A possible regulatory mechanism of protein kinase C (PKC) in the chondrogenesis of chick limb bud mesenchymes has been investigated. Inhibition or down-regulation of PKC resulted in the activation of a mitogen-activated protein kinase subtype Erk-1 and the inhibition of chondrogenesis. On the other hand, inhibition of Erk-1 with PD98059 enhanced chondrogenesis and relieved PKC-induced blockage ...

BACKGROUND Viruses interact with and exploit the host cellular machinery for their multiplication and propagation. The MEK/ERK signaling pathway positively regulates replication of many RNA viruses. However, whether and how this signaling pathway affects hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication and production is not well understood. METHODS AND RESULTS In this study, we took advantage of two well-...

As the regulator of pituitary reproductive hormone synthesis, the hypothalamic neuropeptide GnRH is the central regulator of reproduction. A hallmark of GnRH action is the differential control of gene expression in pituitary gonadotropes through varied pulsatile stimulation. Among other signaling events, GnRH activation of the ERK family of MAPKs plays a significant role in the transcriptional ...

We and others previously observed that IgM and CD40 stimulation in murine B cells resulted in activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), a subfamily of mitogen-activated protein kinase. The present study demonstrated that ERK was rapidly phosphorylated and translocated to the nucleus in murine B cells upon stimulation with CD40, whereas it was preferentially localized within the...

Mechanical stress contributes to vascular disease related to hypertension. Activation of ERK is key to mediating cellular proliferation and vascular remodeling in response to stretch stress. However, the mechanism by which stretch mediates ERK activation in the vascular tissue is still unclear. Caveolin, a major component of a flasklike invaginated caveolae, acts as an adaptor protein for an in...

Transgenic mice expressing beta1 integrins in the suprabasal epidermal layers have sporadic skin hyperproliferation and inflammation correlated with activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) mitogen-activated protein kinase and increased interleukin (IL)-1alpha production. We investigated the link between aberrant integrin expression, Erk activation, and expression of IL-1alpha....

ERK controls gene expression in development, but mechanisms that link ERK activation to changes in transcription are not well understood. We used high-resolution analysis of signaling dynamics to study transcriptional interpretation of ERK signaling during Drosophila embryogenesis, at a stage when ERK induces transcription of intermediate neuroblasts defective (ind), a gene essential for patter...

Activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), their upstream activators MAPK kinases (MAPKKs or MEKs) and induction of MKP-1 (CL100/3CH134) and MKP-3 (Pyst1/rVH6) dual-specificity MAPK phosphatases (MKPs) were studied in the mouse embryonic stem cell line P19 during the 7 day induction of neuronal differentiation triggered by aggregation and retinoic acid. ERK (extracellular signal-r...

We have demonstrated that extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) plays an important role in the regulation of uterine artery contraction. The present study tested the hypothesis that ERK regulates thick and thin filament regulatory pathways in the uterine artery. Isometric tension, intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), and 20-kDa myosin light chain (LC20) phosphorylation were me...

Human alveolar macrophages, central to immune responses in the lung, are unique in that they have an extended life span in contrast to precursor monocytes. We have shown previously that the ERK MAPK (ERK) pathway is constitutively active in human alveolar macrophages and contributes to the prolonged survival of these cells. We hypothesized that ERK maintains survival, in part, by positively reg...