Articles

Gene expression profiles of various cytokines in mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord tissue and bone marrow following infection with human cytomegalovirus

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have both multi-lineage differentiation potential and immunosuppressive properties, making them ideal candidates for regenerative medicine. However, their immunosuppressive proper...

Authors: Quansheng Li, Ping Yu, Wei Wang, Peng Zhang, Haiqing Yang, Shengfu Li and Li Zhang

Myricetin blocks lipoteichoic acid-induced COX-2 expression in human gingival fibroblasts

Periodontitis is an infectious disease caused by microorganisms present in dental bacterial plaque. Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) is a component of the external membrane of Gram-positive bacteria. It causes septic s...

Authors: Gloria Gutiérrez-Venegas, Oscar Alonso Luna, Juan Antonio Arreguín-Cano and Cristina Hernández-Bermúdez

Spectrin and phospholipids — the current picture of their fascinating interplay

The spectrin-based membrane skeleton is crucial for the mechanical stability and resilience of erythrocytes. It mainly contributes to membrane integrity, protein organization and trafficking. Two transmembrane...

Authors: Dżamila M. Bogusławska, Beata Machnicka, Anita Hryniewicz-Jankowska and Aleksander Czogalla

Novel estradiol analogue induces apoptosis and autophagy in esophageal carcinoma cells

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in South Africa. The critical role that microtubules play in cell division makes them an ideal target for the development of chemotherapeutic drugs that prevent the ...

Authors: Elize Wolmarans, Thandi V. Mqoco, Andre Stander, Sandra D. Nkandeu, Katherine Sippel, Robert McKenna and Annie Joubert

Allelic isoforms of the chicken and duck histone H1.a

Two isoforms of the erythrocyte histone H1.a were identified in two conservative flocks of Rhode Island Red chickens and six conservative flocks of ducks. The H1.a1 and H1.a2 isoforms formed three phenotypes (...

Authors: Ewa Górnicka-Michalska, Andrzej Kowalski and Jan Pałyga

Calreticulin affects cell adhesiveness through differential phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1

Cellular adhesion to the underlying substratum is regulated through numerous signaling pathways. It has been suggested that insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) is involved in some of these pathways, via assoc...

Authors: Arthur Czarnowski, Sylvia Papp, Peter Szaraz and Michal Opas

MiR-34a regulates apoptosis in liver cells by targeting the KLF4 gene

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by inhibiting translation or targeting messenger RNA (mRNA) for degradation in a posttranscriptional fashion. In this study, we show that ectopic expression of miR-3...

Authors: Qiu Chen, Lei Li, Yu Tu, Lu Lin Zheng, Wei Liu, Xue Yong Zuo, Yong Ming He, Shu Yu Zhang, Wei Zhu, Jian Ping Cao, Feng Mei Cui and Jun Hou

Decreasing the thresholds for electroporation by sensitizing cells with local cationic anesthetics and substances that decrease the surface negative electric charge

The recently described method of cell electroporation by flow of cell suspension through localized direct current electric fields (dcEFs) was applied to identify non-toxic substances that could sensitize cells...

Authors: Maciej Grys, Zbigniew Madeja and Włodzimierz Korohoda

Erratum to: GABA exists as a negative regulator of cell proliferation in spermaogonial stem cells

Authors: Yong Du, Zhao Du, Hongping Zheng, Dan Wang, Shifeng Li, Yuanchang Yan and Yiping Li

Decay of γ-H2AX foci correlates with potentially lethal damage repair and P53 status in human colorectal carcinoma cells

The influence of p53 status on potentially lethal damage repair (PLDR) and DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair was studied in two isogenic human colorectal carcinoma cell lines: RKO (p53 wild-type) and RC10.1...

Authors: Bregje Van Oorschot, Arlene L. Oei, Anna C. Nuijens, Hans Rodermond, Ron Hoeben, Jan Stap, Lukas J. Stalpers and Nicolaas A. P. Franken

CD44 and CD24 cannot act as cancer stem cell markers in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are subpopulations of tumor cells that are responsible for tumor initiation, maintenance and metastasis. Recent studies suggested that lung cancer arises from CSCs. In this study, the ...

