CD40 plays dual immunoregulatory roles in Leishmania major infection and tumor regression. The functional duality emerges from CD40-induced reciprocal p38MAPK and ERK-1/2 phosphorylations. Because phosphotyrosine-based signaling in hematopoietic cells is regulated by the phosphotyrosine phosphatase SHP-1, which is not implied in CD40 signaling, we examined whether SHP-1 played any roles in CD40...

Severe influenza infections are featured by acute lung injury, a syndrome of pulmonary microvascular leak. A growing number of evidences have shown that the pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVEC) are critical target of influenza virus, promoting microvascular leak. It is reported that there are multiple mechanisms by which influenza virus could elicit increased pulmonary endothelial ...

Disrupted blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity contributes to cerebral edema during central nervous system infection. The current study explored the mechanism of lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced dysregulation of tight junction (TJ) proteins. Human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3) were exposed to LPS, SB203580 (p38MAPK inhibitor), or SP600125 (JNK inhibitor), and cell vitalit...

Leishmania, a protozoan parasite, lives and multiplies as amastigote within macrophages. It is proposed that the macrophage expressed CD40 interacts with CD40 ligand on T cells to induce IFN-gamma, a Th1-type cytokine that restricts the amastigote growth. Here, we demonstrate that CD40 cross-linking early after infection resulted in inducible nitric oxide synthetase type-2 (iNOS2) induction and...

Small-artery responses to vasoconstrictor agonists are important for vascular function. To investigate the signaling pathways involved in contraction, we studied the activation and regulation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38MAPKs) and heat shock protein (HSP) kinase by endothelin and noradrenaline in rat mesenteric arteries. Both vasoconstrictors activated p38alpha and/or p38beta b...

Interleukin (IL)-25, a cytokine of IL-17 family, can activate p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein kinases(MAPK) and Nuclear Factor(NF)-κB pathways to propagate Th2 responses. The allergic rhinitis mouse model was established by stimulating BALB/c mouse with ovalbumin (OVA). Then we detected expression of IL-25 and downstream p38MAPK and NF-κB. The expression of IL-25, p38MAPK and NF-κB were detected ...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a common malignancy in Southern China of uncertain etiologic origin. Diallyl trisulfide (DATS), one of the major components of garlic (Allium sativum), is highly bactericidal and fungicidal. In this study, we investigated the function of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and caspase-8 in DATS-induced apoptosis of human CNE2 cells using MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylt...

The mechanisms regulating hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) fate choices remain ill-defined. Here, we show that a signalling network of p190-B RhoGAP-ROS-TGF-β-p38MAPK balances HSPC self-renewal and differentiation. Upon transplantation, HSPCs express high amounts of bioactive TGF-β1 protein, which is associated with high levels of p38MAPK activity and loss of HSC self-renewal in vi...

The aim of this study was to determine the therapeutic effect of curcumin on dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) and to explore the related mechanism. Sixty mice were randomly divided into 6 groups. A group was the normal control group; B group was the model group; C group was the 1.5 mg/kg dexamethasone group based on the B group; and D, E and F groups were 15, 30, and 60 mg...

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a life-threatening autoimmune blistering skin disease characterized by detachment of keratinocytes (acantholysis). It has been proposed that PV IgG might trigger signaling and that this process may lead to acantholysis. Indeed, we recently identified a rapid and dose-dependent phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) and heat shock protein (HS...