AIM Following toll-like receptor (TLR) engagement, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can stimulate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines thus activating the innate immune response. The production of inflammatory cytokines results, in part, from the activation of kinase-induced signalling cascades and transcriptional factors. Of the four distinct classes of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)...

p38 Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) are a family of Ser/Thr kinases that regulate important cellular processes such as stress responses, differentiation, and cell-cycle control . Activation of MAPK is achieved through a linear signaling cascade in which upstream kinases (MAPKKs) dually phosphorylate MAPKs at a conserved 3-amino-acid motif (Thr-X-Tyr) . G-protein-coupled receptor kinase...

One Ras-dependent protein kinase cascade leading from growth factor receptors to the ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinases) subgroup of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) is dependent on the protein kinase Raf-1, which activates the MEK (MAPK or ERK kinase) dual specificity kinases. A second protein kinase cascade leading to activation of the Jun kinases (JNKs) is dependent on MEKK...

When an experience is encrypted into a long-lasting memory, it is believed that specific sets of neurons in the brain of the animal undergo changes including the strengthening of preexisting synapses and the growth and maintenance of new synaptic connections. These activity-dependent synaptic changes appear to require the coordination of a variety of cellular processes in spatially separated ce...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung illness, marked by dyspnea, coughing, and sputum production. Cheonwangbosim-dan (CBD) traditional East Asian medicine, consisting of combination 15 medicinal herbs, which frequently used to treat arterial/auricular flutter, neuroses, cardiac-malfunction-induced diseases, insomnia. The present study evaluated the therapeutic effect CBD (100 ...

Background Accumulating studies have suggested that remifentanil, the widely-used opioid analgesic in clinical anesthesia, can activate the pronociceptive systems and enhance postoperative pain. Glial cells are thought to be implicated in remifentanil-induced hyperalgesia. Electroacupuncture is a complementary therapy to relieve various pain conditions with few side effects, and glial cells may...

objective(s):several investigations have revealed that caspase-14 is responsible for the epidermal differentiation and cornification, as well as the regulation of moisturizing effect. however, the precise regulation mechanism is still not clear. this study was aimed to investigate the expression of caspase-14 in filaggrin-deficient normal human epidermal keratinocytes (nheks) and to explore the...

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds that are ubiquitously in plants and display a vast array of biological activities. Here we have studied the effect of the phenylbenzo-gamma-pyrone-derivative quercetin 3-methyl ether tetracetate (QD), obtained by acetylation of the natural product quercetin 3-methyl ether, on cell viability of human leukemia HL-60 and U937 cell lines. The results show that ...

OBJECTIVE Dendritic cells (DC) accumulate in atherosclerotic arteries where they can modulate atherogenesis. We investigated whether plasmin might alter the function of human DC. METHODS AND RESULTS Stimulation of monocyte-derived DC with plasmin elicited a time-dependent actin polymerization and chemotaxis comparable to that triggered by the standard chemoattractant formyl-methionyl-leucyl-p...