Search results for "DNA Primer"
showing 10 items of 317 documents
Expression of WISPs and of their novel alternative variants in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells
2005
WISPs (Wnt-induced secreted proteins) are members of the CCN (CTGF/Cyr61/Nov) family involved in fibrotic disorders and tumorigenesis. They have a typical structure composed of four conserved cysteine-rich modular domains, but variants of CCN members lacking one or more modules, generated by alternative splicing or gene mutations, have been described in various pathological conditions. WISP genes were first described as downstream targets of the Wnt signaling pathway, which is frequently altered in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, WISP mRNA expression was analyzed by RT-PCR in four human HCC cell lines (HepG2, HuH-6, HuH-7, HA22T/VGH). Our results show for the fir…
Expression of M-cadherin protein in myogenic cells during prenatal mouse development and differentiation of embryonic stem cells in culture.
1994
Molecules regulating morphogenesis by cell-cell interactions are the cadherins, a class of calcium-dependent adhesion molecules. One of its members, M-cadherin, has been isolated from a myoblast cell line (Donalies et al. [1991] Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88:8024—8028). In mouse development, expression of M-cadherin mRNA first appears at day 8.5 of gestation (E8.5) in somites and has been postulated to be down-regulated in developing muscle masses (Moore and Walsh [1993] Development 117:1409—1420). Affinity-purified polyclonal M-cadherin antibodies, detecting a protein of approximately 120 kDa, were used to study the cell expression pattern of M-cadherin protein. It was first visualized …
Endoplasmic reticulum stress is involved in response of human laryngeal carcinoma cells to carboplatin but is absent in carboplatin resistant cells
2013
The major obstacle of successful tumor treatment with carboplatin (CBP) is the development of drug resistance. In the present study, we found that following treatment with CBP the amount of platinum which enters the human laryngeal carcinoma (HEp2)-derived CBP- resistant (7T) cells is reduced relative to the parental HEp2. As a consequence, the formation of reactive oxidative species (ROS) is reduced, the induction of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is diminished, the amount of inter- and intrastrand cross-links is lower, and the induction of apoptosis is depressed. In HEp2 cells, ROS scavenger tempol, inhibitor of ER stress salubrinal, as well as gene silencing of ER stress marker CCAAT/…
Cannabinoids mediate analgesia largely via peripheral type 1 cannabinoid receptors in nociceptors
2007
Although endocannabinoids constitute one of the first lines of defense against pain, the anatomical locus and the precise receptor mechanisms underlying cannabinergic modulation of pain are uncertain. Clinical exploitation of the system is severely hindered by the cognitive deficits, memory impairment, motor disturbances and psychotropic effects resulting from the central actions of cannabinoids. We deleted the type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1) specifically in nociceptive neurons localized in the peripheral nervous system of mice, preserving its expression in the CNS, and analyzed these genetically modified mice in preclinical models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. The nociceptor-spec…
Direct suppression of CNS autoimmune inflammation via the cannabinoid receptor CB1 on neurons and CB2 on autoreactive T cells.
2007
The cannabinoid system is immunomodulatory and has been targeted as a treatment for the central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis. Using an animal model of multiple sclerosis, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), we investigated the role of the CB(1) and CB(2) cannabinoid receptors in regulating CNS autoimmunity. We found that CB(1) receptor expression by neurons, but not T cells, was required for cannabinoid-mediated EAE suppression. In contrast, CB(2) receptor expression by encephalitogenic T cells was critical for controlling inflammation associated with EAE. CB(2)-deficient T cells in the CNS during EAE exhibited reduced levels of apoptosis, a higher…
Abdominal-B and caudal inhibit the formation of specific neuroblasts in the Drosophila tail region
2013
The central nervous system of Drosophila melanogaster consists of fused segmental units (neuromeres), each generated by a characteristic number of neural stem cells (neuroblasts). In the embryo, thoracic and anterior abdominal neuromeres are almost equally sized and formed by repetitive sets of neuroblasts, whereas the terminal abdominal neuromeres are generated by significantly smaller populations of progenitor cells. Here we investigated the role of the Hox gene Abdominal-B in shaping the terminal neuromeres. We show that the regulatory isoform of Abdominal-B (Abd-B.r) not only confers abdominal fate to specific neuroblasts (e.g. NB6-4) and regulates programmed cell death of several proge…
Differential Promotion of Glutamate Transporter Expression and Function by Glucocorticoids in Astrocytes from Various Brain Regions
2005
Steroids that activate glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and mineralocorticoid receptors have important regulatory effects on neural development, plasticity, and the body's stress response. Here, we investigated the role of corticosteroids in regulating the expression of the glial glutamate transporters glial glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) and glutamate-aspartate transporter (GLAST) in rat primary astrocytes. The synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone provoked a marked increase of GLT-1 transcription and protein levels in cortical astrocytes, whereas GLAST expression remained unaffected. Up-regulation of GLT-1 expression was accompanied by an enhanced glutamate uptake, which could be blocked …
The eighth component of human complement: molecular basis of C8A (C81) polymorphism.
1995
Using an exon-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by direct DNA sequence analysis we have analyzed the polymorphism of the alpha-chain of the eighth component of human complement (C8) at the DNA level. We found that two common alleles, C8A*A and C8A*B, are characterized by the substitution of a single amino acid (Gln to Lys), which is caused by a point mutation of a single nucleotide (C to A) in exon 3 at position 187 of the mature C8 alpha cDNA sequence. Based on this mutation, an allele-specific PCR was designed detecting the two alleles of C8A. We applied this method to type the C8A polymorphism using DNA samples from a Chinese Han population. The comparison with the data o…
The redox state regulates RNA degradation in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
1999
Abstract A Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast transformant, designated MU7, carrying a chimeric (rbcL promoter: β-glucuronidase [GUS]:psaB 3′ end) gene whose transcripts have been found previously to be unstable in light (half-life of 20 min in light as opposed to a half-life of 5 h in the dark), was used to study the role of electron transport and of the redox state in the degradation of chloroplast transcripts in the light. Blocking photosynthetic electron transport with 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) prevented the light-dependent breakdown of the pool of GUS transcripts in MU7 cells. Diamide, an oxidizing agent, caused a measurable delay in the degradation of GUS trans…
cis-Regulatory sequences driving the expression of the Hbox12 homeobox-containing gene in the presumptive aboral ectoderm territory of the Paracentro…
2008
AbstractEmbryonic development is coordinated by networks of evolutionary conserved regulatory genes encoding transcription factors and components of cell signalling pathways. In the sea urchin embryo, a number of genes encoding transcription factors display territorial restricted expression. Among these, the zygotic Hbox12 homeobox gene is transiently transcribed in a limited number of cells of the animal-lateral half of the early Paracentrotus lividus embryo, whose descendants will constitute part of the ectoderm territory. To obtain insights on the regulation of Hbox12 expression, we have explored the cis-regulatory apparatus of the gene. In this paper, we show that the intergenic region …