The gastric hormone gastrin regulates the expression of a variety of genes involved in control of acid secretion and also in the growth and organization of the gastric mucosa. One putative target is plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2), which is a component of the urokinase activator system that acts extracellularly to ...

Biological invasions are often closely associated with human impacts and it is difficult to determine whether either or both are responsible for the negative impacts on native communities. Here, we show that human activity, not biological invasion, is the primary driver of negative effects on native communities and of the ...

The effects and potential molecular mechanisms underlying carbon dioxide (CO(2)) pneumoperitoneum on gastric cancer cell apoptosis are not fully understood. In this study, we assessed the effects of CO(2) pneumoperitoneum on the apoptosis of MKN-45 gastric cancer cells. Additionally, we investigated the role of HIF-1alpha in CO(2) pneumoperitoneum-induced apoptosis of ...

The gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori infects over half the world's population. The lifelong infection induces gastric inflammation but the host fails to generate protective immunity. To study the lack of protective H. pylori immunity, CD4(+)CD25(+) T(reg) cells were investigated for their ability to down-regulate H. pylori-specific CD4(+)CD25(-) cells in a ...

Recently, the role of serine proteinases in the pathogenesis of inflammation and autoimmune diseases via interaction with the proteinase-activated receptor (PAR) has attracted attention. Activation of PAR has a pro-inflammatory effect through the overproduction of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8. PAR(2) activation in human esophageal epithelial cells ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Our previous study of Helicobacter pylori-induced apoptosis showed the involvement of Bcl-2 family proteins and cytochrome c release from mitochondria. Here, we examine the release of other factors from mitochondria, such as apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF), and upstream events involving caspase-8 and Bid. METHODS: Human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) ...

Plants have sensitive perception systems that recognize various pathogen-derived molecules. We previously reported that rice detects flagellin from a rice-incompatible strain of gram-negative phytopathogenic bacterium, Acidovorax avenae, which induces subsequent immune responses involving cell death. The mechanism of flagellin perception in rice, however, has remained obscure. In this study, we ...

Apyrases are non-energy-coupled nucleotide phosphohydrolases that hydrolyze nucleoside triphosphates and nucleoside diphosphates to nucleoside monophosphates and orthophosphates. GS52, a soybean (Glycine soja) ecto-apyrase, was previously shown to be induced very early in response to inoculation with the symbiotic bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Overexpression of the GS52 ecto-apyrase in Lotus japonicus increased ...

The regenerating gene (Reg) was originally isolated from regenerating rat pancreatic islets and revealed recently to constitute a multi-gene family in humans. REG Ialpha protein is known to be overexpressed not only in various human inflammatory diseases but also in various experimental models of inflammation in animal tissues. However, its ...

H. pylori elicits specific humoral and cellular immune responses in the mucosal immune system. However, the type and extent of T lymphocyte response in the systemic immune system is not clear for H. pylori positive patients. In this study, peripheral blood T lymphocyte phenotypes and serum Th1/Th2 based cytokines of ...

The insect mushroom bodies play important roles in a number of higher processing functions such as sensory integration, higher level olfactory processing, and spatial and associative learning and memory. These functions have been established through studies in a handful of tractable model systems, of which only the fruit fly Drosophila ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The gastrointestinal tract has developed multiple mechanisms of protection from intrinsic and extrinsic sources of injury, including but not limited to drugs, ischemic/reperfusion injuries, and infections such as Helicobacter pylori. We review recent developments in host defense against Helicobacter pylori, duodenal bicarbonate secretion, protection from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory ...

Bioluminescent imaging was used to track the viability of luciferase transfected L929 cells in poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) (HEMA-MMA) microcapsules. Bioluminescence, as determined by Xenogen imaging after addition of luciferin to microcapsules in vitro, increased with time, consistent with an increase in cell number. Capsules were suspended in Matrigel and injected ...

Sirtuins are critical regulators of many cellular processes, including insulin secretion, the cell cycle, and apoptosis. Sirtuins are associated with a variety of age-associated diseases such as type II diabetes, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease. A thorough understanding of sirtuin chemical mechanisms will aid toward developing novel therapeutics that regulate metabolic ...

Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted, integrin-binding matrix phosphorylated glycoprotein that is overexpressed in many advanced cancers. However, the functional mechanisms by which OPN contributes to gastric cancer development are poorly understood. Here, we report that curcumin inhibited the growth of SGC7901 cell and induced apoptosis in a concentration- and time-dependent ...

Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis predisposes to the development of gastric cancer. Increased epithelial tight junction permeability and alterations in apical-junctional complexes are also associated with an increased risk of carcinogenesis. Phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chain (MLC) by MLC kinase (MLCK) regulates tight junction function. We determined whether MLCK was activated ...

Helicobacter pylori is a gram negative bacterium that infects the human stomach of approximately half of the world's population. It produces oxidative stress, and mitochondria are one of the possible targets and the major intracellular source of free radicals. The present study was aimed at determining mitochondrial alterations in H. ...

