Shear stress, particularly low and oscillatory shear stress, plays a critical pathophysiological role in vascular remodeling-related cardiovascular diseases. Growing evidence suggests that the orphan nuclear receptor Nur77 [also known as TR3 or nuclear receptor subfamily 4, group A, member 1 (NR4A1)] is expressed in diseased human vascular tissue and plays an important role in vascular physiolo...

Progesterone receptor (PR), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, is a key regulator of several processes in reproductive function. We have studied the dynamics of the interaction of PR with a natural target promoter in living cells through the use of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) analysis and also have characterized the dynamics of the interaction of PR with the mou...

There is growing evidence that oxidative stress plays critical roles in the pathogenesis of cardiac remodeling. In the present study, we established a rat model of passive smoking and investigated the antioxidant effects of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on smoking-induced left ventricular remodeling. Cardiac structure and function were evaluated using 2-dimensional echocardiography. Myocardial fibrosi...

objective: asthma is an airway complex disease defined by reversible airway narrowing and obstruction, chronic airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness, and tissue remodeling. the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of brassica napus l. (b. napus) on airway pathologic changes in a rat model of asthma. materials and methods: twenty-four rats were divided into 4 groups: contr...

In eukaryotic cells the nuclear genome is enclosed by the nuclear envelope (NE). In metazoans, the NE breaks down in mitosis and it has been assumed that the physical barrier separating nucleoplasm and cytoplasm remains intact during the rest of the cell cycle and cell differentiation. However, recent studies suggest that nonmitotic NE remodeling plays a critical role in development, virus infe...

RATIONALE NFATc1 (nuclear factor of activated T-cells cytoplasmic 1) activity in endocardial cushion (ECC) endothelial cells is required for normal ECC growth and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling during heart valve development. OBJECTIVE The mechanisms of NFATc1 activation and downstream effects on cell proliferation and ECM-remodeling enzyme gene expression were examined in NFATc1 mutan...

PURPOSE This study compares the bone formation ability of tricalcium phosphate (TCP) with and without recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) and assesses TCP as a carrier of rhBMP-2. METHODS Bilateral round defects (diameter: 8.0 mm) were formed in the cranium of eight New Zealand white rabbits. The defects were grafted with TCP only (control group) or with rhBMP-2-coated TC...

BACKGROUND Cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenases metabolize arachidonic acids (AA) to form epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which exert beneficial roles in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, but little is known about its role on adventitial remodeling. METHODS We used C57BL/6J mice in vivo and primary rat adventitial fibroblasts (AFs) in vitro treated with Angiotensin II to investigate t...

Unliganded thyroid hormone receptor (TR) actively represses transcription via the nuclear receptor corepressor (N-CoR)/histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) complex. Although transcriptional activation by liganded receptors involves chromatin remodeling, the role of ATP-dependent remodeling in receptor-mediated repression is unknown. Here we report that SNF2H, the mammalian ISWI chromatin remodeling AT...