To investigate the ex vivo interactions of probiotic-pathogen-host in warm-water fish, hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus♀ × Oreochromis aureus♂) were sacrificed to isolate anterior and posterior intestine for incubation with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.2) as the control, L. plantarum JCM 1149 at 1.0×10(9) CFU/ml, A. hydrophila NJ-1 at 1.0×10(8) CFU/ml, ...

Transient inflammatory reactions have been reported in a subpopulation of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) during lenalidomide (Len) plus dexamethasone (DEX) therapy. Here, we examined serum levels of Th1 (IL-2 and IFN-γ) and Th2 cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) in nine refractory or relapsed MM patients treated with Len plus low-dose ...

Short-lived neutrophils are major players in inflammation, arriving early to infected and/or injured tissues. After performed duty, neutrophils are programmed to die by apoptosis and are thereafter rapidly cleared by other phagocytes. In vitro, modulation of the apoptotic process has been thoroughly investigated in neutrophils isolated from peripheral blood, but ...

BACKGROUND/AIM: Peptidoglycan (PGN) recognition proteins (PGLYRPs) are innate immune molecules that recognise bacterial cell wall PGN, and participate in several inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. We sought to elucidate the contribution of PGLYRPs in murine uveitis (intraocular inflammatory disease) elicited by PGN, and the extent to which systemically administered PGN ...

Glaucoma was previously thought to be caused only through an elevated intraocular pressure as a sole trigger. Emerging evidence indicates that the pathogenesis of glaucoma depends on several interacting pathogenetic mechanisms, which include mechanical effects by an increased IOP, decreased neutrophine-supply, hypoxia, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and the involvement of autoimmune ...

Primary intraocular lymphoma (PIOL), also called primary vitreoretinal lymphomas, often masquerades as uveitis. This misdiagnosis can result in subsequent brain involvement and oculocerebral lymphoma (OCL). In this study, we sought to characterize the helper T-cell type 1 (Th1)/Th2 cytokine profile in vitreous samples from patients with PIOL, OCL, uveitis and ...

Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) refers to the presence of paradoxical clinical deterioration attributable to immune system recovery during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We present an immunocompetent patient with multifocal leukoencephalopathy on HAART, with central nervous system (CNS) IRIS pathology of unknown infectious etiology. CNS IRIS pathology should be ...

There is growing interest on the correlation among oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis and primary open-angle glaucoma initiation and progression. Reactive oxygen species are formed in the eyes following a wide variety of stressors, and are largely implicated in glaucoma pathogenesis. Immune-inflammatory response mediators have recently become a target of ophthalmologic ...

There is growing evidence showing an autoimmune involvement in the pathogenesis of glaucoma, and that alterations in natural occurring autoantibody levels play a key role. The upregulation of autoantibodies can be associated with fatal conditions, but several studies demonstrate that natural autoantibodies entail also protective characteristics and influence the protein ...

Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) reflects an aberrant immune response that can develop in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART). Its pathogenesis remains unclear. We performed a nested case-control study using specimens from ACTG A5164. We compared plasma biomarkers and T-cell subsets in 19 IRIS and 39 control ...

Inflammation originating from infection of the vitreous cavity is called endophthalmitis. Attention has been focused on the epidemiologic, microbiologic reports, and treatment options; unfortunately, the role of the host immune reaction in the visual function damage is still not well understood. Endophthalmitis occurs most frequently after cataract surgery. In this ...

Gliotoxin (GT) is the prototype of the epidithiodioxopiperazine (ETP)-type fungal toxins. GT plays a critical role in the pathobiology of Aspergillus fumigatus. It modulates the immune response and induces apoptosis in different cell types. The toxicity has been attributed to the unusual intramolecular disulfide bridge, which is the functional motif ...

Hemocyte-spreading behavior is required for expressing a cellular immune response, nodulation, which clears the vast majority of invading microbes from circulation. The nodulation response is completed by a layer of plasmatocytes, which spread over the nodule and initiate a malanization process leading to darkened nodules. Plasmatocyte-spreading peptide (PSP), the first ...

l-Arginine is one of the precursor amino acids of polyamine biosynthesis in most living organisms including Leishmania parasites. l-Arginine is enzymatically hydrolyzed by arginase producing l-ornithine and urea. In Leishmania spp. and other trypanosomatids a single gene encoding arginase has been described. The product of this gene is compartmentalized in ...

Leishmania species are the causative agents of the leishmaniases, a spectrum of neglected tropical diseases. Amastigote stage parasites exist within macrophages and scavenge host factors for survival, for example, Leishmania species utilise host sphingolipid for synthesis of complex sphingolipid. In this study L. mexicana endocytosis was shown to be significantly ...

Retrocyclins are humanized versions of the -defensin peptides expressed by the leukocytes of several nonhuman primates. Previous studies, performed in serum-free media, determined that retrocyclins 1 (RC1) and RC2 could prevent successful germination of Bacillus anthracis spores, kill vegetative B. anthracis cells, and inactivate anthrax lethal factor. We now report ...

