Recently, we demonstrated that mechanical stress results in rapid phosphorylation or activation of platelet-derived growth factor receptors in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) followed by activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and AP-1 transcription factors (Hu, Y., Bock, G., Wick, G., and Xu, Q. (1998) FASEB J. 12, 1135-1142). Herein, we provide evidence that VSMC response...

p38, a subfamily of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), is a crucial signal transducer between a variety of extracellular stimuli and gene expression in mammalian cells. This kinase is activated in cultured cells stimulated by heat shock, osmotic stress, and proinflammatory cytokines, but a similar activation of p38 MAPKs in vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) stimulated by mechanica...

Tumor production of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHRP) is responsible for most cases of hypercalcemia of malignancy. The transplantable rat Leydig tumor H-500 is known to cause hypercalcemia in rats by the release of abundant PTHRP and to closely reproduce the human syndrome. We have demonstrated recently that Ras oncogene can stimulate PTHRP gene expression in Fr3T3 fibroblasts in vit...

-Previous studies have documented that acute elevation in blood pressure results in heat shock protein (hsp) 70-mRNA expression followed by hsp70-protein production in rat aortas. In this article, we provide evidence that mechanical forces evoke rapid activation of heat shock transcription factor (HSF) and hsp70 accumulation. In our study, Western blot analysis demonstrated that hsp70-protein i...

Salinity is of significant economic importance in the sugar industry because it affects the growth rate and sucrose yield of sugarcane. The aims of this study were to assess how various aspects of the physiology of sugarcane are affected by increasing levels of soil salinity during the growing season, and to determine whether or not there are differences in the physiological responses of differ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Oestrogen and oestrogen-mediated signalling protect from hepatitis C virus through incompletely understood mechanisms. We aimed to ascertain which phase(s) of hepatitis C virus life cycle is/are affected by oestrogens. METHODS Huh7 cells infected with the JFH1 virus (genotype 2a) were exposed to dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone, progesterone and 17β-estradiol (tested wit...

The effect of hand muscle mechanical vibration on the somatosensory potential (SEP) evoked by median nerve stimulation, was investigated in 10 healthy subjects. A marked decrease in the amplitude of the N17, N20 and P25 components of the cerebral SEP was observed, while the S11 and S13 components of the cervical response did not change. The amplitude reduction of the SEP components was larger w...