The role of neurokinin 1 (NK(1)) receptor and possible interaction between NK(1) and N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) glutamatergic receptors were investigated on spinal c-fos expression after lower urinary tract irritation with acetic acid infusion in rats. At both levels of the first (L(1)) and sixth lumbar (L(6)) spinal cord, where most of hypogastric nerve and pelvic nerve afferent terminals...

We examined the diurnal variation of c-fos gene expression during a 12:12 light/dark cycle in developing rat retinas by in situ hybridization histochemistry. c-fos Gene was not expressed before postnatal day 10 (P10) but was expressed on P15 in the outer nuclear layer throughout the dark period and in the inner nuclear layer and the ganglion cell layer during the light period. These results dem...

Activation of ErbB receptors by epidermal growth factor (EGF) or heregulin (HRG) determines distinct cell-fate decisions, although signals propagate through shared pathways. Using mathematical modeling and experimental approaches, we unravel how HRG and EGF generate distinct, all-or-none responses of the phosphorylated transcription factor c-Fos. In the cytosol, EGF induces transient and HRG in...

To investigate brain substrates of spatial memory, neuronal expression of c-Fos protein was studied. Two groups of rats were trained in two spatial memory tasks in the Morris water maze, where the rats have to apply a reference memory rule or a working memory rule. In addition to the experimental groups, two control groups were used to study c-fos activation not specific to the memory processes...

Metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptors have emerged as potential therapeutic targets due to the ability of mGlu2/3 receptor agonists to modulate excitatory transmission at specific synapses. LY354740 and LY379268 are selective and potent mGlu2/3 receptor agonists that show both anxiolytic- and antipsychotic-like effects in animal models. We compared the efficacy of LY354740 and LY379268...

BACKGROUND The inflammatory process after cardiopulmonary bypass is accompanied by alterations in gene expression for various inflammatory mediators. METHODS To analyze differential gene expression after myocardial ischemia-reperfusion, subtraction hybridization was used to discover induction of TIS7/PC4, an immediate early gene heretofore not observed in the heart. This prompted characteriza...

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising anticancer agent because it induces apoptosis in cancer cells but not in normal cells. Unfortunately, some cancer cells develop resistance to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Therefore, it is clinically relevant to determine the molecular mechanisms that differentiate between TRAIL-sensitive and TRAIL-resistant tumors. Previ...

The vestibular system sends projections to brainstem autonomic nuclei that modulate heart rate and blood pressure in response to changes in head and body position with regard to gravity. Consistent with this, binaural sinusoidally modulated galvanic vestibular stimulation (sGVS) in humans causes vasoconstriction in the legs, while low frequency (0.02-0.04 Hz) sGVS causes a rapid drop in heart r...

Pathological changes of the vasculature are characterized by changes in Ca(2+) handling and alterations in gene expression. In neurons and other cell types, [Ca(2+)](i) often drives changes in gene expression. However, the relationship between Ca(2+) signaling and gene expression in vascular smooth muscle is not well understood. This study examines the ability of Ca(2+) influx through voltage-d...

Prior ubiquitinylation of the unstable c-Fos proto-oncoprotein is thought to be required for recognition and degradation by the proteasome. Contradicting this view, we report that, although c-Fos can form conjugates with ubiquitin in vivo, nonubiquitinylatable c-Fos mutants show regulated degradation identical to that of the wild-type protein in living cells under two classical conditions of st...