Increased X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) expression and suppressed follicular apoptosis are important determinants in the regulation of follicular development by FSH. The objective of the present study was to examine the role and regulation of nuclear factorB (NF B) in the gonadotropic control of granulosa cell XIAP expression and follicular growth in vitro. FSH (100 ng/ml) increased ra...

organotypic spinal cord slices from neonatal mammals could be a powerful model for evaluation of cell survival but also cell death mechanisms. the aim of this study was to establish an in vitro model for investigating cell survival and mechanism involved in cell death in neonatal spinal cord slices. the spinal cord was sliced and incubated into culture medium. the mtt assay was carried out to a...

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of powerful, endogenous regulators of gene expression. This study was designed to ascertain if miR-30a is involved in the cardioprotective actions of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury through suppression of autophagy. METHODS Murine myocardial cells that had undergone primary culture were induced by ...

The inhibitor of apoptosis (iap) proteins belong to a gene family that protect certain cell to undergo programmed cell death in response to a variety of stimuli. By differential screening we have identified a cDNA clone, designated piap, in porcine aortic endothelial cells (PAEC) that turned out by sequence comparison to be a porcine member of the iap family. The expression of piap is strongly ...

This study investigated the effects of racemic methadone (MET) on P-glycoprotein (P-gp) activity in cell culture. MET showed no differential rates of passage between the basolateral to apical (B to A) and apical to basolateral (A to B) direction across Caco-2 cell monolayers in a transwell system. MET transport in either direction was not importantly influenced by the P-gp inhibitor verapamil. ...

Besides its physiological role in lysosomal protein breakdown, extralysosomal cathepsin B has recently been implicated in apoptotic cell death. Highly specific irreversible cathepsin B inhibitors that are readily cell-permeant should be useful tools to elucidate the effects of cathepsin B in the cytosol. We have covalently functionalised the poorly cell-permeant epoxysuccinyl-based cathepsin B ...

Objective(s): T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematologic malignant tumor. Administration of chemical compounds influencing apoptosis and T cell development has been discussed as promising novel therapeutic strategies. Valproic acid (VPA) as a recently emerged anti-neoplastic histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and pioglitazone (PGZ) as a high-affinity peroxisome p...

The PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling cascade is a key regulatory pathway controlling cell growth and survival, and its dysregulation is a reported feature of B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-pre ALL). Torin-2 is a novel, second-generation ATP-competitive inhibitor that is potent and selective for mTOR with a superior pharmacokinetic profile to previous inhibitors. It has been shown that Torin...

Granzyme B is a unique serine protease, which plays a crucial role for target cell death. Several mechanisms of delivery of granzyme B to target cells have been recently identified. Granzyme B directly activates Bid, a specific substrate for granzyme B, resulting in caspase activation. Granzyme B efficiently cleaves many prominent autoantigens, and the hypothesis that autoantibodies arise when ...

The survival of cochlear epithelial cells is of considerable importance, biologically. However, little is known about the growth factor(s) that are involved in the survival of cochlear sensory epithelial cells. In this study, we demonstrated that epidermal growth factor (EGF) plays a role in the survival of cochlear epithelial cells. Firstly, the presence of the EGF signaling pathway was demons...