Abscisic acid (ABA) is known to play roles in regulating plant tolerance to various abiotic stresses, but whether ABA's effects on heat tolerance are associated with its regulation of heat stress transcription factors (HSFs) and heat shock proteins (HSPs) is not well documented. The objective of this study was to determine whether improved heat tolerance of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schr...

Alternative initiation of translation at three CUG and one AUG start codons leads to the synthesis of four isoforms of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) that have distinct intracellular localizations and affect the cell phenotype differently. We show here that the expression of FGF-2 CUG-initiated isoforms decreases in a cell-density-dependent manner in normal human skin fibroblasts (HSFs) con...

Over the past decade, plant heat shock factors (Hsfs) have been associated mainly with responses to abiotic stress (von Koskull-Döring et al., 2007), yet, until this report, they have not been linked to primed defense gene activation or pathogen-induced systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Hsfs are a diverse group of proteins that regulate genes encoding heat shock proteins (von Koskull-Döring e...

Objective(s): Therapeutic effect of many selectable methods applied in clinical practice for treating hypertrophic scar (HS) is not still so satisfactory. Meanwhile, a few medicines may lead to several undesirable complications. The traditional Chinese medicine, Rg3, has been reported for multiple antitumor effects previously. We have conducted series of animal experiments and confirmed the inh...

The formation of hypertrophic scars (HSs) is a fibroproliferative disorder of abnormal wound healing. HSs usually characterize excessive proliferation of fibroblasts, abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) during wound healing, associated with cosmetic, functional, and psychological problems. Owing to the role of ECM proteins in scar formation, we comparatively analyzed matrix protei...

The heat shock response is characterized by a rapid and robust increase in heat shock proteins upon exposure to protein-damaging stresses. This evolutionarily conserved cellular protection mechanism is primarily regulated at the level of transcription. In bacteria, heat shock-induced transcription is regulated by the activation of σ factor, whereas eukaryotes utilize heat shock transcription fa...

Heat shock factors (HSF) are important eukaryotic stress responsive transcription factors which are highly structurally conserved from yeast to mammals. HSFs bind as homotrimers to conserved promoter DNA recognition sites called HSEs. The baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae possesses a single essential HSF gene, while distinct HSF isoforms have been identified in humans. To ascertain the deg...

Epigenetic repressor polycomb group (PcG) proteins are thought to serve a role in a number of cellular processes, including carcinogenesis, senescence, apoptosis and DNA repair. In the present study, long-wave ultraviolet A (UVA) was used to irradiate human skin fibroblasts (HSFs) and embryonic skin fibroblasts (ESFs) in order to simulate photoaging of the skin. The results of cell proliferatio...