The regulatory Tat protein of the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) is essential for viral replication and also shows pleiotropic activities on various cell functions. To get further insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the biological activity of Tat, we investigated the effect of endogenous and exogenous Tat protein on c-fos gene expression in T lymphoblastoid (Jurkat) a...

Our previous studies showed that Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) culture supernatant (CS) increased P-glycoprotein [Pgp/multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1)] function, expression, and promoter activity in Caco-2 cells. The current studies were designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms mediating the stimulatory effects of LA CS on Pgp promoter activity. Deletion analysis indicated that the LA CS re...

The activator protein 1 (AP-1) transcription factor is composed of heterodimers of the Fos/activating transcription factor (ATF) and Jun subfamilies of basic-region leucine-zipper (B-ZIP) proteins. In order to determine the identities of individual B-ZIP proteins in various AP-1 complexes we tested the effect of dominant-negative mutants to the B-ZIP proteins c-Fos, ATF2, ATF4 and CCAAT-enhance...

This study explored the effects of propofol on c-Fos and Egr-1 in neuroblastoma (N2A) cells. We demonstrate that propofol induced the expression of c-Fos and Egr-1 within 30 and 60 min of exposure time. At 16.8 microM concentration, propofol induced a 6 and 2.5-fold expression of c-Fos and Egr-1, respectively. However, at concentrations above 100 microM, propofol failed to induce expression of ...

3,4-Methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA, ‘‘ecstasy’’) is an increasingly abused drug, which has significant effects on the dopamine system in the striatum. The isolated single organotypic slice model allows investigation of the effects of drugs of abuse on the expression of transcription factors in the striatum without dopaminergic and glutamatergic interactions. In this study the effects of MDM...

3,4-Methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is an increasingly abused drug, which has significant effects on the dopamine system in the striatum. The isolated single organotypic slice model allows investigation of the effects of drugs of abuse on the expression of transcription factors in the striatum without dopaminergic and glutamatergic interactions. In this study the effects of MDMA ...

The expression of protein kinase c gamma (PKC gamma) and c-fos protein was examined by means of double labeling in the rat brain in relation to the molecular mechanism of central plastic changes associated with anodal polarization. Under normal, non-polarized condition, approximately 75% of all fos positive neurons in the neocortex were immunopositive for PKC gamma. Conversely, nearly all PKC g...

The present study was aimed to examine if protein kinase C (PKC) activation is necessarily involved in both the c-fos protein expression in the nocuously-activated c-fos protein-like immunoreactive (Fos-LI) neurons and the concomitant opioid receptor-mediated modulation in the dorsal horn circuitry of the spinal cord. Formalin was injected into a hindpaw of rats 5 min after the rats were pretre...

Peripheral noxious stimulation leads to a rapid and transient expression of c-fos, c-jun and other immediate-early genes (IEGs) in the spinal cord. However, the role of IEG encoded transcription factors in plasticity of spinal neurons remains speculative. In the present study we have shown that superfusion of rat spinal cord with antisense oligodeoxynucleotides complementary to c-fos mRNA suppr...