations in cell division and the occurrence of endoreduplication in cells of tuber mustard stems during development. Cells in the stem had 8C nuclei (C represents DNA content of a two haploid genome), since it is an allotetraploid species derived from diploid Brassica rapa (AA) and B. nigra ...

To study the expression and function of adiponectin and its receptors in mouse and human follicle cells and in early embryo development. Whole ovaries, granulosa cells, and cumulus-oocyte complexes isolated from immature mice before and during hormone-induced ovulation were used to analyze the expression of adiponectin, its receptors, and ovulation-related ...

Genetic changes in T-ALL are classified into type A abnormalities leading to arrest at a specific stage of T-cell differentiation and type B abnormalities that target cellular processes including cell cycle regulation. Mutations and deletion of a BCL11B haploinsuffiecient tumor suppressor allele have been found in 10-16% of T-ALL subgroups. ...

Two new stigmastane-type steroids, stigmasta-5,22E-diene-3β,11α-diol (1) and stigmasta-5,22E-diene-3β,7α,11α-triol (2), together with eight known compounds, were isolated from the resinous exudates of Commiphora mukul. Their structures were established by extensive analysis of their HR-MS, 1D- and 2D-NMR (COSY, HMQC, HMBC and NOESY) spectra. The isolates were evaluated for their antiproliferative activities ...

Oogenesis is a complex process regulated by a vast number of intra- and extra- ovarian factors. Oogonia, which originate from primordial germ cells, proliferate by mitosis and form primary oocytes that arrest at the prophase stage of the first meiotic division until they are fully-grown. Within primary oocytes, synthesis and ...

OBJECTIVE: To understand the role of ectopic endometriotic stromal cells in ovarian endometriosis (OEM) and the associated risks for infertility and carcinogenesis. DESIGN: Analyses of secreted proteins and gene expression using immortalized eutopic/ectopic endometrial(-otic) stromal cells from OEM. SETTING: University. PATIENT(S): Women with and without OEM. INTERVENTION(S): Samples of endometrial(-otic) ...

Sertoli cell tight junction (TJs) form at puberty as a major component of the blood-testis barrier (BTB), which is essential for spermatogenesis. This study characterized the hormonal induction of functional Sertoli cell TJ formation in vivo, using the gonadotrophin-deficient hypogonadal (hpg) mouse that displays prepubertal spermatogenic arrest. Androgen actions were ...

Our case of ameloblastoma had a surprisingly long 25-year history, with abnormally large dimensions, a multilocular diffuse-mixed radiographic picture, and was histopathologically diagnosed as granular cell ameloblastoma with desmoplasia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ameloblastoma ever reported, that has shown combined features of granular cells, ...

Repeated implantation failure (RIF) is a worldwide health problem that imposes a great deal of cost on patients and health care system. Vitamin D(3) has been proposed to have positive impact on the process of implantation. The present study was performed to compare the effect of 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D(3) (1,25(OH)(2)D(3)) ...

The dramatic telomerase-dependent overelongation of telomeres in cells lacking Taz1 (ortholog of human TRF1/TRF2) or Rap1 implicates these proteins in restraint of telomerase activity. However, the modes by which these proteins regulate telomerase remain mysterious. Here we show that the mechanisms underlying excessive telomerase activity differ markedly between taz1Δ and ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of vitrification and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC) on the methylation levels of the putative imprinted control region (ICR) of H19 and H19 expression in bovine two-cell embryos and their derived blastocysts. DESIGN: Experimental animal study. SETTING: Academic institution. ANIMAL(S): Abattoir-derived bovine ovaries. INTERVENTION(S): Vitrified two-cell embryos were ...

Canonical Wnt signalling plays an important role in development, tissue homeostasis, and cancer. At the cellular level, canonical Wnt signalling acts by regulating cell fate, cell growth, and cell proliferation. With regard to proliferation, there is increasing evidence for a complex interaction between canonical Wnt signalling and the cell cycle. ...

• Excellent visualization of nuclei was obtained here using a whole-mount procedure adapted to provide high-resolution images of large, irregularly shaped nuclei. The procedure is based on tissue clearing, and fluorescent staining of nuclear DNA with the dye propidium iodide. • The method developed for standard confocal imaging was applied ...

Etoposide is a specific inhibitor of topoisomerase II, which is an enzyme that enables double-stranded DNA to pass through another double-stranded DNA. Topoisomerase II is a major constituent of chromosome scaffold, existing at appreciable amounts in cells. To examine the effects of etoposide on the cell cycle, hexaploid H1 (ES) ...

