Background: Endothelial cell (EC) maladaptation to disturbed blood flow at predilection sites of atherosclerosis is characterized by inflammation and defective regeneration. The RNase Dicer is essential for the production of microRNAs, which play a crucial role in EC maladaptation. EC-derived Dicer promotes atherosclerosis and suppresses KLF4, Notch1, and Wnt signaling. While Dicer increases EC...

BACKGROUND Dicer and Drosha are important enzymes for processing microRNAs. Recent studies have exhibited possible links between expression of different miRNAs, levels of miRNA processing enzymes, and cancer prognosis. We have investigated the prognostic impact of Dicer and Drosha and their correlation with miR-126 expression in a large cohort of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We ...

Maturation of miRNAs by dicer is required in vertebrates for normal neural development. Here we report that dicer inactivation in Xenopus affects cell cycle progression, survival and timing of the generation of retinal cells, resulting in small retinas with lamination defects. In particular, dicer inactivation delays the exit from the cell cycle and the translation of key genes of late neurogen...

Dicer is a key enzyme involved in the maturation of microRNAS (miRNAs). miRNAs have been shown to be regulators of gene expression participating in the control of a wide range of physiological pathways. To assess the role of Dicer and consequently the importance of miRNAs in the biology and functions of human endothelial cells (EC) during angiogenesis, we globally reduced miRNAs in ECs by speci...

Phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) plays a key role in vascular disease, including atherosclerosis. Several transcription factors have been suggested to regulate phenotypic modulation of SMCs but the decisive mechanisms remain unknown. Recent reports suggest that specific microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in SMC differentiation and vascular disease but the global role of miRNAs i...

In Drosophila, Dicer-1 produces microRNAs (miRNAs) from pre-miRNAs, whereas Dicer-2 generates small interfering RNAs from long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a process that requires ATP hydrolysis. We previously showed that inorganic phosphate inhibits Dicer-2 cleavage of pre-miRNAs, but not long dsRNAs. Here, we report that phosphate-dependent substrate discrimination by Dicer-2 reflects dsRNA s...

Cyclin D1 encodes the regulatory subunit of a holoenzyme that phosphorylates the pRB protein and promotes G1/S cell-cycle progression and oncogenesis. Dicer is a central regulator of miRNA maturation, encoding an enzyme that cleaves double-stranded RNA or stem-loop-stem RNA into 20-25 nucleotide long small RNA, governing sequence-specific gene silencing and heterochromatin methylation. The mech...

OBJECTIVE The role of Dicer in the prognosis of cancer patients remains controversial. This systematic review is attempted to assess the influence of Dicer as a prognostic predictor for survival in diverse types of cancers. METHODS Studies were selected as candidates if they published an independent evaluation of Dicer expression level together with the correlation with prognosis in cancers. ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important mediators of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and are pivotal in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. Dicer, the key enzyme in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, is involved in cutting precursor miRNAs to functionally mature forms. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that Dicer expression is dysregulated in embryo development and tumors. In the present ...

OBJECTIVE Congenital heart defects represent the most common human birth defects. Even though the genetic cause of these syndromes has been linked to candidate genes, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still largely unknown. Disturbance of neural crest cell (NCC) migration into the derivatives of the pharyngeal arches and pouches can account for many of the developmental defects. The goal ...