Cutting Edge: Hemokinin Has Substance P-Like Function and Expression in Inflammation

Cutting edge: hemokinin has substance P-like function and expression in inflammation.

Substance P (SP) belongs to the tachykinin family of molecules. SP, cleaved from preprotachykinin A, is a neuropeptide and a proinflammatory leukocyte product. SP engages neurokinin 1 receptor (NK-1R) to stimulate cells. Hemokinin (HK) is another tachykinin that binds NK-1R. HK comes from preprotachykinin C, which is distinct from preprotachykinin A. We determined whether HK functions like SP a...

The role of substance P, hemokinin and their receptor in governing mucosal inflammation and granulomatous responses.

Granulomas are chronic inflammations that prevent spread of poorly controllable infectious agents. The gut lumen contains enteric organisms that are excluded from the host by leukocytes located in the intestinal lining. Physiological intestinal inflammation and granulomas share some similarities. Both function to confine, but not necessarily abolish potentially harmful factors. Also, both are s...

Expression in Inflammation Substance P Regulates Somatostatin

Cutting edge: impaired Toll-like receptor expression and function in aging.

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are pattern recognition receptors that recognize conserved molecular patterns on microbes and link innate and adaptive immune systems. We investigated whether the enhanced susceptibility to bacterial, yeast, and viral infections and poor adaptive immune responses in aging are a result of diminished expression and function of TLRs. We examined the expression and functio...

Cutting Edge: Polycomb Gene Expression