BACKGROUND Peripheral nerve injury can result in neuropathic pain, a chronic condition of unclear cause often poorly responsive to current treatments. One possibility is that nerve injury disrupts large A-fiber-mediated inhibition of C-fiber-evoked responses in spinal dorsal horn neurons, leading to central sensitization. A recent study provided a potential molecular mechanism; large dorsal roo...

As one of complex diseases, schizophrenia is considered to possess a complex trait to which genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors contribute interactively. The genetic analysis of schizophrenia has revealed complex and inconsistent results, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions regarding the impact of specific genes on the disease in diverse human populations. So the need for i...

Schizophrenia is a multifactorial psychiatric disorder in which both genetic and environmental factors play a role. Genetic [e.g., Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), Neuregulin-1 (NRG1)] and environmental factors (e.g., maternal viral infection, obstetric complications, social stress) may act during the developmental period to increase the incidence of schizophrenia. In animal models, intera...

Identification of factors that direct embryonic stem (ES) cell (ESC) differentiation into functional cardiomyocytes is essential for successful use of ESC-based therapy for cardiac repair. Neuregulin-1 (NRG1) and microRNA play important roles in the cardiac differentiation of ESCs. Understanding how NRG1 regulates microRNA will provide new mechanistic insights into the role of NRG1 on ESCs. It ...

Although Neuregulin-1 (Nrg1) and its cognate receptors have been found at the mRNA level in human gastrointestinal (GI) tract and their functional roles have been evaluated in vitro, their morphological distribution in higher mammals are not fully elucidated. The present research focused on morphological distribution of Nrg1 and its receptors, ErbB2 and ErbB4, in main GI tissues of the non-huma...

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and neuregulin-1β (NRG1) play important roles during cardiac development both individually and synergistically. In this study, we analyze how 3D cardiac tissue engineered from human embryonic stem cell- (hESC-) derived cardiomyocytes and 2D-plated hESC-cardiomyocytes respond to developmentally relevant growth factors both to stimulate maturity and to characte...

The transition from mitosis to meiosis is unique to germ cells. In murine embryonic ovaries and juvenile testes, retinoic acid (RA) induces meiosis via the stimulated by retinoic acid gene 8 (Stra8), but its molecular pathway requires elucidation. We present genetic evidence in vivo and in vitro that neuregulins (NRGs) are essential for the proliferation of spermatogonia and the initiation of m...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNA molecules that act as highly potent post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Over past decades, miRNAs were found to modulate brain development and function. Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a complex severe psychiatric disorder both genetic environmental risk factors implicated in SCZ. Recent studies have identified dysregulation expression contribu...

BACKGROUND Gene duplication and the subsequent divergence of paralogous pairs play a central role in the evolution of novel gene functions. S. cerevisiae possesses two paralogous genes (ALT1/ALT2) which presumably encode alanine aminotransferases. It has been previously shown that Alt1 encodes an alanine aminotransferase, involved in alanine metabolism; however the physiological role of Alt2 is...