By mimicking sympathetic stimulation in vivo, we previously reported that mice globally lacking serotonin 5-HT(2B) receptors did not develop isoproterenol-induced left ventricular hypertrophy. However, the exact cardiac cell type(s) expressing 5-HT(2B) receptors (cardiomyocytes versus noncardiomyocytes) involved in pathological heart hypertrophy was never addressed in vivo. We report here that ...

OBJECTIVE To study the expression of important elements of the innate immune responses in human sinonasal tissue to elucidate its potential role in mucosal inflammation. DESIGN We studied human sinonasal tissue from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and an immortalized epithelial cell line to detect the expression of innate immune effectors and the responses of these cells to stimulation w...

Adenosine, released in increased amounts by hypoxic tissues, is thought to be an angiogenic factor that links altered cellular metabolism caused by oxygen deprivation to compensatory angiogenesis. Adenosine interacts with 4 subtypes of G protein-coupled receptors, termed A(1), A(2A), A(2B), and A(3). We investigated whether adenosine causes proliferation of human retinal endothelial cells (HREC...

background and aims: virus infections represent some of the most important diseases of lily, plants because of the devastating effects caused to the crops and the absence of effective treatments. a survey for virus diseases of lilies, revealed the occurrence of cucumber mosaic virus (cmv) in plants growing in tehran province, iran. materials and methods: during 2013, 50 lily samples with virus-...

Survivin is an independent prognostic factor for joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the expression and function of survivin in RA synoviocytes remain unclear. We certified the expression of survivin in RA synovial tissues and performed the experiment using RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLS) treated with siRNA. As a result, the expression levels of wild type (WT) surv...

introduction: adenotonsillar hypertrophy (ath) may present with growth retardation. insulin-like growth factor 1 (igf-1) mediates the anabolic effects of growth hormone (gh) on tissues. most of the circulating igf-1 molecules are bound to insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 (igfbp-3). igf-1 and igfbp-3 serum levels reflect the levels of daily mean serum gh and are used as indices for e...

Chronic cocaine induces high expression of the brain-specific Neural-Zinc-Finger transcription factor-2b (NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1), particularly in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, resulting in a 11-fold increase in NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1 expression in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc). Overexpression of this gene in the NAc with a NZF-2b/7ZFMyt1-expressing lentivirus resulted in >55% decrease in locomotor activi...

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei has tremendous capability to secrete proteins. Therefore, it would be an excellent host for producing high levels of therapeutic proteins at low cost. Developing a filamentous fungus to produce sensitive therapeutic proteins requires that protease secretion is drastically reduced. We have identified 13 major secreted proteases that are related to degrad...

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family is essential for normal embryonic growth and development and it is highly conserved through vertebrate evolution. However, the roles that the individual members of the IGF family play in embryonic development have not been fully elucidated. This study focuses on the role of IGF-2 in zebrafish embryonic development. Two igf-2 genes, igf-2a and igf-2b, ...