Search results for "Intracellular"
showing 10 items of 821 documents
Review: How was metazoan threshold crossed? The hypothetical Urmetazoa.
2001
The origin of Metazoa remained — until recently — the most enigmatic of all phylogenetic problems. Sponges [Porifera] as ‘living fossils’, positioned at the base of multicellular animals, have been used to answer basic questions in metazoan evolution by molecular biological techniques. During the last few years, cDNAs/genes coding for informative proteins have been isolated and characterized from sponges, especially from the marine demosponges Suberites domuncula and Geodia cydonium. The analyses of their deduced amino acid sequences allowed a molecular biological resolution of the monophyly of Metazoa. Molecules of the extracellular matrix/basal lamina, with the integrin receptor, fibronec…
Identification of the Weevil immune genes and their expression in the bacteriome tissue
2008
Abstract Background Persistent infections with mutualistic intracellular bacteria (endosymbionts) are well represented in insects and are considered to be a driving force in evolution. However, while pathogenic relationships have been well studied over the last decades very little is known about the recognition of the endosymbionts by the host immune system and the mechanism that limits their infection to the bacteria-bearing host tissue (the bacteriome). Results To study bacteriome immune specificity, we first identified immune-relevant genes of the weevil Sitophilus zeamais by using suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) and then analyzed their full-length coding sequences obtained b…
Extracellular membrane vesicles as a mechanism of cell-to-cell communication: advantages and disadvantages.
2014
Microvesicles represent a newly identified mechanism of intercellular communication. Two different types of microvesicles have been identified: membrane-derived vesicles (EVs) and exosomes. EVs originate by direct budding from the plasma membrane, while exosomes arise from ectocytosis of multivesicular bodies. Recent attention has focused on the capacity of EVs to alter the phenotype of neighboring cells to make them resemble EV-producing cells. Stem cells are an abundant source of EVs, and the interaction between stem cells and the microenvironment (i.e., stem cell niche) plays a critical role in determining stem cell phenotype. The stem cell niche hypothesis predicts that stem cell number…
TBBPA causes neurotoxic and the apoptotic responses in cultured mouse hippocampal neurons in vitro
2015
Abstract Background Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a brominated flame retardant widely used in a variety of commercial and household products. TBBPA can become bioaccumulated in human body fluids, and also in different brain regions. The aim of the present study was to determine the viability and apoptosis of cultured mouse hippocampal neurons in vitro after exposure to TBBPA. Additionally, we examined the involvement of ROS generation in the effect of TBBPA. Methods Primary hippocampal neuron cultures were prepared from Swiss mouse embryos on day 17/18 of gestation. The cultures were treated with TBBPA at concentrations ranging from 1 nM to 100 μM for 30 min or 3, 6 or 24 h. To study apo…
Core Cross-Linked Polymeric Micelles for Specific Iron Delivery: Inducing Sterile Inflammation in Macrophages.
2021
Iron is an essential co-factor for cellular processes. In the immune system, it can activate macrophages and represents a potential therapeutic for various diseases. To specifically deliver iron to macrophages, iron oxide nanoparticles are embedded in polymeric micelles of reactive polysarcosine-block-poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-l-cysteine). Upon surface functionalization via dihydrolipoic acid, iron oxide cores act as crosslinker themselves and undergo chemoselective disulfide bond formation with the surrounding poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-l-cysteine) block, yielding glutathione-responsive core cross-linked polymeric micelles (CCPMs). When applied to primary murine and human macrophages, these nanoparti…
Amorphous Ca2+ polyphosphate nanoparticles regulate the ATP level in bone-like SaOS-2 cells
2015
ABSTRACT Polyphosphate (polyP) is a physiologically occurring polyanion that is synthesized especially in bone-forming osteoblast cells and blood platelets. We used amorphous polyP nanoparticles, complexed with Ca2+, that have a globular size of ∼100 nm. Because polyP comprises inorganic orthophosphate units that are linked together through high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds, we questioned whether the observed morphogenetic effect, elicited by polyP, is correlated with the energy-generating machinery within the cells. We show that exposure of SaOS-2 osteoblast-like cells to polyP results in a strong accumulation of mitochondria and a parallel translocation of the polyP-degrading enzyme alka…
Anti-proliferative effect of main dietary phytosterols and β-cryptoxanthin alone or combined in human colon cancer Caco-2 cells through cytosolic Ca+…
2015
β-cryptoxanthin (β-Cx) and phytosterols (Ps) have potential against different cancer types, including colon cancer. However, their combined action has not been reported so far. Human colon cancer Caco-2 cells were treated 24 h with β-Cx and/or main dietary Ps (β-sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol), alone or in combination, at concentrations compatible with physiological human serum levels. A decrease in cell viability due to apoptosis (rise in sub-G1 population and exposure of membrane phosphatidylserine) was accompanied with dephosphorylation of BAD, mitochondrial depolarization and caspase 3-dependent PARP cleavage, with intracellular Ca2+ influx and increase of RONS levels as initi…
The unsolved relationship of brain aging and late-onset Alzheimer disease.
2009
Late-onset Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia and is strongly associated with age. Today, around 24 million people suffer from dementia and with aging of industrial populations this number will significantly increase throughout the next decades. An effective therapy that successfully decelerates or prevents the progressive neurodegeneration does not exist. Histopathologically Alzheimer disease is characterized by extensive extracellular amyloid beta (Abeta) plaques, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), synaptic loss and neuronal cell death in distinct brain regions. The molecular correlation of Abeta or NFTs and development of late-onset Alzheimer disease needs f…
Regulation of tumour cell sensitivity to TNF-induced oxidative stress and cytotoxicity: Role of glutathione
1998
Glutathione (GSH) and the rate of cellular proliferation determine tumour cell sensitivity to tumour necrosis factor (TNF). Buthionine sulphoximine (BSO), a selective inhibitor of GSH synthesis, inhibits tumour growth and increases recombinant human TNF (rhTNF)-alpha cytoxicity in vitro. Administration of sublethal doses of rhTNF-alpha to Ehrlich ascites-tumour (EAT)-bearing mice induces oxidative stress (as measured by increases in intracellular peroxide levels, O2.- generation and mitochondrial GSSG). ATP-induced selective GSH depletion, when combined with rhTNF-alpha administration, affords a 61% inhibition of tumour growth and results in a significant extent of host survival. Administra…
Anti-Proliferative Activity of A Hydrophilic Extract of Manna from Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl through Mitochondrial Pathway-Mediated Apoptosis and Ce…
2020
Manna is produced from the spontaneous solidification of the sap of some Fraxinus species, and, owing its content in mannitol, is used in medicine as a mild laxative. Manna is also a rich source of characteristic bio-phenols with reducing, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study assesses the activity of a hydrophilic extract of manna (HME) on cellular and molecular events in human colon-rectal cancer cells. HME showed a time- and concentration-dependent anti-proliferative activity, measured by MTT assay, in all the cell lines examined, namely Caco-2, HCT-116 and HT-29. The amounts of HME that caused 50% of cell death after a 24 h treatment were 8.51 ±