Androgen receptor (AR) signaling is crucial to the development and homeostasis of the prostate gland, and its dysregulation mediates common prostate pathologies. The mechanisms whereby AR regulates growth suppression and differentiation of luminal epithelial cells in the prostate gland and proliferation of malignant versions of these cells have been investigated in human and rodent adult prosta...

Psoriasis is a benign, chronic skin disease characterized by keratinocyte hyperproliferation and abnormal differentiation. Curcumin, a selective phosphorylase kinase inhibitor, is a natural phytochemical present in turmeric. Curcumin has been confirmed to have anti-inflammatory properties as well as the ability to inhibit proliferation and decrease the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines i...

In utero exposure to exogenous anti-androgenic compounds induces a wide range of abnormalities of the reproductive system, including hypospermatogenesis, cryptorchidism and hypospadias. By using rats exposed in utero to the anti-androgenic compound flutamide (0.4, 2 or 10 mg/kg per day), it has been shown that hypospermatogenesis in adult testes could be related to (i) a long-term apoptosis in ...

In the last few years, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been a hot topic in cancer research. Many ncRNAs were found to regulate the apoptotic process and to play a role in tumor cell resistance to treatment. The apoptotic program is on the frontline as self-defense from cancer onset, and evasion of apoptosis has been classified as one of the hallmarks of cancer responsible for therapy failure. The...

The BCL-2 gene family regulates the susceptibility to apoptotic cell death in many cell types during embryonic development and normal tissue homeostasis. Deregulated expression of anti-apoptotic BCL-2 can be a primary aberration that promotes malignancy and also confers resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Recently, studies of Bax-deficient mice have indicated that the pro-apoptotic BAX molec...

We hypothesized that C-reactive protein (CRP) may affect the cell cycle and induce apoptotic changes of monocytes. CRP (∼25 μg/ml) significantly increased expressions of B-cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2) mRNA and protein in human monocytes through pathways involving CD32/NADPH oxidase 2/p53, which eventually induced G2/M phase arrest and apoptotic cell death. Such pro-apoptotic effect of CRP w...