Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is considered as a pre-cancerous condition of the oral mucosa and is highly associated with habitual areca quid chewing. Arecoline is the major alkaloid in areca quid and is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of OSF. Our previous studies have demonstrated that arecoline could induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related factors in primary human bu...

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is an uncommon benign neoplasm and its presentation in small bowel is rare. Due to clinical manifestation, laboratory data and radiologic results, there is an increased risk of over diagnosis as malignant tumors particularly malignant lymphoma in childhood therefore may be resulting in wrong therapeutic approach. However pathologic findings could be demonstrat...

The fibronexus ( FNX ), a very close transmembrane association of individual extracellular fibronectin fibers and actin microfilaments, was found previously at the substrate-binding surface of fibroblasts in tissue culture (Singer, 1. 1., 1979, Cell, 16:675-685). To determine whether the fibronexus might be involved in fibroblast adhesion during wound healing in vivo, we looked for co-localizat...

Myofibroblast differentiation is a key process in pathogenesis of fibrotic diseases. Cardiac glycosides (ouabain, digoxin) inhibit Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase, resulting in increased intracellular [Na(+)]-to-[K(+)] ratio in cells. Microarray analysis suggested that increased intracellular [Na(+)]/[K(+)] ratio may promote the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), a critical enzyme in the synthesis of pr...

BACKGROUND Exposure to crystalline silica is considered to increase the risk of lung fibrosis. The primary effector cell, the myofibroblast, plays an important role in the deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM). DNA methylation change is considered to have a potential effect on myofibroblast differentiation. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the genome-wide DNA methylat...

PURPOSE Corneal stromal scarring partly involves the production of corneal myofibroblasts. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of rapamycin (an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin [mTOR] pathway) on myofibroblast formation in vitro and in-vivo. METHODS Human corneal fibroblasts were grown in culture and transformed into myofibroblasts using TGF-β (2 ng/mL). The pho...

BACKGROUND Compartment-specific epithelial and stromal expression of the secreted glycoprotein Dickkopf-related protein (Dkk)-3 is altered in age-related proliferative disorders of the human prostate. This study aimed to determine the effect of Dkk-3 on prostate stromal remodeling that is stromal proliferation, fibroblast-to-myofibroblast differentiation and expression of angiogenic factors in ...

Fibroblast/myofibroblast expansion is critical in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. To date, most research has focused on profibrotic mediators, whereas studies on antifibrotic factors are scanty. In this study, we explored the effects of acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) and FGF-1 plus heparin (FGF-1+H) on fibroblast growth rate, apoptosis, and myofibroblast differentiation. Hepari...

153 Effect of Simvastatin on Transforming Growth Factor BETA-1Induced Myofibroblast Differentiation and Collagen Production in Nasal Polyp-Derived Fibroblasts Il-Ho Park, MD, and Heung-man Lee, MD, PhD. Department of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery, Korea university college of medicine, Seoul, South Korea. Background: Statins are the most commonly prescribed drugs for the treatment of...

Tubulointerstitial renal injury induced by unilateral ureteric obstruction (UUO) is characterized by marked cell proliferation and apoptosis. Proliferation requires cell cycle transit that is positively regulated by cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and inhibited by the CIP/KIP family of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CKIs: p21, p27, and p57). We have shown that the absence of p2...