Search results for "Signaling."

Pivotal roles of glycogen synthase-3 in hepatocellular carcinoma

2017

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers in the world, and represents the second most frequently cancer and third most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. At advanced stage, HCC is a highly aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis and with very limited response to common therapies. Therefore, there is still the need for new effective and well-tolerated therapeutic strategies. Molecular-targeted therapies hold promise for HCC treatment. One promising molecular target is the multifunctional serine/threonine kinase glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3). The roles of GSK-3β in HCC remain controversial, several studies suggested a possible role of GSK-3β as a tumor …

Increased liver carcinogenesis and enrichment of stem cell properties in livers of Dickkopf 2 (Dkk2) deleted mice.

2013

// Thorsten Maass 1 , Jens Marquardt 2 , Ju-Seog Lee 3 , Markus Krupp 4 , Peter Scholz-Kreisel 2 , Carolin Mogler 5 , Peter Schirmacher 5 , Martina Muller 1 , Heiner Westphal 6 , Peter R. Galle 2 , Andreas Teufel 1 1 Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany 2 I. Department of Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany 3 Cancer Biology Program, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA 4 Department of Informatics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany 5 Institute of Pathology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany 6 Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop…

Author response: Cortex-wide BOLD fMRI activity reflects locally-recorded slow oscillation-associated calcium waves

2017

MicroRNA Intercellular Transfer and Bioelectrical Regulation of Model Multicellular Ensembles by the Gap Junction Connectivity.

2017

We have studied theoretically the microRNA (miRNA) intercellular transfer through voltage-gated gap junctions in terms of a biophysically grounded system of coupled differential equations. Instead of modeling a specific system, we use a general approach describing the interplay between the genetic mechanisms and the single-cell electric potentials. The dynamics of the multicellular ensemble are simulated under different conditions including spatially inhomogeneous transcription rates and local intercellular transfer of miRNAs. These processes result in spatiotemporal changes of miRNA, mRNA, and ion channel protein concentrations that eventually modify the bioelectrical states of small multi…

The EP300/TP53 pathway, a suppressor of the Hippo and canonical WNT pathways, is activated in human hearts with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy in the …

2021

Aim Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a primary myocardial disease that typically manifests with cardiac arrhythmias, progressive heart failure and sudden cardiac death (SCD). ACM is mainly caused by mutations in genes encoding desmosome proteins. Desmosomes are cell-cell adhesion structures and hubs for mechanosensing and mechanotransduction. The objective was to identify the dysregulated molecular and biological pathways in human ACM in the absence of overt heart failure. Methods and results Transcriptomes in the right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy samples from three independent individuals carrying truncating mutations in the DSP gene and 5 control samples were analyzed by RNA-S…

Niemann-Pick type C2 protein supplementation in experimental non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

2017

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hepatic cholesterol deposition drives inflammation and fibrosis in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The Niemann-Pick type C2 (NPC2) protein plays an important role in regulating intracellular cholesterol trafficking and homeostasis. We hypothesized that intravenous NPC2 supplementation reduces cholesterol accumulation, hepatic inflammation and fibrogenesis in a nutritional NASH rat model.METHODS: Rats were fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet for four weeks resulting in moderately severe NASH. Animals were treated with intravenous NPC2 or placebo twice weekly for either the last two weeks or the entire four weeks. End-points were liver/body- and spleen/body…

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…

TGF-β Serum Levels in Diabetic Retinopathy Patients and the Role of Anti-VEGF Therapy.

2020

Transforming growth factor &beta

BAX inhibitor-1 is a Ca(2+) channel critically important for immune cell function and survival.

2015

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) serves as the major intracellular Ca(2+) store and has a role in the synthesis and folding of proteins. BAX (BCL2-associated X protein) inhibitor-1 (BI-1) is a Ca(2+) leak channel also implicated in the response against protein misfolding, thereby connecting the Ca(2+) store and protein-folding functions of the ER. We found that BI-1-deficient mice suffer from leukopenia and erythrocytosis, have an increased number of splenic marginal zone B cells and higher abundance and nuclear translocation of NF-κB (nuclear factor-κ light-chain enhancer of activated B cells) proteins, correlating with increased cytosolic and ER Ca(2+) levels. When put into culture, purifie…