BACKGROUND Neuropathic pain is characterised by spontaneous ongoing or shooting pain and evoked amplified pain responses after noxious or non-noxious stimuli. Neuropathic pain develops as a result of lesions or disease affecting the somatosensory nervous system either in the periphery or centrally. Melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) plays an important role in the initiation of neuropathic pain but ...

BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS), a complex disease associated with multifocal demyelination of the central nervous system and poorly understood etiology. It has been previously indicated that many factors, including oxidative stress and p38MAPK-SGK1 pathway, contribute to the pathogenesis of MS. METHODS This study, using an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model system, was ...

The role of leptin in controlling food intake and body weight is well recognized, but whether this is achieved by modulating nutrient absorption is still a controversial issue. The aim of this work was to investigate the direct effect of luminal leptin on glucose intestinal absorption and elucidate for the first time its signaling pathway. Fully differentiated Caco-2 cells grown on transwell fi...

Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression in intestinal epithelial cells is associated with colorectal carcinogenesis. COX-2 expression is induced by numerous growth factors and gastrointestinal hormones through multiple protein kinase cascades. Here, the role of mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and small GTPases in COX-2 expression was investigated. Anisomycin and sorbitol induced COX-2 expre...

The p38MAPK signaling pathway was initially described as a stress response mechanism. In fact, during previous decades, it was considered a pathway with little interest in oncology especially in comparison with other MAPKs such as ERK1/2, known to be target of oncogenes like Ras. However, its involvement in apoptotic cell death phenomena makes this signaling pathway more attractive for many can...

Our previous study indicated that anti-Fas antibody/actinomycin D (AF/AD) induced apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma Bel-7402 cells; however, crosstalk influence between P38MAPK and autophagy on mitochondria-mediated apoptosis induced by AF/AD in Bel-7402 cells remains unclear. Therefore, effect of AF/AD on apoptosis, autophagy, phosphorylated-P38MAPK (p-P38MAPK), and membrane potentia...

Neuropathic pain is an expression of pathological operation of the nervous system, which commonly results from nerve injury and is characterized by pain hypersensitivity to innocuous stimuli, a phenomenon known as tactile allodynia. The mechanisms by which nerve injury creates tactile allodynia have remained largely unknown. We report that the development of tactile allodynia following nerve in...

OBJECTIVES To explore the function of p38MAPK and caspase-3 in DADS-induced apoptosis in human HepG2 cells, and discuss the signal transduetion mechanism of HepG2 cells in the apoptosis process induced by DADS by using the inhibitors of p38MAPK (SB203580) and caspase-3 (Z-DEVD-FMK). METHODS After the human HepG2 cells had been treated with the DADS and inhibitors for 24 h, cell viability was ...

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) increases the sensitivity of human platelets for agonists by activating p38MAPK. Antibody 4G3 disturbs apoB100 binding to the classical apoB/E receptor and inhibits LDL-induced p38MAPK activation, whereas an antibody against a distal domain on apoB 100 has no effect. Peptide RLTRKRGLKLA mimics the binding domain of apoB 100 called the B-site and activates platelet ...

Increasing evidence supports that amyloid plaques, comprised of amyloid-β (Aβ), are a key feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). But the mechanism of Aβ in AD is not yet fully understood. Previous studies have demonstrated that in Aβ-induced apoptosis of nerve cells, differentiated rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells, and microglia, nucleus factor kappa B (NF-κB) is activated. Meanwhile, focal adhe...