Fish skin serves as the first line of defense against a wide variety of chemical, physical and biological stressors. Secretion of mucus is among the most prominent characteristics of fish skin and numerous innate immune factors have been identified in the epidermal mucus. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the mucus secretion and immune activities of fish skin remain largely unclear due t...

Parasin I is a potent 19-residue antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin mucus of wounded catfish (Parasilurus asotus). Here we describe the mechanism of parasin I production from histone H2A in catfish skin mucosa on epidermal injury. Cathepsin D is found to exist in the mucus as an inactive proenzyme (procathepsin D), and a metalloprotease, induced on injury, cleaves procathepsin D to ge...

The transfer of maternal contaminants to offspring during oogenesis and gestation is documented in many animals, and in mammals, contaminants may pass from mother to offspring during lactation. Although other non-mammalian vertebrates provide parental care in the form of nutritive secretions for offspring to feed from, the potential for toxicant transfer during non-mammalian parental care is ra...

BACKGROUND In asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), airway mucus hypersecretion contributes to impaired mucociliary clearance, mucostasis and, potentially, the development of mucus plugging of the airways. SUMMARY Excess mucus production can be targeted via therapies that focus on inhibition mucin synthesis, via reducing expression of mucin (MUC) genes, and/or inhibition of...

Antimicrobial proteins and peptides play key roles in innate immunity and they had been observed from a wide variety of organisms in the last few years. The present study was undertaken to characterize antimicrobial peptides from the epidermal mucus of cat fishes collected from the Parangipettai coastal environment. Antimicrobial properties of the cat fishes were tested against ten pathogenic b...

Epidermal mucus protein of marine catfish Tachysurus dussumier was screened for its anticancer properties. The mucus sample was collected and categorized as crude and partially purified. Crude and partially purified samples consist of 0.48 ± 0.02 mg/mL and 0.82 ± 0.05 mg/mL proteins, 1.15 ± 0.06 mg/mL and 0.54 ± 0.02 mg/mL carbohydrates and 0.78 ± 0.04 mg/mL and 0.32 ± 0.03 mg/mL of lipids resp...

Overproduction of mucus is a central feature of asthma. The cytokine, IL-13, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and transcription factor, FOXA2, have each been implicated in mucus production, but the mechanistic relationships between these molecules are not yet well understood. To address this, we established a primary normal human bronchial epithelial cell culture system with IL-13-induc...

Pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor (PSTI) is a potent protease inhibitor that also has growth promoting activity. It has recently been identified in the foveolar cells of the stomach, which secrete mucus. We examined the effects of the prostaglandin E1 analogue misoprostol on gastric PSTI output. Seven normal volunteers took part. An initial period of gastric aspiration was followed by four...