Authors: Raheleh Roudi, Zahra Madjd, Marzieh Ebrahimi, Fazel Sahraneshin Samani and Ali Samadikuchaksaraei

Yeast ABC proteins involved in multidrug resistance

Pleiotropic drug resistance is a complex phenomenon that involves many proteins that together create a network. One of the common mechanisms of multidrug resistance in eukaryotic cells is the active efflux of ...

Authors: Agata Piecuch and Ewa Obłąk

Detection of a novel mutation in exon 20 of the BRCA1 gene

Hereditary breast cancer constitutes 5–10% of all breast cancer cases. Inherited mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 tumor-suppressor genes account for the majority of hereditary breast cancer cases. The BRCA1 C-...

Authors: Abhijit Chakraborty, Atul Katarkar, Keya Chaudhuri, Ashis Mukhopadhyay and Jayasri Basak

The expression of the eotaxins IL-6 and CXCL8 in human epithelial cells from various levels of the respiratory tract

Airway epithelium acts as multifunctional site of response in the respiratory tract. Epithelial activity plays an important part in the pathophysiology of obstructive lung disease. In this study, we compare no...

Authors: Magdalena Paplińska-Goryca, Patrycja Nejman-Gryz, Ryszarda Chazan and Hanna Grubek-Jaworska

The clinicopathological significance of lamin A/C, lamin B1 and lamin B receptor mRNA expression in human breast cancer

Lamin A/C (LMNA), lamin B1 (LMNB1) and lamin B receptor (LBR) have key roles in nuclear structural integrity and chromosomal stability. In this study, we have studied the relationships between the mRNA express...

Authors: Umar Wazir, Mai Hassan Ahmed, Joanna M. Bridger, Amanda Harvey, Wen G. Jiang, Anup K. Sharma and Kefah Mokbel

Membrane potential-dependent binding of polysialic acid to lipid monolayers and bilayers

Polysialic acids are linear polysaccharides composed of sialic acid monomers. These polyanionic chains are usually membrane-bound, and are expressed on the surfaces of neural, tumor and neuroinvasive bacterial...

Authors: Krzysztof Nowotarski, Karolina Sapoń, Monika Kowalska, Tadeusz Janas and Teresa Janas

Regulation of the unfolded protein response by microRNAs

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is an adaptive response to the stress that is caused by an accumulation of misfolded proteins in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). It is an important component of...

Authors: Sylwia Bartoszewska, Kinga Kochan, Piotr Madanecki, Arkadiusz Piotrowski, Renata Ochocka, James F. Collawn and Rafal Bartoszewski

Telomerase and its extracurricular activities

The classical activity of telomerase is to synthesize telomeric repeats and thus maintain telomere length, which in turn ensures chromosome stability and cellular proliferation. However, there is growing evide...

Authors: Rishi Kumar Jaiswal, Pramod Kumar and Pramod Kumar Yadava

Proteolytic activation of Chlamydia trachomatis HTRA is mediated by PDZ1 domain interactions with protease domain loops L3 and LC and beta strand β5

Chlamydia trachomatis is a bacterial pathogen responsible for one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections worldwide. Its unique development cycle has limited our understanding of it...

Authors: James W. Marsh, William B. Lott, Joel D. A. Tyndall and Wilhelmina Willa M. Huston

In vitro and in vivo characteristics of hepatic oval cells modified with human hepatocyte growth factor

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a multifunctional growth factor that controls cell scattering. It has been suggested that it regulates the proliferation of hepatic oval cells (HOCs). Using a HOC line that st...

Authors: Zhu Li, Juan Chen, Li Li, Jiang-Hua Ran, Xue-Hua Li, Zhi-Heng Liu, Gui-Jie Liu, Yan-Chao Gao, Xue-Li Zhang and Hiu-Dong Sun

The role of glycogen synthase kinase-3β in glioma cell apoptosis induced by remifentanil

The aim of malignant glioma treatment is to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and induce tumor cell apoptosis. Remifentanil is a clinical anesthetic drug that can activate the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) recept...

