Defining the mechanisms underlying metastatic progression of prostate cancer may lead to insights into how to decrease morbidity and mortality in this disease. An important determinant of metastasis is epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and the mechanisms that control the process of EMT in cancer cells are still emerging. Here, we report that the molecular chaperone Hsp27 (HSPB1) drive...

BACKGROUND Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) has been hypothesized to be a potential biomarker of atherothrombosis. However, no prospective studies have yet been performed to investigate the association between HSP27 plasma concentration and incident cardiovascular events among initially healthy individuals. METHODS We evaluated plasma concentrations of HSP27 at baseline among 255 initially healt...

Ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) occurs in almost every liver surgery and is associated with the reduction of the liver blood flow. Ischemia impairs liver function and can even cause liver failure following surgery. The present study aimed to identify a new molecular target allowing the reduction of IRI and explore the related cellular mechanism. Adenovirus (~2.5x10(12) viral particles) bearin...

We investigated the role of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) in the PDGF-BB-induced cytoskeleton remodeling that occurs during the migration of porcine aortic smooth muscle cells (SMC). We showed that p38 MAPK controlled the polymerization of actin that is required for PDGF-induced lamellipodia formation and migration. To investigate the mechanism of action of p38 MAPK, we ex...

Peripheral nerve transection results in the rapid death by apoptosis of neonatal but not adult sensory and motor neurons. We show that this is due to induction and phosphorylation in all adult axotomized neurons of the small heat shock protein Hsp27 and the failure of such induction in most neonatal neurons. In vivo delivery of human Hsp27 but not a nonphosphorylatable mutant prevents neonatal ...

We have reported that heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) and annexin II are involved in the protection of human cells against UVC-induced cell death. In this study we tried to confirm the combined roles of HSP27 and annexin II in cell death after UVC irradiation. In RSa cells with sensitivity to UVC, expression of annexin II decreased after UVC irradiation, but not in AP(r)-1 cells with increased re...

Clinical results of current intravesical chemotherapeutics are insufficient, and novel and safe intravesical options for high-risk bladder cancer are required to prevent both recurrence and progression. In this study, we show promising efficacy of intravesical combination treatment using antisense oligonucleotides targeting heat shock protein-27 (Hsp27; OGX427) with HTI-286, a synthetic analogu...

Optic nerve transection results in the apoptotic cell death of the majority of retinal ganglion cells by 14 days. The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) enhances survival of retinal ganglion cells. In addition, the small heat shock protein Hsp27, with its anti-apoptotic effects, may be important for neuron survival following axotomy or trophic factor withdrawal. We recently r...

Heat shock protein 27 kDa (Hsp27) functions as a molecular chaperon to prevent apoptosis as well as to contribute to the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation during development. In the present study, the localization of Hsp27 in the oral epithelium of rats and its expression change during formation of the gingiva with the tooth eruption were examined immunohistochemically to elu...

Heat shock induces in cells the synthesis of specific proteins called heat shock proteins (HSPs) and a transient state of thermotolerance. The putative role of one of the HSPs, HSP27, as a protective molecule during thermal stress has been directly assessed by measuring the resistance to hyperthermia of Chinese hamster and mouse cells transfected with the human HSP27 gene contained in plasmid p...