Oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide results in decrease in seawater pH and increase in temperature. In this study, we demonstrated the synergistic effects of elevated seawater temperature and declined seawater pH on gene expression patterns of aspein, calmodulin, nacrein, she-7-F10 and hsp70 in the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata. Under 'business-as-usual' scenarios, four treatments wer...

AIMS Increased or altered activities of cysteine proteases have been implicated in serious human disorders such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, and osteoporosis. To improve the current knowledge of the regulatory role of a major mammalian cysteine protease inhibitor, cystatin C, in such disease processes, a cystatin C deficient mouse was generated and characterized. METHODS The mouse...

Objective(s): Growing evidences have indicated microRNAs as modulators of tumor development and aggression. On the other hand, a phenomenon known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) that indicates a transient phase from epithelial-like features to mesenchymal phenotype is a key player in tumor progression.  In this study, we aimed to assess the potential impacts...

Binding of tumor cells to cryostat sections of host organs was studied. B16-F10 melanoma cells and reticulum cell sarcoma cells demonstrated an organ specificity in their binding in vitro that reflected the organ specificity of their metastatic distribution 25 days after intravenous injection. These results provide evidence for specific binding of tumor cells to the tissues that they selectivel...

Theophylline-treated B16-F10 melanoma cells show a lower experimental metastatic potential in vivo. To identify the possible mechanism(s) involved and on the basis of previous reports, we tested the induction of apoptosis in B16-F10 cells. Fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis and p53 overexpression in theophylline-treated B16-F10 melanoma cells appeared to suggest enhanced cell de...

The role of membrane estrogen receptor-alpha (mERalpha) in rapid nongenomic responses to 17beta-estradiol (E(2)) was tested in sublines of GH3/B6 rat prolactinoma cells selected for high (GH3/B6/F10) and low (GH3/B6/D9) mERalpha expression. E(2) elicited rapid, concentration-dependent intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) increases in the F10 subline. Lack of inhibition by thapsigarg...

Stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun kinase (SAPK/JNK) is thought to be necessary for preimplantation embryonic development (Maekawa et al., 2005). However, media increases SAPK/JNK phosphorylation and these levels negatively correlate with embryonic development (Wang et al., 2005). Culture-induced stress could confuse analysis of the role of SAPK in development. In this study, we tested how S...

Lysophophatidylcholine (LysoPC) is an abundant constituent in human plasma. Patients with malignant cancer diseases have attenuated LysoPC plasma levels, and thus LysoPC has been examined as a metabolic biomarker for cancer prediction. Preclinical studies have shown that solid tumor cells drastically degrade LysoPCs by incorporating their free fatty acids into cell membrane phospholipids. In th...