Authors: Jing Xu, Pengjuan Xu, Zhigui Li, Lu Xiao and Zhuo Yang

Adipose tissue-derived stem cells show considerable promise for regenerative medicine applications

The stromal-vascular cell fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue can be an abundant source of both multipotent and pluripotent stem cells, known as adipose-derived stem cells or adipose tissue-derived stromal cells ...

Authors: Izabela Harasymiak-Krzyżanowska, Alicja Niedojadło, Jolanta Karwat, Lidia Kotuła, Paulina Gil-Kulik, Magdalena Sawiuk and Janusz Kocki

The NTPase/helicase domain of hepatitis C virus nonstructural protein 3 inhibits protein kinase C independently of its NTPase activity

Helicase motif VI is a short arginine-rich motif within the NTPase/helicase domain of the non-structural protein 3 (NS3) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). We previously demonstrated that it reduces the catalytic...

Authors: Philip Hartjen, Bastian Höchst, Denise Heim, Henning von der Kammer, Judith Lucke, Michael Reinholz, Andrea Baier, Ralf Smeets, Henning Wege, Peter Borowski and Julian Schulze Zur Wiesch

Viologen-phosphorus dendrimers exhibit minor toxicity against a murine neuroblastoma cell line

Dendrimers containing viologen (derivatives of 4,4′-bipyridyl) units in their structure have been demonstrated to exhibit antiviral activity against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). It has also recently b...

Authors: Joanna Lazniewska, Katarzyna Milowska, Nadia Katir, Abdelkim El Kadib, Maria Bryszewska, Jean-Pierre Majoral and Teresa Gabryelak

Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel anti-TLR9 intrabody

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is a component of the innate immune system, which recognizes the DNA of both pathogens and hosts. Thus, it can drive autoimmune diseases. Intracellular antibodies expressed inside t...

Authors: Elisa Reimer, Stefan Somplatzki, Diana Zegenhagen, Svenja Hänel, Alina Fels, Thorsten Bollhorst, Ludger Grosse Hovest, Stefan Bauer, Carsten J. Kirschning and Thomas Böldicke

Identification of microRNAs potentially involved in male sterility of Brassica campestris ssp. chinensis using microRNA array and quantitative RT-PCR assays

microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of newly identified, noncoding, small RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression. Many miRNAs are reportedly involved in plant growth, development and stress response...

Authors: Jianxia Jiang, Jingjing Jiang, Yafei Yang and Jiashu Cao

Transcriptional regulation of mouse mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor in Neuro2a cells

Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is a novel type of trophic factor. Recent studies indicate that the MANF gene is induced in response to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress through ER s...

Authors: Kentaro Oh-Hashi, Yoko Hirata and Kazutoshi Kiuchi

Tubulin-interactive stilbene derivatives as anticancer agents

Microtubules are dynamic polymers that occur in eukaryotic cells and play important roles in cell division, motility, transport and signaling. They form during the process of polymerization of α- and β-tubulin...

Authors: Renata Mikstacka, Tomasz Stefański and Jakub Różański

Characterization of the 5′-flanking region of the mouse asparagine-linked glycosylation 12 homolog gene

Recently, we characterized multiple roles of the endoplasmic reticulum stress responsive element (ERSE) in the promotion of a unique headto-head gene pair: mammalian asparagine-linked glycosylation 12 homolog ...

Authors: Kentaro Oh-Hashi, Tomomi Tejima, Yoko Hirata and Kazutoshi Kiuchi

Role of inflammasomes and their regulators in prostate cancer initiation, progression and metastasis

Prostate cancer is one of the main cancers that affect men, especially older men. Though there has been considerable progress in understanding the progression of prostate cancer, the drivers of its development...

