Activation of the extracellularly regulated kinase (ERK) pathway is part of the early biochemical events that follow lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment of macrophages or their infection by virulent and attenuated Salmonella strains. Phagocytosis as well as the secretion of invasion-associated proteins is dispensable for ERK activation by the pathogen. Furthermore, the pathways used by Salmonell...

Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer is heterogeneous, and the biology of this disease has remained poorly understood. Molecular apocrine is a subtype of ER-negative breast cancer that is characterized by the overexpression of steroid-response genes such as AR and a high rate of ErbB2 amplification. In this study, we have identified a positive feedback loop between the AR and extracell...

The pattern of GnRH release is associated with differential synthesis and release of LH and FSH. Using a perifusion system, we previously reported that stimulation of the LbetaT2 cell line with varying GnRH pulse frequencies resulted in differential stimulation of LHbeta and FSHbeta gene transcription, analogous to previous observations in primary gonadotropes. In the present study, we investig...

One of the major unresolved questions in B cell biology is how the B cell Ag receptor (BCR) differentially signals to transduce anergy, apoptosis, proliferation, or differentiation during B cell maturation. We now report that extracellularly regulated kinase-mitogen-activated protein kinase (Erk-MAP kinase) can play dual roles in the regulation of the cell fate of the immature B cell lymphoma, ...

Signaling between tissues is essential to form the complex, three-dimensional organization of an embryo. Because many receptor tyrosine kinases signal through the RAS-MAPK pathway, phosphorylated ERK can be used as an indicator of when and where signaling is active during development. Using whole-mount immunohistochemistry with antibodies specific to phosphorylated ERK1 and ERK2, we analyzed th...

To better understand the roles played by signaling molecules in the bladder, we established a protocol of intravital imaging of the bladder of mice expressing a Förster/fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensor for extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), which plays critical roles not only in cell growth but also stress responses. With an upright two-photon excitation microsc...

The Ras-ERK pathway is frequently up-regulated in colorectal cancer. We analyzed the clinical-pathological correlation of K-Ras mutation and phospho-ERK expression in colorectal cancer. K-Ras mutations were detected in only 32.5% (41/126) of the colorectal cancer cases, while all cancers were positive for phospho-ERK staining. Colorectal cancer with wild-typeK-Ras and low phospho-ERK expression...

Thyrotropin (TSH) regulates thyroid cell proliferation and function through cAMP-mediated signaling pathways that activate protein kinase A (PKA) and Epac/Rap1. The respective roles of PKA versus Epac/Rap1 in TSH signaling remain unclear. We set out to determine whether PKA and/or Rap1 mediate extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation by TSH. Neither blocking Rap1 activity nor sile...

Tumor cells rely on aerobic glycolysis to generate ATP, namely the "Warburg" effect. 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) is well characterized as a glycolytic inhibitor, but its effect on cellular signaling pathways has not been fully elucidated. Herein, we sought to investigate the effect of 2-DG on ERK function in lung cancer cells. We found that 2-DG inhibits ERK phosphorylation in a time and dose-depende...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer has been one of the most common types of cancer, as the leading cause of women death in world. Breast cancer has known as a heterogenic disease that the clinical path in different patients would be very different. Since the current classification has not covered the diverse clinical course of breast cancer, lots of efforts has done to find new biological markers. Integr...