Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a chronic, insidious disease. The presence of autoantibodies in sera of OSF patients is the most characteristic and direct evidence of OSF being an autoimmune disease. To identify the specific autoantigens which could contribute to antibody production, the Human Proteome Microarrays composed of 19000 full-length unique proteins were employed. 45 proteins correla...

The aim of the current study was to analyze serum angiotensin II (Ang II), urinary angiotensinogen (AGT) and urinary transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) levels in relation to the clinical manifestation of preeclampsia, and to explore the effects of circulating and renal renin angiotensin system (RAS) in preeclampsia patients. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to evaluate serum Ang...

The basic-Helix-Loop-Helix family (bHLH) of transcriptional factors plays a major role in regulating cellular proliferation, differentiation and phenotype maintenance. The downregulation of one of the members of bHLH family protein, inhibitor of DNA binding 2 (Id2) has been shown to induce de-differentiation of epithelial cells. Opposing regulators of epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype in renal p...

The irreversibility of developmental processes in mammalian cells has been challenged by rising evidence that de-differentiation of hepatocytes occurs in adult liver. However, whether reversibility exists in mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-derived hepatocytes (dHeps) remains elusive. In this study, we find that hepatogenic differentiation (HD) of MSCs is a reversible process and is modulated by ...

The TGFβ signaling pathway is a crucial regulator of developmental processes and disease. The activity of TGFβ ligands is modulated by various families of soluble inhibitors that interfere with the interactions between ligands and receptors. In an unbiased, genome-wide RNAi screen to identify genes involved in ligand-dependent signaling, we unexpectedly identified the BMP/Activin/Nodal inhibito...

BACKGROUND The Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1) 869C/T polymorphism was associated with radiation pneumonitis (RP) susceptibility. However, the results remained controversial. Thus, a meta-analysis was conducted. METHODS Relevant studies were systematically searched by using the NCBI, Medline, Web of Science and Embase databases. Summary odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence...

Our understanding of the intrinsic effects of cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane conductance regulator (cftr) deletion on resident neonatal alveolar macrophage (AM) remains limited. We previously demonstrated that diminished glutathione (GSH) or excessive AM transforming growth factor beta one (TGFβ1) contributes to AM dysfunction in a variety of disease states. In this study, using a gut-corre...

TGFβ is a potent regulator of several biological functions in many cell types, but its role in the differentiation of human bone marrow-derived skeletal stem cells (hMSCs) is currently poorly understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that a single dose of TGFβ1 prior to induction of osteogenic or adipogenic differentiation results in increased mineralized matrix or increased numbers of l...

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered to be correlated with malignancy of cancer cells and responsible for cancer invasion and metastasis. We previously reported that distant metastasis was associated with hypoxia in gastric cancer. We therefore investigated the effect of hypoxic condition on EMT of gastric cancer cells. Gastric cancer cells were cultured in normoxia (21% O2) or...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal interstitial lung disease. IPF is characterized by epithelial cell injury and reprogramming, increases in (myo)fibroblasts, and altered deposition of extracellular matrix. The Wnt1-inducible signaling protein 1 (WISP1) is involved in impaired epithelial-mesenchymal crosstalk in pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we aimed to further investiga...