Authors: Sudhakar Veeranki

Smad1 stabilization and delocalization in response to the blockade of BMP activity

Signaling at the plasma membrane receptors is generally terminated by some form of feedback regulation, such as endocytosis and/or degradation of the receptors. BMP-Smad1 signaling can also be attenuated by BM...

Authors: Lili Li, Jianhe Wang, Jenny Fung Ling Chau, Huijuan Liu, Baojie Li, Aijun Hao and Jing Li

The protective effect of crocin on the amyloid fibril formation of aβ42 peptide in vitro

Aβ is the main constituent of the amyloid plaque found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. There are two common isoforms of Aβ: the more common form, Aβ₄₀, and the less common but more amyloidogen...

Authors: Arezou Ghahghaei, S. Zahra Bathaie, Hoda Kheirkhah and Elmira Bahraminejad

PTPN4 negatively regulates CrkI in human cell lines

PTPN4 is a widely expressed non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase. Although its overexpression inhibits cell growth, the proteins with which it interacts to regulate cell growth are unknown. In this study,...

Authors: Juan Zhou, Bingbing Wan, Jingxuan Shan, Huili Shi, Yanhong Li and Keke Huo

Enhancement of wound closure in diabetic mice by ex vivo expanded cord blood CD34⁺ cells

Diabetes can impair wound closure, which can give rise to major clinical problems. Most treatments for wound repair in diabetes remain ineffective. This study aimed to investigate the influence on wound closur...

Authors: Kamonnaree Chotinantakul, Chavaboon Dechsukhum, Duangnapa Dejjuy and Wilairat Leeanansaksiri

Identification of a non-canonical nuclear localization signal (NLS) in BRCA1 that could mediate nuclear localization of splice variants lacking the classical NLS

The breast cancer type 1 susceptibility gene (BRCA1) is a tumor suppressor gene, mutations or loss of which lead to genomic instability and breast cancer. BRCA1 protein is part of a large multi-protein complex in...

Authors: Aruna Korlimarla, Lekhana Bhandary, Jyothi S. Prabhu, Hema Shankar, Hari Sankaranarayanan, Pravin Kumar, Jose Remacle, Dipa Natarajan and T. S. Sridhar

U937 variant cells as a model of apoptosis without cell disintegration

The variant cell line U937_V was originally identified by a higher sensitivity to the cytocidal action of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) than that of its reference cell line, U937. We noticed that a typical mo...

Authors: Grzegorz Stasiłojć, Sandra Pinto, Roksana Wyszkowska, Magda Wejda, Ewa M. Słomińska, Martyna Filipska, Patrycja Koszałka, Julian Świerczyński, Jose Enrique O’Connor and Jacek Jerzy Bigda

Development of a new wheat microarray from a durum wheat totipotent cDNA library used for a powdery mildew resistance study

Totipotent cDNA libraries representative of all the potentially expressed sequences in a genome would be of great benefit to gene expression studies. Here, we report on an innovative method for creating such a...

Authors: Rosa Anna Cifarelli, Olimpia D’Onofrio, Rosalba Grillo, Teresa Mango, Francesco Cellini, Luciana Piarulli, Rosanna Simeone, Angelica Giancaspro, Pasqualina Colasuonno, Antonio Blanco and Agata Gadaleta

Prion protein and its role in signal transduction

Prion diseases are a class of fatal neurodegenerative disorders that can be sporadic, genetic or iatrogenic. They are characterized by the unique nature of their etiologic agent: prions (PrP^Sc). A prion is an inf...

Authors: Alessandro Didonna

Sulfochitosan inhibits P-selectin-mediated HL-60 leukocyte adhesion under flow conditions

Excessive trafficking of leukocytes can lead to serious tissue injury. Here, four regioselectively sulfated chitosans were assessed as inhibitors of HL-60 leukocyte binding to P-selectin, by investigating thei...

