0000000000189479
AUTHOR
Eckhard Wolf
Murine tissue factor disulfide mutation causes a bleeding phenotype with sex specific organ pathology and lethality.
Tissue factor is highly expressed in sub-endothelial tissue. The extracellular allosteric disulfide bond Cys186-Cys209 of human tissue factor shows high evolutionary conservation and in vitro evidence suggests that it significantly contributes to tissue factor procoagulant activity. To investigate the role of this allosteric disulfide bond in vivo, we generated a C213G mutant tissue factor mouse by replacing Cys213 of the corresponding disulfide Cys190-Cys213 in murine tissue factor. A bleeding phenotype was prominent in homozygous C213G tissue factor mice. Pre-natal lethality of 1/3rd of homozygous offspring was observed between E9.5 and E14.5 associated with placental hemorrhages. After b…
The function of the soluble interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptor in vivo: sensitization of human soluble IL-6 receptor transgenic mice towards IL-6 and prolongation of the plasma half-life of IL-6.
Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is considered an important mediator of acute inflammatory responses. Moreover, IL-6 functions as a differentiation and growth factor of hematopoietic precursor cells, B cells, T cells, keratinocytes, neuronal cells, osteoclasts, and endothelial cells. IL-6 exhibits its action via a receptor complex consisting of a specific IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) and a signal transducing subunit (gp130). Soluble forms of both receptor components are generated by shedding and are found in patients with various diseases such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and others. The function of the soluble (s)IL-6R in vivo is unknown. Since human (h)IL-6 acts on human and…
Methylation Reprogramming and Chromosomal Aneuploidy in In Vivo Fertilized and Cloned Rabbit Preimplantation Embryos1
Active demethylation of the paternal genome but not of the maternal genome occurs in fertilized mouse, rat, pig, and bovine zygotes. To study whether this early demethylation wave is important for embryonic development, we have analyzed the global methylation patterns of both in vivo-fertilized and cloned rabbit embryos. Anti-5-methylcytosine immunofluorescence of in vivo-fertilized rabbit embryos revealed that the equally high methylation levels of the paternal and maternal genomes are largely maintained from the zygote up to the 16-cell stage. The lack of detectable methylation changes in rabbit preimplantation embryos suggests that genome-wide demethylation is not an obligatory requireme…
Physiological relevance of the neuronal isoform of inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinases in mice
Inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase-A (ITPKA) is the neuronal isoform of ITPKs and exhibits both actin bundling and InsP3kinase activity. In addition to neurons, ITPKA is ectopically expressed in tumor cells, where its oncogenic activity increases tumor cell malignancy. In order to analyze the physiological relevance of ITPKA, here we performed a broad phenotypic screening of itpka deficient mice. Our data show that among the neurobehavioral tests analyzed, itpka deficient mice reacted faster to a hotplate, prepulse inhibition was impaired and the accelerating rotarod test showed decreased latency of itpka deficient mice to fall. These data indicate that ITPKA is involved in the regulatio…
Role of the insulin-like growth factor system in adrenocortical growth control and carcinogenesis.
Clinically silent adrenocortical adenomas are the most frequent abnormalities in the adrenal gland. In contrast, adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare tumor with an extremely poor prognosis. The factors responsible for the frequent occurrence of benign adrenocortical tumors on one hand and the rare malignant transformation on the other are not known. Several genetic alterations such as loss of imprinting or loss of heterozygosity of the 11p15 gene locus causing a strong IGF-II overexpression have been demonstrated in the majority of adrenocortical carcinomas. In addition to IGF-II overexpression, increased levels of the IGF-I-receptor and IGFBP-2 have been found in advanced human adrenocortica…