The synthetic purine reversine has been shown to possess a dual activity as it promotes the de-differentiation of adult cells, including fibroblasts, into stem-cell-like progenitors, but it also induces cell growth arrest and ultimately cell death of cancer cells, suggesting its possible application as an anti-cancer agent. Aim of this ...

In the current paper, berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid, was tested for its chemopreventive potential in colon cancer (SW480) cells. Berberine inhibited proliferation of colon cancer cells in a dose and time dependent manner. Interestingly, this compound exhibited minimum toxicity in normal cells at 200μM. Berberine arrested SW480 cells cycle at ...

Various tumor cells express interleukin 7 (IL-7) and IL-7 variants. IL-7 has been confirmed to stimulate solid tumor cell proliferation. However, the effect of IL-7 variants on tumor cell proliferation remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the role of IL-7δ5 (an IL-7 variant lacking exon 5) on proliferation and ...

Ovarian clear cell carcinoma often shows stromal hyalinization. The main constituents of hyalinization are basement membrane materials, including laminin and type IV collagen. Although it is known that clear cell carcinoma cells produce these materials, it remains unclear whether they can form hyalinized stroma by themselves or if cooperation with ...

The fluorescence lifetime of fluorescent proteins is affected by the concentration of solutes in a medium, in inverse correlation with local refractive index. In this paper, we introduce the concept of using this dependence to probe cellular molecular environment and its transformation during cellular processes. We employ the fluorescence lifetime ...

The possibility of the therapeutic use of estrogens emerged following the recognition that certain estradiol analogs, and particularly metabolites (e.g. the A-ring metabolite 2-hydroxyestrone, etc.), inhibit the differentiation of diverse tumor cell lines. Until recently, despite the investigation of numerous synthetic D-ring-substituted estrone derivatives, no analysis had been published of ...

The objective was to investigate the effects of the transgenic donor cell synchronization method, oocyte sources, and other factors, on production of hLF-gene nucleus transfer dairy goats. Three transfected cell lines from ear biopsies from three 3-mo-old Saanen dairy goats (designated Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3, respectively) were ...

During preimplantation mouse embryo development expression of Cdx2 is induced in outer cells, which are the trophectoderm (TE) precursors. The mechanism of Cdx2 upregulation in these cells remains unclear. However, it has been suggested that the cell position and polarization may play a crucial role in this process. In order ...

In double fertilization, a reproductive system unique to flowering plants, two immotile sperm are delivered to an ovule by a pollen tube. One sperm fuses with the egg to generate a zygote, the other with the central cell to produce endosperm [1]. A mechanism preventing multiple pollen tubes from entering ...

Therapeutic cloning has tremendous potential for cell therapy and tissue repair in some diseases. However, the efficiency of development of cloned human embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer is still low. In the present study, the activation of cloned human embryos was investigated while using in vitro-matured oocytes. Pseudo-pronuclear formation ...

Neoplastic diseases in harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena have rarely been described, and there are no reported gonadal stromal tumours. A 12 yr old female harbour porpoise was stranded on the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Necropsy findings included a severe granulomatous pneumonia, pregnancy and a left ovarian tumour. Respiratory ...

Comment on: Wilsker D, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:1564-72.

Comment on: Guerra-Moreno A, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:1621-5 and Cipak L, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:1626-33.

Comment on: Guerra-Moreno A, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:1621-5.

Comment on: Cipak L, et al. Cell Cycle 2012; 11:1626-33.

Exit from the cell cycle is essential for cells to initiate a terminal differentiation program during development, but what controls this transition is incompletely understood. In this paper, we demonstrate a regulatory link between mitochondrial fission activity and cell cycle exit in follicle cell layer development during Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis. ...

The present study aimed to examine the effect of FTY720, a new immunosuppressive agent, on the proliferation and apoptosis of glomerular mesangial cells (GMC), and investigate the underlying mechanisms. Cultured rat GMC were treated by FTY720, and the cell viability, apoptosis and cell cycle progression were examined. Furthermore, cell cycle ...

Many physiological, biological, pharmacologic, and toxicologic events and compounds affect the function of Saanen dairy goat luteal cells, resulting in implantation failure or early embryonic loss. Although primary luteal cell cultures have been used, their finite lifespan precludes assessment of long-term effects. In the present study, primary caprine luteal cells ...

The objective was to establish a cell line-based bioassay for FSH in horse serum for screening samples with high eCG bioactivity. A cell line (HEK293) was transiently cotransfected with an FSH reporter expression plasmid and a cAMP-responsive β-galactosidase reporter plasmid. Cells were bulk frozen, and thawed for assay purposes. This ...