Trehalose-6,6-dimycolate (TDM), the mycobacterial cord factor, and its synthetic analog Trehalose-6,6-dibehenate (TDB) bind to the C-type lectin receptors macrophage-inducible C-type lectin (Mincle) and Mcl to activate macrophages. Genetically, the transcriptional response to TDB/TDM has been defined to require FcRγ-Syk-Card9 signaling. However, TDB/TDM-triggered kinase activation has not been ...

Prostate cancer can usually be treated at a clinically localized stage by radical prostatectomy. Unfortunately, within 10 years following surgery, 30% of patients experience local or distant relapse. Few data exist on the association of markers of angiogenesis and distant relapse after radical prostatectomy. By immunohistochemistry in tissue microarray, we compared the expression pattern of hyp...

Aims: Intermittent hypoxia (IH) training is said to have a preconditioning effect for evoking acclimatization at high altitude (HA). Carotid body (CB) plays a vital role in oxygen sensing and is an important component in HA acclimatization. The present study reports the mechanistic effects of IH that involves episodes of hypoxia of few hours continued for several days, on the CB responses to ac...

The present study aimed to construct a novel recombinant adenovirus expression vector Ad-BMP2-IRES-HIF1αmu that expresses human bone morphogenetic protein (BMP2) and mutant hypoxia-inducible factor 1α, and investigated its effects in promoting neogenesis of bone and angiogenesis. The recombinant adenovirus BMP2, HIF1αmu and pIRES2-EGFP expression vectors were constructed and transfected into HE...

In COPD, matrix remodeling contributes to airflow limitation. Recent evidence suggests that next to fibroblasts, the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition can contribute to matrix remodeling. CSE has been shown to induce EMT in lung epithelial cells, but the signaling mechanisms involved are largely unknown and subject of this study. EMT was assessed in A549 and BEAS2B cells stimulated w...

Lung development occurs under relative hypoxia and the most important oxygen-sensitive response pathway is driven by Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIF). HIFs are heterodimeric transcription factors of an oxygen-sensitive subunit, HIFα, and a constitutively expressed subunit, HIF1β. HIF1α and HIF2α, encoded by two separate genes, contribute to the activation of hypoxia inducible genes. A third HIFα...