The innervation of skeletal myofibers exerts a crucial influence on the maintenance of muscle tone and normal operation. Consequently, denervated myofibers manifest atrophy, which is preceded by an increase in sarcolemma permeability. Recently, de novo expression of hemichannels (HCs) formed by connexins (Cxs) and other none selective channels, including P2X7 receptors (P2X7Rs), and transient r...

The receptor tyrosine kinase MuSK is indispensable for nerve-muscle synapse formation and maintenance. MuSK is necessary for prepatterning of the endplate zone anlage and as a signaling receptor for agrin-mediated postsynaptic differentiation. MuSK-associated proteins such as Dok7, LRP4, and Wnt11r are involved in these early events in neuromuscular junction formation. However, the mechanisms r...

In the adult forebrain, new interneurons are continuously generated and integrated into the existing circuitry of the olfactory bulb (OB). In an attempt to identify signals that regulate this synaptic integration process, we found strong expression of agrin in adult generated neuronal precursors that arrive in the olfactory bulb after their generation in the subventricular zone. While the agrin...

Received: 03-12-2015; Accepted: 05-01-2016 Myasthenia gravis (MG) is neuromuscular disorder induced neurotransmission defects at the neuromuscular junctions. MG is an autoimmune disease in which the autologous immune system, including the corresponding antibodies, immune cells and complement systems, attacks the cholinergic receptor (AChRs) of the postsynaptic membrane, resulting in weakness of...

Serum-response factor (SRF) is an obligatory transcription factor, required for the formation of vertebrate mesoderm leading to the origin of the cardiovascular system. Protein A-TEV-tagged chromatin immunoprecipitation technology was used to collect direct SRF-bound gene targets from pluripotent P19 cells, induced by Me2SO treatment into an enriched cardiac cell population. From 242 sequenced ...

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is one of the most malignant tumors worldwide. We aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of this CSCC and screen feature genes that can function as the biomarker of CSCC and thus provide a theoretical basis for the pathogenesis research and development of medicine. The method of microarray data analysis was used in this study to explore the differentia...

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is mediated by the Gli transcription factors and, in the zebrafish, plays an important role in patterning both the neural tube and myotome. Using a null allele of the gli2a gene induced by targeted mutagenesis, we show that Gli2a is completely dispensable in the fish but acts redundantly with Gli1 to regulate expression of known Hh targets, such as ptch2, prdm1a and eng2...

Age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function attenuates physical performance, and maintaining fine muscle innervation is known to play an important role in its prevention. We had previously shown that consumption of milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) with habitual exercise improves the muscle mass and motor function in humans and mice. Improvement of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) was sugg...

BACKGROUND The milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) is primarily composed of polar phospho- and sphingolipids, which have established biological effects on neuroplasticity. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary MFGM supplementation on the neuromuscular system during post-natal development. METHODS Growing rats received dietary supplementation with bovine-derived MFGM mixtur...