Upper urinary tract obstruction results in tubulointerstitial fibrosis and a progressive decline in renal function. Although several inflammatory mediators have been implicated in the pathophysiology of renal obstruction, the contribution of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) to obstruction-induced fibrosis and renal dysfunction has not been thoroughly evaluated. To study this, male Sprague-Dawley...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to identify potential therapeutic strategies to slow down or prevent the expression of early-onset epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker proteins (fibronectin and alpha smooth muscle actin, α-SMA) without sacrificing the synthesis and accumulation of the prosurvival protein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cultured virally transforme...

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of Chinese medicine formula-Yu Zhang Dan (YZD, composed of Herba Lysimachiae, Rhizoma Polygoni Cuspidati, Radix Curcumae) on the model rats with hepatic fibrosis. Forty male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were used in the present study, and they were separated randomly into 4 groups: a normal control group (Group A, n=5), a model control (Group B...

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease that results in fibrosis in multiple organs. Various animal models for this disease have been developed, both genetic and induced. One of the induced models, sclerodermatous graft-versus-host disease (scl-GvHD), exhibits the main characteristics of SSc, but involves lethal γ-irradiation of recipients. We sought to develop a modified scl-Gv...

BACKGROUND A decreased prostatic blood flow could be one of the risk factors for benign prostatic hyperplasia/benign prostatic enlargement. The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) shows a chronic prostatic ischemia and hyperplastic morphological abnormalities in the ventral prostate. The effect of silodosin, a selective alpha1A-adrenoceptor antagonist, was investigated in the SHR prostate as a...

The purpose of the present study was to identify histological biomarkers that could be used predict adipose tissue invasion by oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). medical records and preoperative computed tomography scans patients with primary OSCC suspected buccal fat pad were retrospectively reviewed, an immunohistochemical candidate predictive (α-SMA, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, FABP4, Col VI, ...

Krüppel-like Factor 4 (KLF4), a target gene of miR-145, can negatively regulate lung fibrosis. However, the potential role of KLF4 and miR-145 in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation or in hepatic fibrosis keeps unclear. This study aims to characterize miR-145 and KLF4 in activated HSCs and liver cirrhotic, and the underlying molecular basis. miR-145 was significantly up-regulated, while KL...

OBJECTIVE NF-κB, especially p65 subunit, plays important role in the process of pulmonary fibrosis. In this study, we transformed fibroblast into myofibroblast induced by bleomycin, and then studied the effects of NF-κB p65 antisense oligonucleotide on pulmonary fibrosis in mouse model. METHODS Pulmonary fibrosis was induced by bleomycin in C57BL/6 mouse (modeling group). The NF-κB antisense ...