Efficient reward seeking is essential for survival and invariably requires overcoming costs, such as physical effort and delay, which are constantly changing in natural settings. Dopamine transmission has been implicated in decisions weighing the benefits and costs of obtaining a reward, but it is still unclear how dynamically changing effort and delay costs affect dopamine signaling to rewards...

In order to search for novel components of lipid membrane microdomains involved in neural signalling pathways, mAbs (monoclonal antibodies) were raised against the detergent-insoluble membrane fraction of PC12 (pheochromocytoma) cells. Among the 22 hybrid clones, mAb PR#1 specifically detected a fucoganglioside Fuc(Gal)-GM1 [α-fucosyl(α-galactosyl)-GM1], a ganglioside homologous with GM1a (IINe...

During development and differentiation, the expression of transcription factors is regulated in a temporal fashion. Newly expressed transcription factors must interact productively with target genes organized in chromatin. Although the mechanisms governing factor binding to chromatin templates are not well understood, it is now clear that template access can be dramatically influenced by nucleo...

The inducible inflammatory enzyme cycloxigenase-2 is up-regulated in cancer, and favors tumor progression. Cycloxigenase-2 is encoded by the prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) gene, which presents sequence variations in the promoter region (PR) and in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR). Different PR (rs689465, rs689466, rs20417) and 3'-UTR (rs5275) variants were generated by site-di...

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor 2 (FGFR-2) polymorphisms have been associated with an increase in estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor (PR)-positive breast cancer risk; however, a clear mechanistic association between FGFR-2 and steroid hormone receptors remains elusive. In previous works, we have shown a cross talk between FGF2 and progestins in mouse mammary carcinomas. To inve...

In this work we determined progesterone receptor (PR) mRNA content in female rabbit lung during the first 5 days of pregnancy and in ovariectomized animals after subcutaneous injection of oestradiol benzoate (25 micrograms/kg) for 2 days or oestradiol benzoate (25 micrograms/kg) for 2 days plus a single dose of progesterone (5 mg/kg) on day three. On each day (0-5) of pregnancy and 24 h after t...

UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A7 (UGT1A7) is a major UGT contributing to the glucuronidation of xenobiotic phenols in rats. Its expression in rat liver is tightly regulated, with low constitutive and high inducible expression in response to aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands and oltipraz. Previously, we reported the absence of 3-methylcholanthrene- or oltipraz-responsive elements in the 1.6-kbp r...

Spontaneous labor in women and in other mammals is likely mediated by a concerted series of biochemical events that negatively impact the ability of the progesterone receptor (PR) to regulate target genes that maintain myometrial quiescence. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that progesterone/PR inhibits uterine contractility by blocking nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation...

background: il-10 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine which is involved in tumorigenesis. over production of il-10 and elevated number of il-10 generating mononuclear cells in breast tumor tissue has already been shown. objective: to determine the association of il-10 promoter polymorphisms with increased risk of breast cancer and its association with breast cancer prognostic factors. methods: per...

Antiestrogen resistance is frequently observed in patients after longterm treatment with tamoxifen, a nonsteroidal antiestrogen widely used for endocrine therapy of breast cancer. In vitro studies in resistant cells showed that the expression of natural estrogen-responsive genes is frequently altered. Using MVLN cells, an MCF-7-derived cell model, we previously demonstrated that 4-hydroxytamoxi...