Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 14, Issue 4, 2014

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal neoplasm characterized by expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow causing various complications including osteolytic lesions and impaired immune function. It has recently been reported that human myeloma cells express multiple Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and their activation-induced functional responses show heterogeneity among cell lines and patient samples. TL Read More

The TP73 gene is a member of the TP53 family with high structural homology to p53 and capable of transactivating p53 target genes. The TP73 gene locus which is highly conserved and complex, encodes for two classes of isoforms TAp73 (tumor suppressor isoforms containing the transactivation domain) and ΔNp73 (oncogenic isoforms, truncated and lacking the transactivation domain) with opposing effects. The b Read More

Interest in biomarkers in the field of thoracic oncology is focused on the search for new robust tests for diagnosis (in particular for screening), prognosis and theragnosis. These biomarkers can be detected in tissues and/or cells, but also in biological fluids, mainly the blood. In this context, there is growing interest in the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood of lung cancer patients since CTC identification, en Read More

Rather being an inert barrier between vessel lumen and surrounding tissues, vascular endothelium plays a key role in the maintenance of cardiovascular homeostasis. The de-endothelialization of blood vessels is regarded as the early event that results in the onset of severe vascular disorders, including atherosclerosis, acute myocardial infarction, brain stroke, and aortic aneurysm. Restoration of the endothelial lining Read More

Plasma levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and of apolipoprotein A-I are inversely correlated with the incidence of coronary heart disease. According to the HDL hypothesis, raising HDL cholesterol is expected to lead to a decrease of coronary heart disease risk. The stringent requirement for proving or refuting this hypothesis is that the causal pathway between the therapeutic intervention and a hard Read More

The Fgf family comprises 22 members with diverse functions in development, repair, metabolism, and neuronal activities. Fgf10 mediates biological responses by activating Fgf receptor 2b (Fgfr2b) with heparin/heparan sulfate in a paracrine manner. Fgf10 and Fgfr2b are expressed in mesenchymal and epithelial tissues, respectively. Fgf10 is an epithelial-mesenchymal signaling molecule. Fgf10 knockout mice show sev Read More

Several studies have provided clear evidence of the importance of Wnt signaling in the function of several tissues. Wnt signaling has been related to several cellular processes including pre-natal development, cell division, regeneration and stem cell generation. By contrast, deregulation of this pathway has been associated with several diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and, in recent years, fibrotic diseases i Read More

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells plays a key role in proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), which lead to the loss of vision. The Jagged/Notch pathway has been reported to be essential in EMT during embryonic development, fibrotic diseases and cancer metastasis. However, the function of Jagged/Notch signaling in EMT of RPE cells is Read More

Interleukin 37 has been found to play a significant regulatory role in the innate immune response. It is not yet known whether IL-37 has also been involved in the development of Behcet’s disease (BD), a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. To examine the role of IL-37 in the pathogenesis of BD, a number of experiments were performed. IL-37 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from BD patients and no Read More

G protein-coupled receptor 124 (GPR124; also called tumor endothelial marker 5, TEM5) is highly expressed in tumor vasculature. While recent studies have revealed a role in vasculogenesis, evidence for GPR124 function in tumor angiogenesis is lacking. Here, we demonstrate that GPR124 is required for VEGFinduced tumor angiogenesis. GPR124 silencing in human endothelial cells inhibited mouse xenograft tumor angiogen Read More

Objectives: Celastrol, a quinone methide triterpenoid, could induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is protective autophagy after celastrol treatment in pancreatic cancer cells and the synergistic effects of celastrol and 3-MA in vitro and in vivo. Methods: The cells viability was measured using MTT assays. Degree of apoptosis and amount of autophagic vacuoles were Read More