Search results for "ALK"
showing 10 items of 4314 documents
Congenital muscular dystrophy: from muscle to brain.
2016
Congenital muscular dystrophies (CMDs) are a wide group of muscular disorders that manifest with very early onset of muscular weakness, sometime associated to severe brain involvement. The histologic pattern of muscle anomalies is typical of dystrophic lesions but quite variable depending on the different stages and on the severity of the disorder. Recent classification of CMDs have been reported most of which based on the combination of clinical, biochemical, molecular and genetic findings, but genotype/phenotype correlation are in constant progression due to more diffuse utilization of the molecular analysis. In this article, the Authors report on CMDs belonging to the group of dystroglyc…
Crosstalk of mitochondria with NADPH oxidase via reactive oxygen and nitrogen species signalling and its role for vascular function
2016
Cardiovascular diseases are associated with and/or caused by oxidative stress. This concept has been proven by using the approach of genetic deletion of reactive species producing (pro-oxidant) enzymes as well as by the overexpression of reactive species detoxifying (antioxidant) enzymes leading to a marked reduction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and in parallel to an amelioration of the severity of diseases. Likewise, the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases is aggravated by overexpression of RONS producing enzymes as well as deletion of antioxidant RONS detoxifying enzymes. Thus, the consequences of the interaction (redox crosstalk) of superoxide/hydroge…
Indomethacin blocks the increased conditioned rewarding effects of cocaine induced by repeated social defeat
2018
It is well established that repeated social defeat stress can induce negative long-term consequences such as increased anxiety-like behavior and enhances the reinforcing effect of psychostimulants in rodents. In the current study, we evaluated how the immune system may play a role in these long-term effects of stress. A total of 148 OF1 mice were divided into different experimental groups according to stress condition (exploration or social defeat) and pre-treatment (saline, 5 or 10 mg/kg of the anti-inflammatory indomethacin) before each social defeat or exploration episode. Three weeks after the last social defeat, anxiety was evaluated using an elevated plus maze paradigm. After this tes…
Copper transporter COPT5 participates in the crosstalk between vacuolar copper and iron pools mobilisation
2019
Copper (Cu) deficiency affects iron (Fe) homeostasis in several plant processes, including the increased Fe requirements due to cuproprotein substitutions for the corresponding Fe counterpart. Loss-of-function mutants from Arabidopsis thaliana high affinity copper transporter COPT5 and Fe transporters NATURAL RESISTANCE-ASSOCIATED MACROPHAGE PROTEIN 3/4 (NRAMP3 and NRAMP4) were used to study the interaction between metals internal pools. A physiological characterisation showed that the copt5 mutant is sensitive to Fe deficiency, and that nramp3nramp4 mutant growth was severely affected under limiting Cu. By a transcriptomic analysis, we observed that NRAMP4 expression was highly induced in …
Temperature increases, hypoxia, and changes in food availability affect immunological biomarkers in the marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis
2017
Temperature increases, hypoxia, and changes in food availability are predicted to occur in the future. There is growing concern for the health status of wild and farmed organisms, since environmental stressors alter organism functions, and elicit coordinated physiological responses for homeostasis. Mussels are good bioindicators of environmental conditions. Their ability to maintain unaltered immunosurveillance under adverse environmental conditions may enhance their survival capability. Few studies are currently concerned with the relationships and feedback among multiple stressors. Here, food concentration, temperature, and oxygenation treatments were evaluated for their effects on immune…
MicroRNAs and Oxidative Stress: An Intriguing Crosstalk to Be Exploited in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes
2021
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease widespread throughout the world, with significant human, social, and economic costs. Its multifactorial etiology leads to persistent hyperglycemia, impaired carbohydrate and fat metabolism, chronic inflammation, and defects in insulin secretion or insulin action, or both. Emerging evidence reveals that oxidative stress has a critical role in the development of type 2 diabetes. Overproduction of reactive oxygen species can promote an imbalance between the production and neutralization of antioxidant defence systems, thus favoring lipid accumulation, cellular stress, and the activation of cytosolic signaling pathways, and inducing β-cell dysfunction, insul…
Frontiers in Physiology
2021
Besides its roles in locomotion and thermogenesis, skeletal muscle plays a significant role in global glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity through complex nutrient sensing networks. Our previous work showed that the muscle-specific ablation of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) led to a lean phenotype through enhanced interleukin-15 (IL-15) expression. We also showed OGT epigenetically modified and repressed the Il15 promoter. However, whether there is a causal relationship between OGT ablation-induced IL-15 secretion and the lean phenotype remains unknown. To address this question, we generated muscle specific OGT and interleukin-15 receptor alpha subunit (IL-15rα) double knockout mice (mDKO…
Cold Atmospheric Plasma Promotes Regeneration-Associated Cell Functions of Murine Cementoblasts In Vitro
2021
The aim of the study was to examine the efficacy of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on the mineralization and cell proliferation of murine dental cementoblasts. Cells were treated with CAP and enamel matrix derivates (EMD). Gene expression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), bone gamma-carboxyglutamate protein (BGLAP), periostin (POSTN), osteopontin (OPN), osterix (OSX), collagen type I alpha 1 chain (COL1A1), dentin matrix acidic phosphoprotein (DMP)1, RUNX family transcription factor (RUNX)2, and marker of proliferation Ki-67 (KI67) was quantified by real-time PCR. Protein expression was analyzed by immunocytochemistry and ELISA. ALP activity was determined by ALP assay. Von Kossa and alizarin r…
Amorphous polyphosphate–hydroxyapatite: A morphogenetically active substrate for bone-related SaOS-2 cells in vitro
2015
There is increasing evidence that inorganic calcium-polyphosphates (polyP) are involved in human bone hydroxyapatite (HA) formation. Here we investigated the morphology of the particles, containing calcium phosphate (CaP) with different concentrations of various Na-polyP concentrations, as well as their effects in cell culture. We used both SaOS-2 cells and human mesenchymal stem cells. The polymeric phosphate readily binds calcium ions under formation of insoluble precipitates. We found that addition of low concentrations of polyP (10wt.%, referred to the CaP deposits) results in an increased size of the HA crystals. Surprisingly, at higher polyP concentrations (10wt.%) the formation of cr…
The morphogenetically active polymer, inorganic polyphosphate complexed with GdCl 3 , as an inducer of hydroxyapatite formation in vitro
2015
Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is a physiological polymer composed of tens to hundreds of phosphate units linked together via phosphoanhydride bonds. Here we compared the biological activity of polyP (chain length of 40 phosphate units), complexed with Gd(3+) (polyP·Gd), with the one caused by polyP (as calcium salt) and by GdCl3 alone, regarding their potencies to induce hydroxyapatite (HA) formation in SaOS-2 cells in vitro. The three compounds, GdCl3, polyP and polyP·Gd were found to be non-toxic at concentrations up to at least 30μM. Selecting a low, 5μM, concentration it was found that polyP·Gd significantly induced HA formation, as determined by Alizarin Red S staining and by quantit…