Helicobacter pylori infection causes chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. Colonization of H. pylori in the stomach activates Toll-like and Nod-like receptors to induce not only innate immunity but also adaptive Th1 responses against this organism. Adaptive Th1 response is not sufficient to clear this organism and, as a ...

Helicobacter pylori infection induces acute and chronic inflammation and plays a key role in gastric mucosal diseases. H. pylori neutrophil-activating protein (HP-NAP), one of its virulence factors, induces not only chemotactic but also oxidative burst responses of neutrophils. Activated neutrophils use myeloperoxidase (MPO) to generate many cytotoxic oxidants, which might ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Vaccine efficacy against gastric Helicobacter pylori infection has been shown in mice, but little is known about the mechanisms of bacterial clearance. Our aim was to investigate a possible T-cell/neutrophil pathway of vaccine-induced protection. METHODS: Nonimmune and immunized mice were compared for their response to H pylori ...

BACKGROUND: The Helicobacter pylori neutrophil-activating protein (HP-NAP) is able to induce IL-12 expression by cells of innate immunity and to shift to T(H)1 human allergen-specific T(H)2 cells in vitro. OBJECTIVE: We performed an in vivo investigation of the ability of HP-NAP to downmodulate the T(H)2 response induced in mice by ...

Helicobacter pylori is associated with peptic ulcer and gastric adenocarcinoma. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) participate in H. pylori recognition, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLRs are associated with impaired immune response. We aimed to evaluate the association of TLR2/R753Q and TLR4/D299G/T399I SNPs with gastroduodenal diseases; and study the effect of SNPs ...

The syndrome of synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, osteitis (SAPHO) encompasses a broad spectrum of cutaneous manifestations associated with osteitic and hyperostotic lesions, which typically may involve the anterior chest wall (ACW). The aetiopathogenetic mechanisms as well as the nosographic framing of the disease are still not fully defined although an ...

Scorpion stings are a public health problem in Brazil, with most incidents involving the species Tityus serrulatus. Some T. serrulatus toxins may act as immunogens for the production of a specific anti-venom, but many of the component toxins remain poorly characterized. Here, we describe the immunological characteristics of the toxin ...

Mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and cell-mediated lympholysis (CML) are widely used to assess T cell responses. A major limitation of the traditional MLR and CML assays is that they require radioisotope labeling with (3)H for MLR and (51)Cr for CML, thereby limiting their use to laboratories with the capabilities to ...

Cyclophilin A (CypA) was originally identified as a cytosolic protein possessing peptidyl-prolyl isomerase activity. CypA has been shown to play a pivotal role in the immune response, but little is known about other molecular mechanisms of CypA-mediated biologic events. In our present study, we demonstrate that knockdown CypA expression using ...

Several insect species show an increase in cuticular melanism in response to high densities. In some species, there is evidence that this melanism is correlated with an up-regulation of certain immune system components, particularly phenoloxidase (PO) activity, and with the down-regulation of lysozyme activity, suggesting a trade-off between the two ...

The progress in basic and clinical gastrology indicates that gastric mucosal integrity represents a balance between offensive and defensive factors. The main offensive factors appear to be gastric acid and pepsin under health conditions, while the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), infecting this mucosa, are currently ...

The morphological relationships of the pineal complex to the epithalamic structures have been examined at light microscopic level in five desert rodent species, Meriones crassus, Meriones lybicus, Gerbillus gerbillus, Psammomys obesus and Ctenodactylus vali. The pineal complex is classified as type ABC in M. crassus and G. gerbillus, AC in ...

Autoaggregation of widely dispersed Xylella fastidiosa cells into compact cell masses occurred over a period of hours following 7 to 11 days of growth in microfluidic chambers. Studies involving the use of mutants defective in polarly positioned type I (fimA-negative), type IV (pilB-negative), or both type I and IV (fimA- ...

Recent evidence indicates that human cancer cells reactivate the expression of latent human endogenous retroviral (HERV) proteins. However, the extent to which cancer patients mount de novo immune responses against expressed HERV elements is unclear. In this study, we determined the extent of HERV-K env expression in human breast cancer ...

The plant-derived Pediococcus pentosaceus NB-17 was isolated from Japanese traditional vegetable pickles. The production of cytokines from mouse spleen cells co-cultivated with heat-killed bacteria was investigated in vitro. The bacteria significantly induced secretion levels of interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-12 p70, and suppressed IL-4 productions in ovalbumin (OVA) sensitized mouse ...

Chronic gastritis induced by Helicobacter pylori is the strongest known risk factor for peptic ulceration and distal gastric cancer, and adherence of H. pylori to gastric epithelial cells is critical for induction of inflammation. One H. pylori constituent that increases disease risk is the cag pathogenicity island, which encodes a ...

