Wnt signalling is a crucial signalling pathway controlling intestinal homeostasis and cancer. We show here that the JNK MAP kinase pathway and one of its most important substrates, the AP-1 transcription factor c-Jun, modulates Wnt signalling strength in the intestine. Transgenic gut-specific augmentation of JNK signalling stimulated progenitor cell proliferation and migration, resulting in inc...

Elevated CO(2) levels (hypercapnia) occur in patients with respiratory diseases and impair alveolar epithelial integrity, in part, by inhibiting Na,K-ATPase function. Here, we examined the role of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in CO(2) signaling in mammalian alveolar epithelial cells as well as in diptera, nematodes and rodent lungs. In alveolar epithelial cells, elevated CO(2) levels rapidly i...

Obesity and associated metabolic disturbances, such as increased circulating fatty acids cause prolonged low grade activation of inflammatory signaling pathways in liver, skeletal muscle, adipose tissue and even in the CNS. Activation of inflammatory pathways in turn impairs insulin signaling, ultimately leading to obesity-associated type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conventional JNK-1 knock out mice a...

Inhibition of NF-kappaB activation increases susceptibility to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha-induced cell death, concurrent with caspases and prolonged c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. However, the detailed mechanisms are unclear. Here we show that cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) is rapidly lost in NF-kappaB activation-defic...

Antigen stimulation of IgE-sensitized rat basophilic leukemia RBL-2H3 cells induced activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) within a few minutes with maximum activity attained 40 min later. The increase in JNK activity was accompanied with an increase in phosphorylation of c-Jun in the cells. The Ag-induced JNK activation was inhibited by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors wortman...

In GN4 rat liver epithelial cells, angiotensin II (Ang II) and other agonists which activate phospholipase C stimulate tyrosine kinase activity in a calcium-dependent, protein kinase C (PKC)-independent manner. Since Ang II also produces a proliferative response in these cells, we investigated downstream signaling elements traditionally linked to growth control by tyrosine kinases. First, Ang I...

Background: Survival of the conceptus is dependent on continuous progesterone signaling in the maternal decidua but how this is achieved under conditions of oxidative stress that characterize early pregnancy is unknown. Materials and Methods: Laboratory-based analysis of endometrial biopsies and primary endometrial cultures. Results: Using primary cultures, we show that modest levels of reactiv...

Activity of the c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) has been shown in hematopoietic cells transformed by p210 BCR-ABL. However, analysis has not been reported for hematopoietic cells on the consequences of this activity for c-jun promoter regulation within its distinctive proximal 8-base consensus CRE-like element, an element linked to JNK-mediated increase in c-jun transcription. In the present stud...

PURPOSE Previous studies indicate that adenovirus type 19 (Ad19) infection of human corneal fibroblasts (HCFs) induces the expression of several proinflammatory mediators, including IL-8 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and that the tyrosine kinase c-Src and its downstream target, the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK1/2, mediate IL-8 expression. In this context, the authors s...

UV irradiation and other stress-activated signals activate the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK, SAPK) pathway. The induction of JNK activity results in the activation of proto-oncogene c-Jun and activator protein-1 (AP-1) transcriptional activity. Data presented here show that UV mediated the activation of JNK correlated with UV-induced apoptosis and that overexpression of a dominant negative JNK bl...