Lead is a toxic heavy metal whose detoxification in organisms is mainly carried out by its coordination with some metalloproteins such as metallothioneins (MTs). Two Pb-MT complexes, named as Pb7-MT2(I) and Pb7-MT2(II), form under neutral and weakly acidic conditions, respectively. However, the structures of the two complexes, which are crucial for a better understanding of the detoxification m...

The aim of the present study was to identify the distribution of the second melatonin receptor (MT2) in the human hippocampus of elderly controls and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. This is the first report of immunohistochemical MT2 localization in the human hippocampus both in control and AD cases. The specificity of the MT2 antibody was ascertained by fluorescence microscopy using the ant...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in the pathological processes of degradation of extracellular matrix and destruction of basement membrane, which leads to tumor invasion and metastasis. In the present study, we investigated membrane-type 2 MMP (MT2-MMP) expression pattern in esophageal cancer tissues collected from 103 patients, and explored MT2-MMP expression pattern in ...

BACKGROUND Melatonin (MLT) is a pleiotropic neurohormone controlling many physiological processes and whose dysfunction may contribute to several different diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, circadian and mood disorders, insomnia, type 2 diabetes and pain. Melatonin is synthesized by the pineal gland during the night and acts through 2 G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), MT1 (MEL1a)...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of proteolytic enzymes that contribute to tumorigenesis and metastasis due to their ability to degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM) and basement membrane. In despite of many reports in other solid tumors, the role of membrane type-2 MMP (MT2-MMP) in gastric cancer (GC) remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate MT2-MMP expr...

Studies of the physiological actions of melatonin have been hindered by the lack of specific, potent and subtype selective agonists and antagonists. In the present study, we describe the utility of a melanophore cell line from Xenopus laevis for exploring structure-activity relationships among novel melatonin analogues and report a novel MT2-selective agonist (IIK7) and MT2-selective receptor a...

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is critical for carcinoma invasiveness and metastasis. To investigate the role of membrane-type-2 matrix metalloproteinase (MT2-MMP) in EMT, we generated lentiviral constructs of wild-type (WT) and an inactive Glu260Ala (E260A) mutant MT2-MMP and derived stably transfected HCT116 and A549 cell lines. WT-transfected cells appeared mesenchymal-like, whereas...

Chemokines have been found to alter tumor growth and metastasis. We have described previously that a particular chemokine receptor, CXCR4, was predominantly expressed on various glioma cell lines and in resected glioblastoma specimens. Herein, we have tested the ligand of CXCR4, stromal cell derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha, CXCL12), on the response of human glioma cells. We found that SDF-1al...