Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression and signaling can induce cellular protection after intestinal inflammation. L-Glutamine (GLN) is known to prevent apoptosis after intestinal injury by activating MAPK and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K)/Akt pathways. However, the role of EGFR expression and signaling in GLN-mediated cellular protection in intestinal epithelial-6 (IEC-6) c...

The nonreceptor tyrosine kinase PYK2 represents a stress-sensitive mediator of c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways in many cell types. In the present study, we assessed the tyrosine phosphorylation of PYK2 under normal and pathological conditions in the CNS. We generated a polyclonal antibody that selectively recognizes tyrosine-phosphoryla...

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a pleiotropic bioactive lysophospholipid involved in inflammatory mediator synthesis. Signaling through p38MAPK, ERK, Rho kinase, and MSK-CREB contributes to LPA-mediated IL-8 production in fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The study was undertaken to investigate how LPA activates MSKs and how signaling crosstalk between T...

Occludin is a key tight junction (TJ) protein in cerebral endothelial cells (CECs) playing an important role in modulating blood-brain barrier (BBB) functions. This protein (65kDa) has been shown to engage in many signaling pathways and phosphorylation by both tyrosine and threonine kinases. Despite yet unknown mechanisms, pro-inflammatory cytokines and endotoxin (lipopolysaccharides, LPS) may ...

BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of cancer death in males in USA, and there is a strong link has been demonstrated between inflammation and esophageal cancer, interleukin (IL)-32 is a recently described pro-inflammatory cytokine characterized by the induction of nuclear factor NF-κB activation, the p38MAPK also plays an important role in key cellular processes related t...

BACKGROUND Joint inflammation is a common clinical problem in patients treated by physical therapists. The hypothesis of this study is that joint inflammation induces molecular and structural changes in the soleus muscle, which is composed mainly of slow-twitch muscle fibers. OBJECTIVE To study the effect of tibiotarsal joint inflammation on muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA), gene expre...

Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a progressive degenerative disorder that results in major neurological disability. In A-T patients, necropsy has revealed atrophy of cerebellar cortical layers along with Purkinje and granular cell loss. We have previously identified an oxidative stress-mediated increase in phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and the resultant downregulation of Bmi...

AIM To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect and the possible mechanisms of an agonist of cannabinoid (CB) receptors, WIN55-212-2 (WIN55), in mice with experimental colitis, so as to supply experimental evidence for its clinical use in future. METHODS We established the colitis model in C57BL/6 mice by replacing the animals' water supply with 4% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) for 7 consecuti...

During secondary palate development, palatal shelves adhere to each other in the midline to form a midline epithelial seam leading to palatal closure. Cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesions, which are mediated by cell adhesion receptors, E-cadherin and integrins, are implicated in the process of adhesion of the palatal shelves. Src family kinases (SFK) function downstream of both rec...

Expression of oncogenic Bcr-Abl inhibits cell differentiation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Differentiation therapy is considered to be a new strategy for treating this type of leukemia. Aclacinomycin A (ACM) is an antitumor antibiotic. Previous studies have shown that ACM induced erythroid differentiation of CML cells. In this study, we investigate t...