Manganese (Mn) is a naturally abundant metal in marine sediments where it mainly occurs as MnO(2). During hypoxic conditions it is converted into a bioavailable state, Mn(2+), and can reach levels that previously have shown effects on immune competent cells of the crustacean, Nephrops norvegicus. Here we investigated if Mn ...

Chronic inflammation caused by Helicobacter pylori infection or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is closely linked to cancer development. Innate immune abnormalities and enhanced production of reactive oxygen species through a phagocyte NADPH oxidase (Nox2) are key issues in understanding the pathogenesis of inflammation-dependent carcinogenesis. Besides Nox2, functionally distinct homologues (Nox1, ...

The aim of the study was to establish possible factors which play a role in progression of gastritis to atrophic gastritis in long-term follow-up among the Estonian population, to assess the association between the host immune response and different Helicobacter pylori antigens and autoantigens in relation to the histological parameters ...

The growing concern over the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Helicobacter pylori infection is propelling the development of an efficacious vaccine to control this highly adaptive organism. We studied the use of a dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccine against H. pylori infection in mice. The cellular immune responses to murine bone marrow-derived DCs ...

Helicobacter pylori has been considered to be non-invasive and to rarely infiltrate the gastric mucosa, even though there is an active Th1 immune response in the lamina propria of the H. pylori-infected stomach. To elucidate whether H. pylori invades the lamina propria and translocates to the gastric lymph nodes, we ...

While a link between Helicobacter pylori exposure and gastric cancer has been established, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. H. pylori induces a chronic inflammatory response in infected individuals. A link between chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis has long been suggested but never elucidated. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling plays an ...

Success in cryopreserving stallion semen has been very variable. Several different freezing regimes have been published. However, because extenders and procedures used in each regime have differed, direct comparison of these techniques has been very difficult, and controlled studies comparing different techniques have not been reported. A number of different ...

Endocytosis supports cell communication, growth, and pathogen infection. The species B human adenovirus serotype 3 (Ad3) is associated with epidemic conjunctivitis, and fatal respiratory and systemic disease. Here we show that Ad3 uses dynamin-independent endocytosis for rapid infectious entry into epithelial and haematopoietic cells. Unlike Ad5, which uses dynamin-dependent endocytosis, ...

The function of regulatory T cells (T(reg) cells) has been attributed to a growing number of diverse pathways, molecules and processes. Seemingly contradictory conclusions regarding the mechanisms underlying T(reg) cell suppressive activity have revitalized skeptics in the field who challenge the core validity of the idea of T(reg) cells as ...

Protease-activated receptors (PARs) play a clear role in the burst of inflammatory reactions and immune responses. However, for PAR-3, the most elusive member of the PAR family, the functional role is still largely unclear. It has been claimed that PAR-3 does not signal autonomously, although the wide expression of human ...

Adjuvant therapies for minimal residual disease are a promising approach to improve the poor survival rates after surgery of gastric tumors. A pilot study of a neoadjuvant therapy was performed using a human monoclonal IgM antibody (SC-1) specifically inducing apoptosis in signet ring cell stomach carcinomas. However, scarce information exists ...

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is recognized as one of the main morphogens that regulates cell differentiation during early development of the stomach. In the adult stomach, Shh is expressed and secreted from the acid-producing parietal cells, where it is believed to play an essential role in gastric tissue homeostasis and normal ...

A shift from Th1 (IFN-gamma) towards Th2 (IL-4)-type immune response was found in patients with gastric cancer and dysplasia. Recently, IL-13 has been described as a central mediator of Th2-dominant immune response in different inflammatory diseases. AIM AND METHODS: to analyse, by Enzyme-Linked-Immuno-SPOT (ELISPOT) assay and immunohistochemistry, the IL-13 production ...

Regulatory T cells curb unwanted immune responses and regulate responses to microflora and it is now clear that regulatory T cells play an important role in a number of chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut. First, regulatory T cells are crucial in controlling immune responses to gastric autoantigens and thus ...

Infection by the gastroduodenal pathogen Helicobacter pylori elicits a complex immunologic response in the mucosa involving neutrophils, plasma cells, eosinophils, and lymphocytes, of which T cells are the principal orchestrators of immunity. While so-called classical T cells (e.g. T-helper cells) that are activated by peptide fragments presented on antigen-presenting cells ...

Infection with Giardia duodenalis is one of the most common causes of waterborne diarrheal disease worldwide. Mechanisms of pathogenesis and host response in giardiasis remain incompletely understood. Previous studies have shown that exposure to G. duodenalis products induce apoptosis in enterocytes. We recently discovered that sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter (SGLT)-1-mediated glucose ...

Gastric neoplastic disease is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-associated deaths with poor prognosis. Here we studied the effect of the redox-silent analogue α-tocopheryl succinate (α-TOS), a strong apoptogen and anti-cancer agent, on the gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901. α-TOS inhibited proliferation of the cells and induced their ...