Abstract Apoptosis is a highly regulated process essential for the development and homeostasis of multicellular organisms. Whereas caspases, a large family of intracellular cysteine proteases, play central roles in the execution of apoptosis, other proapoptotic and antiapoptotic regulators such as the members of the Bcl-2 family are also critically involved ...

Apoptosis research has been focused on several model species in the past decades, whereas studies concerned with non-mammalian vertebrate, particularly birds, have rarely been involved. In accord with requirements to expand the biodiversity of apoptotic research, a chicken embryonic fibroblasts model involving UVB (ultraviolet B) as the death stimulus was ...

Oral Diseases (2011) 17, 162-170   The aim of this study was to evaluate the growth inhibitory and apoptosis-inducing effects and mechanisms of Polygonum cuspidatum root in oral cancer cells.   The testing materials were separated by normal-phase silica gel liquid chromatography. The effect of P. cuspidatum root on apoptotsis ...

Imbalances in the proliferation and apoptosis processes are involved in numerous epithelial alterations. In the seminiferous epithelium, normal spermatogenesis is regulated by spermatogonia proliferation and germ cell apoptosis, and both processes are involved in diverse pathological alterations of the seminiferous epithelium. Other physiological phenomena including aging and short photoperiod, in ...

Although many studies have been done to uncover the mechanisms by which down-regulation of Notch-1 exerts its anti-tumor activity against a variety of human malignancies, the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the cellular consequence of Notch-1 down-regulation and also assessed the molecular consequence of ...

Chemical examination of the Taiwanese soft coral Sinularia triangular led to the isolation of five cembrane-based diterpenoids 1-5, including two new metabolites, triangulenes A (1) and B (2). The structures of the new metabolites were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, particularly mass spectroscopy and 2D NMR ((1)H-(1)H ...

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are emerging new class of anticancer agents that act by inhibiting cell growth, inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of various cancer cells. However, in some conditions, apoptosis can be blocked and non apoptotic cell death and irreversible growth arrest, namely senescence, can be activated as ...

Although carboplatin is currently used as a therapeutic drug for ovarian, breast, and non-small cell lung cancers, it has serious side effects including renal and cardiac toxicity. Herein, we examined the effect of carboplatin on murine renal tubular cell (RTC) apoptosis both in vivo and in vitro and the underlying ...

Actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin is a small cytoskeletal protein that is a stimulus-responsive mediator of actin dynamics. ADF/cofilin also translocates into mitochondria and nuclei in response to apoptotic stimuli for cytochrome c release. These ADF/cofilin translocations are negatively regulated by phosphorylation. Recently, it has been reported that pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) phosphatase/chronophin (PLPP/CIN) ...

Diarylsulfonylureas are potent antitumor agents that have been tested in clinical trials. However, detailed mechanisms of their apoptotic activity remain unclear. Here, we report a new diarylsulfonylurea derivative, LB2A, that upregulates RhoB, thereby inducing potent apoptosis in HCT-116 human colon cancer cells independently of p53 status. LB2A decreased procaspase-3, increased ...

Both RASSF2A (Ras-associated family 2A) and p300 are implicated in apoptosis. However, little is known about the interrelationship between these two proteins in induction of apoptosis. Here we show that p300 was able to induce late apoptosis through up-regulation of RASSF2A in human gastric cancer cells SGC-7901 (p53-mutant). Our data ...

To elucidate the mechanism of TAM treatment on gliomas, we hypothesised that PI3K/Akt and MAPK signaling pathway may play important roles on TAM-induced apoptosis in C6 glioma cells. Our results demonstrated that TAM induced apoptosis of C6 glioma cells in a dose-dependent manner. The activation of AKT significantly decreased in ...

The reovirus outer capsid protein μ1 is responsible for cell membrane penetration during virus entry and contains determinants necessary for virus-induced apoptosis. Residues 582 to 611 of μ1 are necessary and sufficient for reovirus-induced apoptosis, and residues 594 and 595 independently regulate the efficiency of viral entry and reovirus-induced cell ...

RhoB expression is reduced in most invasive tumors, with loss of RhoB expression correlating significantly with tumor stage. Here, we demonstrate that upregulation of RhoB by the potent anticancer agent NSC126188 induces apoptosis of NUGC-3 human gastric carcinoma cells. The crucial role of RhoB in NSC126188-induced apoptosis is indicated by ...

Extracellular nucleotides have been reported to act as a 'find-me' signal in the context of phagocyte recruitment by apoptotically dying cells. A new study now examines the mechanisms of nucleotide release during apoptosis and describes the hemichannel-forming protein pannexin 1 as a crucial player in this scenario.

Docetaxel is a member of the taxane anti-microtubule class of chemotherapeutic agents, which are currently widely used in clinical cancer therapy. However, the anti-tumor mechanisms of docetaxel are not fully understood. Herein we show that docetaxel induces dose-dependent apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells, as detected by Annexin-V ...

Pneumococcal meningitis causes neurological sequelae, including learning and memory deficits in up to half of the survivors. In both humans and in animal models of the disease, there is apoptotic cell death in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory function. We previously demonstrated that in an ...

