BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Many GPCRs, including the CB(1) cannabinoid receptor, are down-regulated following prolonged agonist exposure by interacting with the GPCR-associated sorting protein-1 (GASP-1). The CB(1) receptor antagonist rimonabant has also recently been described to be an agonist at GPR55, a cannabinoid-related receptor. Here we investigated the post-endocytic properties of GPR55 aft...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Growth and differentiation factor-associated serum protein-1 (GASP-1) is a secreted protein known to be capable of binding and inhibiting the activity of several TGF-beta family members, including myostatin. The present study was designed to characterize murine GASP-1 post-translational modifications and to determine their influence on the biological activity of GASP-1. METHOD...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Overexpression of Gasp-1, an inhibitor of myostatin, leads to a hypermuscular phenotype due to hypertrophy rather than hyperplasia in mice. However to date, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this phenotype are not investigated. METHODS Skeletal muscles of overexpressing Gasp-1 mice, called Tg(Gasp-1) mice, were analyzed by histological methods. Satellite cell-de...

Human cytomegalovirus, which infects up to 80% of the general population, causes severe complications in immunocompromised patients and is thought to be linked to vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and restenosis. This β-herpesvirus encodes a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), namely US28, which does not only show homology to endogenous chemokine receptors but also binds endogenous CC c...

Myostatin, a member of the TGF−β superfamily, is a potent and specific negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. In serum, myostatin circulates as part of a latent complex containing myostatin propeptide and/or follistatin-related gene (FLRG). Here, we report the identification of an additional protein associated with endogenous myostatin in normal mouse and human serum, discovered by affinit...

Apollo 14 regolith breccia 14076, long known to be uniquely endowed with high-alumina, silica-poor (HASP) material of evaporation-residue origin, has been found to contain a diverse suite of complementary condensates, dubbed GASP (gas-associated spheroidal precipitates). GASP occurs in two forms: as glassy or extremely fine grained quenched-melt spheroids, mostly less than 5 lm across; and as q...

Myostatin, a member of the TGFbeta superfamily, is a potent and specific negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. In serum, myostatin circulates as part of a latent complex containing myostatin propeptide and/or follistatin-related gene (FLRG). Here, we report the identification of an additional protein associated with endogenous myostatin in normal mouse and human serum, discovered by affin...

GPCR desensitization and down-regulation are considered key molecular events underlying the development of tolerance in vivo. Among the many regulatory proteins that are involved in these complex processes, GASP-1 have been shown to participate to the sorting of several receptors toward the degradation pathway. This protein belongs to the recently identified GPCR-associated sorting proteins (GA...