The huntingtin exon 1 proteins with a polyglutamine repeat in the pathological range (51 or 83 glutamines), but not with a polyglutamine tract in the normal range (20 glutamines), form aggresome-like perinuclear inclusions in human 293 Tet-Off cells. These structures contain aggregated, ubiquitinated huntingtin exon 1 protein with a characteristic fibrillar morphology. Inclusion bodies with tru...

The promoter region of the alpha-subunit of the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (alpha-CaMKII) gene was inserted into a beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) reporter plasmid, and beta-gal activities were examined in neuroblastoma (NB2a) and pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells after transient or stable transfections. The alpha-CaMKII promoter was 12- to 45-fold more active in NB2a compared wit...

Abstract Stroke causes death and disability globally but no neuroprotectant is approved for post-stroke neuronal injury. Neuroprotective compounds can be identified using oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) of cells as an in vitro stroke model. Nerve growth factor (NGF)-differentiated PC12 pheochromocytoma are frequently used. However, investigators often find their clonal variant undifferentiable...

The Ten Eleven Translocation (TET) enzymes have been found to be mutated in both diffuse large B-cell (DLBCL) and peripheral T-cell (PTCL) lymphomas resulting in DNA hypermethylation. Recent studies in embryonal stem cells showed that ascorbic acid (AA) is a cofactor for TET with a binding site at the catalytic domain, and enhances TET activity. We hypothesized that AA could potentially enhance...

Monoclonal antibodies specific for neurofilament (NF) subunits or for vimentin filament (VF) protein were used to study nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced intermediate filament expression and organization in a rat pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12 cells). NGF induced increased amounts of NF subunits and VF protein, and they were, in part, differentially localized within PC12 cells. The relative e...

Live-attenuated human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) variants have shown great promise as AIDS vaccines, but continued replication can lead to the selection of faster-replicating variants that are pathogenic. We therefore designed HIV-1 genomes that replicate exclusively upon addition of the nontoxic effector doxycycline (dox). This was achieved by replacement of the viral TAR-Tat system...

Tetrandrine (Tet), a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid, has been reported to have a radiosensitization effect on tumors. However, its effects on human glioma and the specific molecular mechanisms of these effects remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that Tet has a radiosensitization effect on human glioma cells. It has been hypothesized that Tet has a radiosensitization effect on glioma ...

We have previously reported that 5 copies of the hypoxia response element (HRE) can conditionally regulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression under hypoxic/ischemic conditions in mice. In the present study, we investigated the controlled expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) by HRE under hypoxic conditions and determined the protectiv...

The Pto gene encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase that confers resistance in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) to Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato strains that express the type III effector protein AvrPto. Constitutive overexpression of Pto in tomato, in the absence of AvrPto, activates defense responses and confers resistance to several diverse bacterial and fungal plant pathogens. We have u...

Primary cultures of rat dorsal root ganglion Schwann cells were used to assay the efficacy of PC12 cells in stimulating Schwann cell proliferation. Co-cultures of PC12 cells and Schwann cells assayed by [3H]thymidine labeling followed by autoradiography showed proliferation of Schwann cells only where contact occurred between PC12 neurites and Schwann cells. Membranes derived from PC12 cells we...