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as sulindac effectively prevent colon cancer in humans and rodent models. However, their cellular targets and underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. We found that dietary sulindac induced apoptosis to remove the intestinal stem cells with nuclear or phosphorylated β-catenin in APC(Min/+) mice. NSAIDs also induced ...

Regulation of apoptosis at various stages of differentiation plays an important role in spermatogenesis. Therefore, the identification and characterisation of highly expressed genes in the testis that are involved in apoptosis is of great value to delineate the mechanism of spermatogenesis. Here, we reported that Fank1, a novel gene highly ...

Securin is highly-expressed in various tumors including those of the colon. In this study, the role of securin in the anticancer effects of fisetin on human colon cancer cells was investigated. Fisetin-induced apoptosis in HCT116 cells as indicated by TUNEL assay, Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining, Ser15-phosphorylation of p53, and cleavages ...

Based on accumulated evidence, we speculate that a high concentration of parathyroid hormone (PTH) may cause neurotoxicity in patients with uremia through apoptosis-induced neuropathy. In this study, we demonstrated that in vitro stimulation with PTH(1-34) induced a significant decrease in PC12 cell numbers in both dosage- and time-dependent fashions when ...

Enzastaurin (LY317615.HCl) is currently in a phase III registration trial for diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma and numerous phase II clinical trials. Enzastaurin suppresses angiogenesis and induces apoptosis in multiple human tumor cell lines by inhibiting protein kinase C (PKC) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway signaling. PI3K/AKT pathway signaling liberates eukaryotic ...

Identifying small molecules that suppress apoptosis is promising for the therapy of brain diseases. We recently showed that autocrine bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling involves the effects of cholesterol myristate present in traditional Chinese medicine on mesenchymal stem cells. The present study evaluated the effects of cholesterol myristate on the ...

Podocyte damage and apoptosis are thought to be important if not essential in the development of glomerulosclerosis. Female estrogen receptor knockout mice develop glomerulosclerosis at 9 months of age due to excessive ovarian testosterone production and secretion. Here, we studied the pathogenesis of glomerulosclerosis in this mouse model to determine ...

Cell death-inducing DFF45-like effector-3 (CIDE-3) is a novel member of an apoptosis-inducing protein family, but its function is unknown. CIDE-3 shows a different distribution pattern in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and normal adjacent tissues. Therefore, this work tested the hypothesis that CIDE-3 induces apoptosis in HCC cells, inhibiting oncogenesis and ...

Chondrocyte apoptosis is thought to be an important step in the calcification of cartilage in vivo; however, there are conflicting reports as to whether or not this apoptosis is a necessary precursor to mineralization. The goal of this study was to determine whether or not apoptosis is necessary for mineralization ...

The goal of cancer therapy is to kill cancer cells. Many anticancer drugs are designed to kill cells by inducing apoptosis. However, the potency assays used for measuring the bioactivity of these products are generally cell viability assays which do not distinguish between cell death and growth inhibition. There are ...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal, recessive disease, attributed to mutations in MEFV gene encoding pyrin, which is characterized by recurrent, acute and self-limiting attacks of fever as well as an increased neutrophil and monocyte apoptosis. Most disease-associated mutations in MEFV gene reside on the C-terminal PRYSPRY (B30.2) domain ...

Organisms exposed to ionizing radiation (IR) undergo increases in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are determinant components in the induction of apoptosis. Sensitive to apoptosis gene (SAG) encodes a redox-inducible and apoptosis-protective antioxidant protein. This report demonstrates that the modulation of SAG expression in cultured cells regulates ...

The hypothesis that high concentrations of IGF1 can impair embryo development was investigated in a bovine in vitro model to reflect conditions in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients. Embryos were either cultured in the absence or presence of a physiological (100  ng/ml) or supraphysiological (1000  ng/ml) IGF1 concentration. Cell allocation, ...

The amniotic epithelium is in direct contact with the amniotic fluid and has tight junctions. The amniotic tight junctions function as a barrier to restrict fluid flux via the amniotic membrane during midpregnancy in the mouse. However, during late pregnancy, amniotic fluid volume significantly decreases in association with the disruption ...

The activity and levels of SIRT1, which promotes cell survival in several models, are linked to glucose concentrations and cellular energy metabolism. The present study aimed to determine whether impaired Sirt1 activity is involved in the induction of apoptosis by the nutrient-sensing hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP). Pancreatic Nit-1, Rin-m5F, and ...

Skeletal myoblasts withdrawing from cell cycle is a prerequisite for myodifferentiation, while upon proliferation/differentiation transformation, a large portion of myoblasts will undergo apoptosis. Skeletal fibroblasts, residing in muscle tissue both during and post myogenesis, have been proofed to play pivotal roles in muscle development, while their effect on myoblast apoptosis ...

Evidence indicates that diets enriched in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) reduce the risk of prostate cancer, but biochemical mechanisms are unclear. Syndecan-1 (SDC-1), a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, supports the integrity of the epithelial compartment. In tumor cells of epithelial lineage, SDC-1 is generally downregulated. This may result ...