Authors: Jinfeng Huang, Ruifei Wang, Ximing Liu, Xianlu Zeng and Min Wei

The role of passive calcium influx through the cell membrane in galvanotaxis

Passive calcium influx is one of the theories to explain the cathodal galvanotaxis of cells that utilize the electric field to guide their motion. When exposed to an electric field, the intracellular fluid bec...

Authors: Przemysław Borys

Human mesenchymal stem cells express neuronal markers after osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that are able to differentiate into mesodermal lineages (osteogenic, adipogenic, chondrogenic), but also towards non-mesodermal derivatives (e.g. neural cell...

Authors: Dana Foudah, Juliana Redondo, Cristina Caldara, Fabrizio Carini, Giovanni Tredici and Mariarosaria Miloso

GABA exists as a negative regulator of cell proliferation in spermaogonial stem cells

γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system. GABA is also found in many peripheral tissues, where it has important functions during development. ...

Authors: Yong Du, Zhao Du, Hongping Zheng, Dan Wang, Shifeng Li, Yuanchang Yan and Yiping Li

Subcellular localization of full-length human myeloid leukemia factor 1 (MLF1) is independent of 14-3-3 proteins

Myeloid leukemia factor 1 (MLF1) is associated with the development of leukemic diseases such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). However, information on the physiological funct...

Authors: Manuela Molzan and Christian Ottmann

A nanoformulation of siRNA and its role in cancer therapy: In vitro and in vivo evaluation

Overexpression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 is often observed in a wide variety of human cancers. It prevents the induction of apoptosis in neoplastic cells and contributes to resistance to chemotherapy. RNA interfere...

Authors: Hitesh Jagani, Josyula Venkata Rao, Vasanth Raj Palanimuthu, Raghu Chandrashekar Hariharapura and Sagar Gang

Reversible and irreversible electroporation of cell suspensions flowing through a localized DC electric field

Experiments on reversible and irreversible cell electroporation were carried out with an experimental setup based on a standard apparatus for horizontal electrophoresis, a syringe pump with regulated cell susp...

Authors: Włodzimierz Korohoda, Maciej Grys and Zbigniew Madeja

Differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells derived from human bone marrow and subcutaneous adipose tissue into pancreatic islet-like clusters in vitro

Although stem cells are present in various adult tissues and body fluids, bone marrow has been the most popular source of stem cells for treatment of a wide range of diseases. Recent results for stem cells fro...

Authors: Dhanasekaran Marappagounder, Indumathi Somasundaram, Sudarsanam Dorairaj and Rajkumar Janavikula Sankaran

microRNAs: fine tuning of erythropoiesis

Cell proliferation and differentiation is a complex process involving many cellular mechanisms. One of the best-studied phenomena in cell differentiation is erythrocyte development during hematopoiesis in vert...

Authors: Marcin A. Listowski, Elżbieta Heger, Dżamila M. Bogusławska, Beata Machnicka, Kazimierz Kuliczkowski, Jacek Leluk and Aleksander F. Sikorski

Regulation of angiogenesis by hypoxia: the role of microRNA

Understanding the cellular pathways that regulate angiogenesis during hypoxia is a necessary aspect in the development of novel treatments for cardiovascular disorders. Although the pathways of angiogenesis ha...

Authors: Piotr Madanecki, Niren Kapoor, Zsuzsa Bebok, Renata Ochocka, James F. Collawn and Rafal Bartoszewski

Mesenchymal stem cells promote a primitive phenotype CD34+c-kit+ in human cord blood-derived hematopoietic stem cells during ex vivo expansion

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSC) and exogenously added cytokines on the proliferation, primitive cell subpopulation maintenance (including ...

Authors: Viviana M. Rodríguez-Pardo and Jean Paul Vernot

Zyxin-VASP interactions alter actin regulatory activity in zyxin-VASP complexes

Cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesions are sites of dramatic actin rearrangements and where actin-membrane connections are tightly regulated. Zyxin-VASP complexes localize to sites of cell-cell and cell-substr...

Authors: Jacob Grange, James D. Moody, Marc P. A. Ascione and Marc D. H. Hansen