Pro-fibrotic SNPs

Pro-fibrotic SNPs

Staphylococcus aureus stifles its host's immune response by producing an immunosuppressive molecule, report Thammavongsa and colleagues. The new study reveals that without the cell wall enzyme adenosine synthase A (AdsA), most staphylococci fail to thrive and cause severe disease in mice. The gene encoding AdsA contains a 5 Ј-nucleotidase domain, making it similar to a family of mammalian enzym...

Knowledge-Based Discovery of Anti-Fibrotic and Pro-Fibrotic Activities from Chinese Materia Medica

Ha-Ras stabilization mediates pro-fibrotic signals in dermal fibroblasts

BACKGROUND Scleroderma (systemic sclerosis; SSc) is a clinically heterogeneous and often lethal acquired disorder of the connective tissue that is characterized by vascular, immune/inflammatory and fibrotic manifestations. Tissue fibrosis is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in SSc and an unmet medical challenge, mostly because of our limited understanding of the molecular factors and s...

Th17 cytokines induce pro-fibrotic cytokines release from human eosinophils

BACKGROUND Subepithelial fibrosis is one of the most critical structural changes affecting bronchial airway function during asthma. Eosinophils have been shown to contribute to the production of pro-fibrotic cytokines, TGF-β and IL-11, however, the mechanism regulating this process is not fully understood. OBJECTIVE In this report, we investigated whether cytokines associated with inflammatio...

The pro-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory foam cell macrophage paradox.

The formation of foamy macrophages by sequestering extracellular modified lipids is a key event in atherosclerosis. However, there is controversy about the effects of lipid loading on macrophage phenotype, with in vitro evidence suggesting either pro- or anti-inflammatory consequences. To investigate this in vivo we compared the transcriptomes of foamy and non-foamy macrophages that accumulate ...