OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of activin A and follistatin on first-trimester cytotrophoblast invasion in culture and to study the secretion of inhibin A, activin A and follistatin by these cells in vitro. DESIGN AND METHODS Cytotrophoblasts were isolated from human placental chorionic villous tissue obtained from 6-8, 8-10 and 10-12 weeks gestation. Ce...

Activin A, a member of the transforming growth factor-β family, increases in the circulation within 1 h after administration of bacterial LPS. To clarify the origins of this rapid increase, the distribution of activin A and its binding protein, follistatin, and their production following LPS treatment, were assessed in adult male mice. In untreated mice, activin A was detectable in all 23 tissu...

BACKGROUND Molecular mechanisms responsible for carcinogenesis in upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUTUC) are not yet clear. This study aimed to examine and correlate the subcellular localization of activin A, maspin, and the androgen receptor (AR) with demographic characteristics, pathological grade, and stage of UUTUC in a Taiwanese population, and to investigate the regulatory mecha...

Burger LL, Haisenleder DJ, Wotton GM, Aylor KW, Dalkin AC, Marshall JC. The regulation of FSH transcription by gonadal steroids: testosterone and estradiol modulation of the activin intracellular signaling pathway. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 293: E277–E285, 2007. First published April 3, 2007; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00447.2006.—Recent reports suggest that androgens increase FSH transcription di...

In this study we have investigated the role of cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) in the induction of the early mesodermal marker genes goosecoid and no tail by activin in zebrafish embryos. We show that upon treatment with activin, zebrafish blastula cells exhibit a rapid and transient increase in PKA activity. In these cells, activin rapidly induces the expression of the immediate early re...

Activin has emerged as an important player in different types of cancer, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. We show here that activin overexpression is an early event in murine and human skin tumorigenesis. This is functionally important, since activin promoted skin tumorigenesis in mice induced by the human papillomavirus 8 oncogenes. This was accompanied by depletion of epider...

In the ovary, the steroid hormone estrogen and the TGF-beta superfamily member activin are both produced by granulosa cells and they both have intraovarian functions. Emerging evidence has indicated an interaction of these two signaling pathways. Based on the fact that estrogen and activin can impact early follicle formation and development, we hypothesize that estrogen treatment may alter acti...

Long-lasting modifications in synaptic transmission depend on de novo gene expression in neurons. The expression of activin, a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) superfamily, is upregulated during hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). Here, we show that activin increased the average number of presynaptic contacts on dendritic spines by increasing the population of spin...

Activin is a secreted growth factor that signals by binding two related classes of single transmembrane receptors at the cell surface. The interaction of activin with its receptors is highly regulated by other cell surface receptors, antagonistic ligands, and high affinity extracellular binding proteins such as follistatin. Two activin A mutants, the deletion mutant des[85-109]-activin A and th...

Pain hypersensitivity is a cardinal sign of tissue damage, but how molecules from peripheral tissues affect sensory neuron physiology is incompletely understood. Previous studies have shown that activin A increases after peripheral injury and is sufficient to induce acute nociceptive behavior and increase pain peptides in sensory ganglia. This study was designed to test the possibility that the...